This research study investigated the hypothesis that noncontingent social stimulation can elicit infant vocal sounds. The investigation involved an examination of both the course of social elicitation and the nature of the social releasing stimulus. Three experimental conditions were designed to measure: (1) the changes in vocalization rate during…

A study was conducted with three eighth grade students to determine the separate and joint effects of image size, image brightness, and image contrast on the visibility of projected materials. Twenty-five hundred slides were presented, representing 20 slides each of all possible combinations of values of the independent variables. Telegraph keys…

This report tells of the procedures and results of a psychophysical study of 28 3.8-year-old-boys from the Harlem Training Center. In spite of an experimental situation that was something of an ordeal, some meaningful data was generated. The main area investigated in this study was the evoked-response indices of temporal processing, that is, the…

Described is a study concerned with the mode of presentation of printed mathematical word problems. Tenth grade students were given twenty word problems to solve, presented in one of three ways: (1) prose only, (2) prose with an accurate picture included, or (3) prose with a distorted picture. Experimental results showed that the group with an…

This study examined the extent to which college students were affected by and remembered color information within instructional materials. Factors studied were color codability, verbal cueing, type of question, stimulus silhouettes, and prompting. These factors were included in stimulus scenes for study via two 16mm motion picture films. Color…

Several studies were conducted which investigated certain variables associated with visualized instruction. In these studies an evaluation was made of abstract line drawings, detailed shaded drawings, and photographs. The material was presented by tape recording, television, or a programed format and supplemented by one of the aids. Posttesting…

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the learning and retention of concepts formed from novel visual stimulus materials (wave-form patterns). The purpose of the first experiment was to scale sets of wave forms as a function of difficulty, i.e., subjects were shown a prototype wave form and were asked to give same-different judgments for…

The transformation of episodic inputs to semantic representations was studied in two very similar tasks. In one, subjects were required to infer the underlying four-term linear ordering from three comparative sentences such as, "The teacher is taller than the doctor." In the second task, subjects inferred underlying 4- and 5-digit…

Pigeons were trained to respond to stimuli from a continuous stimulus dimension (tonal frequency) with response values from continuous response dimension. Both the number of points of correspondence and problem difficulty were varied. Following training, subjects were tested with stimulus values intermediate to those trained. During these test…

SYSTEMS OF EXCHANGE - USING THE EXTINCTION, DISTRACTION, AND SUBSTITUTION EFFECTS SYSTEMS - WERE IMPLEMENTED TO DECREASE AGGRESSION AND PROMOTE COOPERATION AND SCHOLARLY BEHAVIOR, THREE SYSTEMS WERE TESTED USING EXCHANGE THEORY AS A GUIDE. THE SUBJECTS WERE FIVE 4- AND 5-YEAR-OLD BOYS DIAGNOSED AS HYPERAGGRESSIVE. EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS INCLUDED…

Four major types of interaction of stimulus dimensions based on perceptual research are described: integral, configural, separable, and asymmetric separable. Implications of these interactions for concept and choice processes are discussed. (Author/DEP)

The extent of the cognitive equivalence between a picture and the depicted object is the result of an interaction between the picture and the observer. The observer's reaction is largely determined by his pictorial sophistication and cultural background. (Author/STS)

Results suggest that the technique employed in static background displays may be an important determinant of a speaker's impact on television viewers. (Author/STS)

The ability of 7-, 8-, and 9-year-olds to understand proverbs was examined by having subjects compare each proverb against two thematic pictures: a nonliteral correct interpretation of the proverb and a foil. The results, which contradict the literature, showed consistent above-chance performance across subjects, ages, and proverbs. (Author/JMB)

Thurstone's landmark papers on psychophysics, published in the twenties, are discussed in this presidential address to the Psychometric Society. The development of psychophysics from Thurstone to the present is presented in some detail. (JKS)