Subjects rated the humor of jokes under conditions of high and low spatial density. Crowding was found to significantly diminish appreciation of three types of humor. Significant sex differences in reactivity to crowding were found. (Author/CS)

Considers the impact of pictures in reading and instructional materials. Provides guidelines for selecting instructional materials, based on their pictorial stimuli, and describes research regarding the effects of pictures in reading instruction. (JT)

The value of television as an educational tool lies in the ability of educators to make television more active and less passive. Examples of "acTiVision" are presented to demonstrate the potential of existing technological possibilities. (JMF)

The purpose of this paper is to set out a descriptive model in which the relative dominance of a stimulus dimension is related to the form of attention it receives. (Author/DB)

The effects of task-overlapping linguistic noise on activity and performance of hyperactive and control children were assessed. Results suggest that task difficulty may play a role in the effects of overlapping stimulation on both groups. (Author/GK)

The effect of auditory interference on the processing of haptic information by 61 visually impaired students (8 to 20 years old) was the focus of the research described in this article. It was assumed that as the auditory interference approximated the verbalized activity of the haptic task, accuracy of recall would decline. (Author)

Infants ranging from 6 to 12 months were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) allowed to look at a specified object, (2) allowed to look at and manipulate it, or (3) allowed to look at the object and to manipulate the transparent box in which it was encased. (JMB)

The influence of frequency of occurrence of a visual stimulus on encoding processes is investigated, to discover what mechanisms allow cognitive processes to modify perceptual processes. Six experiments are described and the results are discussed. (MH)

Three-item pictorial sequences were shown to five-, six-, and seven-year-old children who were told to remember the events. Children were tested subsequently on their abilities to recognize old pictures and to select new pictures that were consistent with previously viewed sequences. (JMB)

The development of two structural principles, hierarchical complexity and interruption, was examined in a new domain: two-dimensional pictures. Subjects were 60 4-to 5 1/2-year-old children. (Author/MP)

Individual differences in pattern of habituation in fixation time and cardiac change to visual and auditory stimuli are described. Subjects were 94 5- and 10-month-old infants. (Author/MP)

The ability of preverbal infants to abstract a prototypical representation of a category, when presented with examples of an artifically constructed category, was investigated. It was determined that infants could process visual information constructively and could take a more active role in category formation than previously believed. (Author/MH)

Discusses a study of the neurophysiological effects of television viewing and their impact on learning. Study of brain waves while viewing indicates that the brain switches off from any analytical processing of the messages. (JMF)

Localization responses to octave-band noises with center frequencies at 200, 400, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 10,000 Hz were obtained from infants 6, 12, and 18 months old in order to investigate infants' auditory sensitivity. (MP)

In this study of second and fifth graders, story relevant pictures and subject generated images were presented to determine the kind of story information likely to be enhanced by real and imagined pictures. Results indicate that central and peripheral information was facilitated by visual illustrations, primarily the former. (JEG)