During visually guided grasping movements, visual information is transformed into motor commands. This transformation is known as the "visuomotor map." To investigate limitations in the short-term plasticity of the visuomotor map in normal humans, we studied the maximum grip aperture (MGA) during the reaching phase while subjects grasped objects…

Two experiments tested the DeLoache, Pierroutsakos, Uttal, Rosengren, and Gottlieb (1998) claim that 9-month-old infants attempt to grasp objects depicted in photographs. In Experiment 1, 9-month-olds viewed an object, a photograph of the object, and 2 flat, nonpictorial displays. On average, they reached for the photograph and nonpictorial…

Two experiments investigated sensory/motor-based functional knowledge of man-made objects: manipulation features associated with the actual usage of objects. In Experiment 1, a series of prime-target pairs was presented auditorily, and participants were asked to make a lexical decision on the target word. Participants made a significantly faster…

Environmental familiarization is a learning phenomenon embedded within most tasks used to study learning and motivation. Given its prevalence there is surprisingly little systematic behavioral research on factors affecting familiarization. The six experiments reported in the present report used rats' tendency to interact more with a novel object…

Tool use consists of at least two coupled phases of activities, involving multi-step problem solving. It therefore provides an interesting window on the development of planning in goal-directed behavior. This study investigated 2-year-olds' and 3-year-olds' hand use in picking up and subsequently using a tool for displacing a target-object towards…

In this study, a desktop virtual reality earth motion system (DVREMS) is designed and developed to be applied in the classroom. The system is implemented to assist elementary school students to clarify earth motion concepts using virtual reality principles. A study was conducted to observe the influences of the proposed system in learning.…

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO TRAINING METHODS TO FOCUS ATTENTION ON THE CRITICAL FEATURES OF LETTER-LIKE FORMS WAS STUDIED. SUBJECTS WERE 32 KINDERGARTEN PUPILS. SIX NONSYMETRICAL, STANDARD LETTER-LIKE FORMS AND FOUR TRANSFORMATIONS, CONSISTING OF RIGHT-LEFT AND UP-DOWN REVERSALS, 180 DEGREES AND 90 DEGREES ROTATION, WERE USED AS STIMULI TO LEARNING.…

In two experiments, forty 26-week-old infants were repeatedly exposed to an object and were then shown an object that was different from the original object in color, shape and/or texture. Results showed that looking and manipulation increased for the novel shape and texture objects and looking increased for the novel color object. (Author/JMB)

Active touch, passive touch with a moving object, and passive touch with a still object were examined developmentally with 192 subjects in first, third, and fifth grades and college. (Author/JMB)

Three studies of stereotyped object behaviors conducted with 10 severely mentally retarded children (6 to 19 years old) found that context did not affect the level of object stereotypes, that most children responded to flexibility, and that judges could estimate only some of the feedback properties of the objects. (Author/CB)

Experiment designed to answer questions regarding the correspondence between concrete and abstract actions. (Author/CB)

Forty 10-month-old infants were given two minutes to explore tactually an object in a totally darkened room. Subsequently, during a two-minute test trial in the dark, 10 infants were given the same object and 10 were given a novel shape. Novel shapes were manipulated significantly longer than familiar forms. (RH)

The authors support use of manipulative aids in teaching learning disabled students but caution that the selection and application of a manipulative aid should not be a haphazard process. Guidelines are given for using manipulative aids in teaching students who are experiencing difficulty in mastering mathematical concepts. (Author/SBH)

Examines claims about the role of object-sharing in development by describing development of !Kung infants' interest in objects and their caregivers' actions toward them when they are engaged in object-related acts. (PCB)

Examined the possibility of effects of pencil diameter on preschoolers' pencil management and performance. Each child used pencils of large or regular diameter to perform graphomotor tasks. There were no apparent differences in pencil management and performance related to pencil diameter. (Author/BB)