People with autism and Asperger syndrome are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. In two experiments, we measured tactile thresholds and suprathreshold tactile sensitivity in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. In the first experiment, tactile perceptual thresholds were measured. Two frequencies of vibrotactile stimulation were…

The results of an empirical investigation into how visually-impaired people sense their surroundings show that a range of environmental features can be identified using sound, touch and smell. The information gained is relevant to the design of tactile maps, to ensure that an area is represented in a way that is meaningful to the map users.…

As mobile connectedness continues to sweep across the landscape, the value of deploying mobile technology at the service of learning and teaching seems to be both self-evident and unavoidable. To this end, this study employed multimedia to develop three types of vocabulary learning materials. Due to the importance of short-term memory in the realm…

"Building Your Program" is intended to help mental health authorities, agency administrators, and program leaders think through and develop Supported Education. The first part of this booklet gives you background information about the Supported Education model. Specific information about your role in implementing and sustaining Supported Education…

Findings from the ninth triennial administration of the National Survey of First-Year Seminars, describing the nature and extent of first-year seminars on American college campuses. Drawn from a broad sample of colleges and universities from every institutional type, control, and size, the survey addresses topics including seminar characteristics…

Mindfulness, an ancient spiritual practice, is becoming an increasingly popular component of communication courses, training individuals to reserve judgment in their dealings with others. However, the effects of mindfulness in communication courses are not well researched. We compared students taking an introductory communication course that…

Developed a multifactor Rasch scale for a visual designs test of artistic judgment and tested the instrument with 462 adult examinees at an aptitude assessment service. The sound measurement properties identified suggest promise for a comprehensive artistic judgment construct. (SLD)

L1-Spanish learners of English have been reported to distinguish English /i/ and /I/ on the basis of duration cues, whereas L1-English listeners primarily use spectral cues. Morrison (2008a) hypothesized that duration-based perception is a secondary developmental stage that emerges from an initial stage of multidimensional-category-goodness…

Researchers interested in post-secondary instruction often emphasize the importance of the first-year experience for college students. Despite this focus, qualitative studies of student perceptions are decidedly rare. This essay is a partial report of the findings from conducting qualitative interviews with first-year students about their…

This article describes 14 problem-based group activities for a sensation and perception course. The intent was to provide opportunities for students to practice applying their knowledge to real-world problems related to course content. Student ratings of how effectively the activities helped them learn were variable but relatively high. Students…

Academic curriculum and curricular units that are responsive to work necessarily involve the interaction of knowledge from two different communities. In this paper a number of cases of responsive curriculum are analysed in order to answer the following questions: Can general differences between work and academic knowledge be ascribed to the nature…

Six Mandarin affricates (i.e., zh[ts], ch[ts[superscript h]], z[ts], c[ts[superscript h]], j[tc], q[tc[superscript h]), which are not universally present in other languages, have been extensively challenging for learners of Mandarin Chinese. In the current study, perception of these affricates was investigated via an experiment in which native…

Effective criterion referenced assessment requires grade descriptors to clarify to students what skills are required to gain higher grades. But do students and staff actually have the same perception of the grading system, and if so, do they perform better than those whose perceptions are less accurately aligned with those of staff? Since…

The purpose of this study was to examine principals' perceptions of parental involvement at various levels in terms of their role in facilitation and parent involvement in school processes. The principals in this study (n = 171) were receptive to their roles in facilitation, but not to parental involvement in school processes. Because there are…

The own-race bias (ORB) is a well-known finding wherein people are better able to recognize and discriminate own-race faces, relative to cross-race faces. In 2 experiments, participants viewed Asian and Caucasian faces, in preparation for recognition memory tests, while their eye movements and pupil diameters were continuously monitored. In…