Investigated 7-year-olds', 9-year-olds', and adults' ability to classify children's and adults' faces by sex using only biological based internal facial structure. Found that participants categorized adult faces by sex at accuracy levels varying from just above chance (7-year-olds) to nearly perfect (adults). All groups were less accurate for…

Examines current research on brain development, focusing on infants' ability to understand basic numerical concepts and arithmetic operations. Asserts that as the brain undergoes dramatic transformations, it already has a built-in capacity to understand basic numerical concepts. Recommends that parents and professionals engage in activities…

At age 13, students scoring at the top 0.5% in general intelligence completed the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), Mathematics and Verbal subtests, and the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) Space Relations (SR) and Mechanical Reasoning (MR) subtests. It appears that spatial ability assessments can complement contemporary talent search procedures.…

The orbitofrontal cortex contains the secondary taste cortex, in which the reward value of taste is represented. It also contains the secondary and tertiary olfactory cortical areas, in which information about the identity and also about the reward value of odours is represented. The orbitofrontal cortex also receives information about the sight…

The present study provides evidence that individuals who have different patterns of cerebral lateralization and who develop along different maturational time courses can attain comparable levels of language proficiency. Right-handed individuals with left-handed family members (left-handed familials, LHFs) showed a shorter sensitive period for…

Four experiments examined the flexibility and stability with which children and adults organize locations into categories based on their spatiotemporal experience with locations. Seven-, 9-, 11-year-olds, and adults learned the locations of 20 objects in an open, square box. During learning, participants experienced the locations in four…

The present study used a chimeric stimuli task to assess the magnitude of the left-hemispace bias in children with congenital unilateral brain damage (n=46) as compared to typically developing matched controls (n=46). As would be expected, controls exhibited a significant left-hemispace bias. In the presence of left hemisphere (LH) damage, the…

This article reviews epidemiological studies of autism and related disorders. Study designs and sample characteristics are summarized. Currently, conservative prevalence estimates are: 13/10000 for autistic disorder, 21/10000 for pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified, 2.6/10000 for Asperger disorder, and 2/100000 for childhood…

Over half the world's population speaks a tone language, yet infant speech perception research has typically focused on consonants and vowels. Very young infants can discriminate a wide range of native and nonnative consonants and vowels, and then in a process of "perceptual reorganization" over the 1st year, discrimination of most…

As human beings, we can interact with our environment through the sense of touch, which helps us to build an understanding of objects and events. The implications of touch for cognition are recognized by many educators who advocate the use of "hands-on" instruction. But is it possible to know something more completely by touching it? Does touch…

All contemporary learning theorists agree on the advantages of involving students in authentic problem-solving activities in both in-school and out-of-school contexts. Approaches which use real-world problems as learning tools fit well with: (1) the strategy-based, performance model advanced by information processors; (2) the impasse or…

This study examined the influence of grade level, program content, and ethnic match between viewer and television characters on children's perceptions of the realism of families portrayed in television series. In the 1986-87 school year, a sample of 1,692 children in 2nd, 5th, and 10th grades completed a 13-item questionnaire measuring their…

Prepared by a special commission, this report charges that now is the time for New England higher education to focus on the critical relationship between our knowledge-based institutions and the needs of the region's economy. Section 1 highlights the commission's principal concern for the future of regional higher education institutions. Section 2…

The Bender Gestalt Test and the WRAT reading section were administered to 147 disadvantaged children. The zero-order correlation of -.62 was found to be moderated by the variable of age. For younger subjects, highly significant first- and second-order partial correlations were obtained with age and/or WISC information scores held constant. (Author)

Discussed is the spatial concept model of J. Piaget in terms of the child's development from topological spatial relationships to Euclidean and projective relationships with implications for assessment and remediation of perceptual dysfunction. (DB)