Describes strategies for connecting children and adults with nature, including providing opportunities to experience nature through all of the senses, changing the perspective on nature by using the senses to focus on the natural world, and using the natural world to cultivate a sense of awe and wonderment. (LP)

This study examined phonological processing in 30 less-skilled third-grade readers, 30 younger children at the same reading level, and 30 more-skilled age mates. The less-skilled readers had significantly lower accuracy scores than both age mates and younger normal readers on word span, word-pair repetition, tongue twister, and, especially,…

Examined how children's and adults' initial conceptions of objects and space influence predictions about the physical world, but lead the naive person to misconstrue a dynamic event. Found that participants proficiently anticipated where an oscillating screen would contact a hidden object, but underestimated the distance until contact.…

This article defines tactile defensiveness as a sensory processing problem that results in aversive responses to touch. The article outlines causes, presents sample behaviors to assist in recognizing the possible presence of this dysfunction in infants and toddlers, and offers suggestions to assist in coping with and seeking appropriate treatment…

Using Macintoshes, 111 high school students completed 8 3-minute timed typings, twice under each of 4 conditions (normal, monitors off, keyboards covered, and both monitor off and keyboard covered). Fastest speeds were achieved with monitors off, the most accurate with full visual access to both monitor and keyboard. (SK)

Three conditions distinguish school administrators' work from that of nonschool colleagues: schools' uniquely moral character; a highly educated, autonomous, and permanent workforce; and regular, predictable threats to organizational stability. This environment demands that school administrators rely more excessively on leadership than routine…

Surveyed 400 college faculty men and women to determine gender role preferences and perceptions. Perceptions of the ideal woman, ideal man, most women, most men, and self were measured. Results from the Sex Role Trait Inventory show that both men and women faculty preferences and perceptions were generally very similar. Implications are discussed.…

Guided by contextual and constructivist perspectives, this study situates museum-going in the everyday lives of children, exploring how children perceive their experiences in museums in relationship to the other places they visit. Children were divided in their designations of museums as fun, boring, or a combination of the two. (LZ)

Agencies conducting needs assessments in which respondents are asked about their awareness of the agency must be alert to a bias that inflates awareness (agency awareness acquiescence). A study with 157 college students demonstrated such awareness bias, which was related to the impression management component of social desirability. (SLD)

The president of the State University of New York at Binghamton sees intellectual leadership as the first responsibility of any university president. She urges presidents to consider their institution's place and time in the culture and their own personal history in determining the intellectual agenda and developing vision and creativity. (DB)

The possibility that perceptual predispositions may assist young language learners in the initial identification of words in speech was investigated in a corpus of early words. Results suggest that syllables that are stressed or final in adult speech are particularly salient to young children and likely to be extracted and included in first…

A total of 100 university students observed photographs of the faces of 9 males and 9 females at each of 5 age levels from 5 to 22 years of age, and rated the faces for attractiveness. Found a significant degree of stability in ratings of facial attractiveness across the age levels. (MM)

Premature infants with subependymal or intraventricular hemorrhage took longer to habituate on a habituation task, and scored lower on a measure of mental development, than did other premature infants or full-term infants. Both groups of premature infants were less successful than full-term infants on an object permanence task. (BC)

Clarifies the concept of aesthetic experience in terms of the stages required to actualize the phenomenon and the behaviors in which it is manifest. Examines and categorizes various conceptions of aesthetic experience that have influenced the area of aesthetics in the past 10 years. (DMM)

Reviews Gibson's contributions to the domain of perceptual learning, including her classic experiment concerning the perception of scribbles. Discusses Gibson's research on differentiation and the links between perception and learning, the status of her research and ideas, and her experimental approach. (BG)