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…

Explores the effect of continuous training on tonal and auditory memory. Does so by comparing the auditory short-term memory skills of English and American children, ages five, six, and seven. (RKM)

Forty kindergarten children were randomly assigned to four conditions to investigate the influence of criterion level on the discrimination of highly confusable letters in beginning reading. Half the subjects were exposed to simultaneous, and half to successive discriminations. The groups were equally divided as to criterion level, i.e., four vs.…

Purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that training the student to note the distinctive features of a stimulus during perceptual learning facilities the hook-up phase in a paired-associate task. (Author)

For the age range tested there is a lag between the perception and production of certain facial expressions. (Authors)

Cumulative evidence obtained from this and other studies suggests that perceptual training to attend to shape and object contours will affect representational drawing. (Authors/MB)