Background. Distressing imagery may inhibit health communications by inducing audiences to reduce distress by avoiding attention to persuasive messages. Method. This study used eye-tracking methods to compare gaze time allocated to a persuasive textual message, accompanied by either distressing high-resolution color images or less distressing…

Objective: Virtual reality (VR)-based cue reactivity has been successfully used for the assessment of drug craving. Going beyond assessment of cue reactivity, a novel VR-based treatment approach for smoking cessation was developed and tested for feasibility. Method: In a randomized experiment, 10-week treatment feasibility trial, 46…

We evaluated a program for teaching two adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to perform more advanced operations on an iPod-based speech-generating device (SGD). The effects of the teaching program were evaluated in a multiprobe multiple baseline across participants design that included two intervention phases. The first intervention…

This study examines how students explain their conceptual understanding of protein function using visualizations. Thirteen upper secondary students, four tertiary students (studying chemical biology), and two experts were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were structured around 2D illustrations of proteins and an animated…

This article presents a review of the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence-Second Edition (CTONI-2), a nonverbal intelligence test created to assess reasoning and problem solving of children and adults. The goal of the CTONI-2 is to minimize the influence of language ability on intelligence test scores. Oral or pantomime instructions can…

Seventy-nine 3- and 4-year-old children were tested on gaze-reporting ability and Wellman and Liu's (2004) continuous measure of theory of mind (ToM). Children were better able to report where someone was looking when eye and head direction were provided as a cue compared with when only eye direction cues were provided. With the exception of…

Even simple behaviour requires us to make decisions based on combining multiple pieces of learned and new information. Making such decisions requires both learning the optimal response to each given stimulus as well as combining probabilistic information from multiple stimuli before selecting a response. Computational theories of decision making…

Preference assessments directly evaluate items that may serve as reinforcers, and their implementation is an important skill for individuals who work with children. This study examined the effectiveness of pyramidal training on teachers' implementation of preference assessments. During Experiment 1, 3 special education teachers taught 6 trainees…

Background: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is an early diagnosed monogenic disorder, associated with a striking pattern of cognitive/attentional difficulties and a high risk of poor behavioural outcomes. FXS therefore represents an ideal model disorder to study prospectively the impact of early attention deficits on behaviour. Methods: Thirty-seven boys…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are often associated with aberrant responses to sensory stimuli, which are thought to contribute to the social, communication, and repetitive behavior deficits that define ASD. However, there are few studies that separate aberrant sensory responses by individual sensory modality to assess modality-specific…

Stimulus generalization and contextual control affect the development of equivalence classes. Experiment 1 demonstrated primary stimulus generalization from the members of trained equivalence classes. Adults were taught to match six spoken Icelandic nouns and corresponding printed words and pictures to one another in computerized three-choice…

The aim of this study was to pinpoint the nature of the visual features used in the automatic mapping of perceived movements into similar executed movements, following the direct matching hypothesis. In Experiment 1 subjects imitated the lifting of one of two fingers, presented with different orientations. As predicted, stimuli which were further…

In speeded response tasks with redundant signals, parallel processing of the signals is tested by the race model inequality. This inequality states that given a race of two signals, the cumulative distribution of response times for redundant stimuli never exceeds the sum of the cumulative distributions of response times for the single-modality…

This research addresses the challenges of assessing receptive language abilities in minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder by comparing several adapted measurement tools: a standardized direct assessment of receptive vocabulary (i.e. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4); caregiver report measures including scores on the Vineland-II…

This paper focuses on a critical analysis of the language of advertisement in selected newspapers and magazines; from the aspect of graphology and lexis of "The Nation Newspaper" and "Newswatch Magazine" respectively. This work is based on the framework of stylistics. Through this study, it is discovered that the language of…