Two experiments were performed with five severely developmentally disabled individuals (13-26 years old) to test the relationship between toys as conditioned reinforcers and stereotypy. Findings suggested that conditioning reinforcers for play, such as toys, may result in a durable and possibly more cost effective procedure of dealing with…

An experiment is conducted showing that an attention shift to a stream of numerals presented in rapid serial visual presentation mode produces not a total loss, but a systematic distortion of order. An attention gating model (AGM) is developed from a more general attention model. (Author/LMO)

Individual differences in memory were examined from the levels of processing perspective. The hypothesis that retarded persons process at a more superficial level was not supported. A "Spread of encoding" deficit in retarded persons is favored to explain the recall differences obtained in this experiment. (Author/LMO)

Reinterprets Jeannie R. Aschkenasy and Richard D. Odom's findings (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology; v34 n3 Dec 1982) on perceptual and cognitive development. The increasing dimensionalization of stimulus relations rather than the increasing detectability or influence of stimulus differences is argued. (BJD)

Investigates (1) whether the semantic processing deficit in the aged can be attributed to age differences in attentional capacity usage during encoding and (2) age differences in terms of the interaction between encoding and retrieval operations. Subjects engaged in both primary (semantic, rhyme, arithmetic questions) and secondary…

Average and above average (supra) readers (grades three and five) performed a partial report task with a variable interstimulus interval. Supra readers outperformed average readers when the interval was more than 200 milliseconds. Results support the concept of a continuous relationship between memory and reading level. (Author/BS)

In comparative judgments of two stimuli separated by a time interval, there is often a systematic asymmetry (time-order error). From a review of the literature it is concluded that the time-order error should be classified as a perceptual phenomenon that can be predicted with adaptation-level theory and sensation weighting. (Author/CB)

Four experiments assessed converging aspects of four-month-old infants' perceptions of visual patterns. Results together corroborate and extend previous findings that vertical symmetry has a special status in early perceptual development and that infants can perceive pattern wholes. (Author/AS)

Three experiments are described which relate to models of infant visual preferences and to the ways in which preferences can be modified or created by habituation. Results suggest that the Banks and Salapatek's contrast sensitivity model can be a powerful predictor of preferential looking in newborns and that preferences based on experience can be…

Investigates the effects of pronutrition television programing on kindergarteners' nutritional knowledge, food preferences, and eating habits. Children were exposed to ten 20-minute videotapes over a period of 10 class days. Results suggest that children learned the nutrition concepts presented but failed to change food preference or consumption.…

Investigates hemispheric asymmetries in children for processing auditory material which varies in emotional intonation or verbal content. Children in kindergarten, fourth, and eighth grades reported on the emotional and verbal content of dichotically presented sentences. Findings indicate that the right hemisphere is specialized for mediating…

Results show that basic objects are shown to be the most inclusive categories for which a concrete image of the category as a whole can be formed, to be the first categorizations made during perception of the environment and to be the categories most codable, most coded, and most necessary in language. (Author/DEP)

Author investigated the uses of the arts in personal life and professional practice and offered the viewpoints of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Freud as part of his argument. (Author/RK)

Infants of one, two and three months of age were presented with two checkerboard patterns, one stationary and the other moving in a horizontal oscillatory motion at one of eight rates. Results showed reliable differences in ocular behavior as a function of rate stimulus motion for all three groups of infants. (MS)

Examines the hypothesis that the identification of a briefly presented visual target is impeded by a patterned mask that immediately precedes and/or follows it. (Author/RK)