This paper documents the authors' efforts at constructing, deploying, and analyzing Snapshot Surveys in a range of educational settings. The Snapshot Survey Service is an Internet-based technology that enables educators at the local, state, and even national level to survey, quickly and at low-cost, other educators on issues that are particularly…

Results reveal a relationship between two previously explored areas of inquiry: orientation errors in copying and preferences for the orientation of nonrealistic shapes. (Author)

Color and form preferences of kindergarten, first and third grade Ss were tested using standard two-dimensional geometric forms. (Author)

Experiment examined the generality of dimensional and cue-location biases in inference and role of directness of information. (Author)

Discusses three roles of textbook illustrations--to arrest the reader's attention and arouse interest, to provide explanation and clarification of complex verbal descriptions, and to aid retention of the information presented in the text. It is recommended that illustrations be designed with their specific role(s) in mind. (EAO)

Investigates intersensory interaction between auditory and visual stimulation in newborn infants. Following auditory stimulation, newborns' visual preferences for light patches of different intensity were examined. Results indicate that newborns attend to quantitative variations in stimulation and that these variations reflect both the objective…

Concludes that children should be encouraged to read since they may prefer an author's word picture to that presented by the visual media and that today's young adults continue to prefer the same types of reading materials as those listed in past surveys. (RL)

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)

Forty-five children, ages seven to eight, were required to catch playground balls of various sizes and colors. The smallest ball (6 inches) was caught significantly better than larger ones. Although the main effect for color was nonsignificant, children caught preferred-color balls significantly better than others. Males caught better than…

Describes results of a study of the work activities, priorities, and degree of satisfaction with the office environment of faculty at a California university. Implications for office design are discussed. (Author/WB)

Four experiments tested reader reaction to selected newspaper design techniques, including jumps, wraps, type style, and picture size. The results implied that a newspaper striving for the highest overall readership of its stories will get the best results by keeping jumps to a minimum and running larger pictures. (RL)

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)

In three experiments, nine-month-old infants were trained to fixate on a particular feature in a pair of stimuli that varied along three dimensions. In a fourth experiment, infants were trained to fixate on a stimulus compound until reaching a learning criterion. Infants' discrimination learning under these conditions implied an ability to attend…

Considers the debate about learning as based on conditioning or cognitive processes. Explores historical episodes in this debate in which issues were resolved first in favor of conditioning theory and then increasingly in favor of cognitive processes. Interprets the study by Coldren and Colombo reported in this monograph (PS 522 654) as a…

Tested infants' remembrance of the orientations and angular relations of line segments. In one experiment, infants "dishabituated" to a change in orientation but not a change in angle. In two further experiments, infants familiar with either an acute or obtuse angle gave strong novelty preferences to a different angle. (BC)