THE DISCRIMINATION OF PICTURES AND PICTURE ELEMENTS AMONG 5TH-, 8TH-, AND 11TH-GRADERS WAS STUDIED (1) TO DETERMINE THE DIFFERENCES IN INTERPRETATION OF SPECIFIC STATIC VISUAL STIMULI WHEN PRESENTED THROUGH TWO TYPES OF ILLUSTRATIONS (PHOTOGRAPHS AND OUTLINE DRAWINGS OF THE SAME SCENES) AND (2) TO GAIN INSIGHT INTO VARIATION IN THE INTERPRETATION…

RECENT RESEARCH ON THE DISCRIMINATION PROCESS INDICATES THAT ERRORLESS LEARNING CAN OCCUR IF STIMULI ARE CAREFULLY PROGRAMED SO THAT THEY ARE DISSIMILAR AND GRADUALLY BECOME MORE SIMILAR AS TRAINING PROCEEDS. TO ASSESS THIS APPROACH IN TEACHING THE LOWER- CASE LETTER B AND D WITH KINDERGARTEN SUBJECTS, TWO SETS OF STIMILI CONSTITUTED THE FIRST…

To investigate the effects of perceptual training upon selected measures of reading achievement in grade 1, 12 experimental classrooms of randomly selected first graders received a 29-day adaptation of the Frostig Program for the Development of Visual Perception. Thirteen control classes added comparable time to the regular reading instructional…

Pioneering research has shown that infants are capable of perceptual discrimination and has provided some indication of the nature of the discrimination; that is, what stimuli are differentiable. Studies have demonstrated that significant effects exist, in stimulus-pair comparisons, for age of infant, speed of movement of stimulus during…

The role of perceptual discrimination in the development of the ability to selectively process information was investigated. Using an incidental learning paradigm, the discriminability between relevant and irrelevant stimuli was experimentally varied in two ways: (1) contiguity versus non-contiguity in spatial arrangements and (2) alternating…

This study examined behavioral correlates of the rapid central nervous system changes occurring in the first 4 months of life. It was hypothesized that during the early months of infancy, visual preference would occur as a function of quantitative dimensions of the stimuli (size) which could be mediated at a subcortical level. It was further…

This self-instructive workbook focuses on the identification of a set of classification abilities related to learning. It utilizes written materials, videotapes, and students, and is supplemented by a program and support system which includes instruction, teaching experiences for practice, discussion, and individual conferences. The three major…

Two important processes in the acquisition of visually presented information are the ability to maintain discrete perceptual events as separate in time and the ability to abstract information from brief exposures. Five phenomena were measured which appear to reflect these abilities. Critical Flicker Frequency (CFF) is the intermittency rate at…

Two experiments were conducted with children to determine the units of word perception used in recognizing isolated words. In the first experiment, kindergarten children practiced visually discriminating whole words (big, pig, dig), single letters (b, p, d), or geometric forms (triangle, circle, square) before learning to read three words (big,…

An experiment using an analysis of the distinctive features of lower case letters of the English alphabet to predict high- and low-confusible alternates for each letter was reported. Ten disadvantaged 5-year-old Negro children served as their own controls, circling in booklets the letters seen after a 1-second presentation by memory drum. The…

This study investigated alternate methods of letter discrimination pretraining and word recognition training in young children. Seventy kindergarten children were trained to recognize eight printed words in a vocabulary list by a mixed-list paired-associate method. Four of the stimulus words had visual response choices (pictures) and four had…

Experimental conditions consisting of visual experience, visual plus motor training, visual plus verbal-orienting instruction, visual plus motor plus verbal, and a control group were used to study young children's concept development. Assessment was based on discriminating and remembering positive concept instances and classifying concept…

Describes ways for developing visual imagery in the early childhood education program, preparing children for discrimination learning and reading instruction. (RL)

Following a 10-day period of daily assessment on the Goodenough Draw-A-Person Test and a visual matching task, a seven and a half year-old female with cerebral palsy received eight days of half-hour instruction targeting each skill area. Continued daily assessment during instruction demonstrated substantial improvement in test scores. (JW)

Vision assessments were provided to 297 preschoolers in nine Head Start programs in New York State. The protocol used provided a thorough evaluation and required only seven minutes per child. Sixty-three children (21.2%) were referred for further evaluation. Visual deficits detected included decreased acuity, strabismus, astigmatism, and…