In 2 experiments, the authors compare stimulus-based versus task-rule-based task performance. Participants practiced 8 stimulus-response mappings either with or without knowledge about 2 underlying task sets. After practice, 2 transfer blocks with 8 new stimuli were presented. Results show that rule knowledge leads to significant switch and…

The purpose of this experiment was to establish discriminative control of responding by an antecedent stimulus using differential punishment because the results of past studies on this topic have been mixed. Three adults with mental retardation who exhibited stereotypy not maintained by social consequences (i.e., automatic reinforcement)…

The conditions under which symmetry and equivalence relations develop are still controversial. This paper reports three experiments that attempt to analyze the impact of multiple-exemplar training (MET) in receptive symmetry on the emergence of visual-visual equivalence relations with a very young child, Gloria. At the age of 15 months 24 days…

This study investigated conditions leading to contextual control by stimulus topography over transfer of functions. Three 4-member stimulus equivalence classes, each consisting of four (A, B, C, D) topographically distinct visual stimuli, were established for 5 college students. Across classes, designated A stimuli were open-ended linear figures,…

In three experiments, match-to-sample procedures were used with undergraduates to establish arbitrary relational functions for three abstract visual stimuli. In the presence of samples A, B, and C, participants were trained to select the smallest, middle, and largest member, respectively, of a series of three-comparison arrays. In Experiment 1,…

The phenomenon identified as naming is a key stage of language function that is missing in many children with autism and other language delay diagnoses. We identified four children with autism, who, prior to the implementation of this experiment, did not have the naming repertoire (either speaker to listener or listener to speaker) and who had no…

Neurological research has discovered much about how the brain works, Dr. Willis writes, but educators need to be cautious when applying this research to teaching. Following a brief explanation of the three most important technological advances in brain research (Positron Emission Tomography, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and Quantitative…

We investigated how lateralized lexical decision is affected by the presence of distractors in the visual hemifield contralateral to the target. The study had three goals: first, to determine how the presence of a distractor (either a word or a pseudoword) affects visual field differences in the processing of the target; second, to identify the…

A path-following experiment, using a global positioning system, was conducted with participants who were legally blind. On- and off-course confirmations were delivered by either a vibrotactile or an audio stimulus. These simple binary cues were sufficient for guidance and point to the need to offer output options for guidance systems for people…

When two visual targets, Target 1 (T1) and Target 2 (T2), are presented among a rapid sequence of distractors, processing of T1 produces an attentional blink. Typically, processing of T2 is markedly impaired, except when T1 and T2 are adjacent (Lag 1 sparing). However, if a shift of task set--a change in task requirements from T1 to T2--occurs,…

K. Wiegand and E. Wascher (2005) used the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) to investigate the mechanisms underlying spatial stimulus-response (S-R) correspondence. The authors compared spatial S-R correspondence effects obtained with horizontal and vertical S-R arrangements. In some relevant previous investigations on spatial S-R…

Temple Grandin, a university professor and award-winning livestock designer with autism, describes how thinking, for her, means processing a series of photorealistic mental images. Thinking in pictures, according to Grandin, is the only possible mode of thinking for many autistic people: Others think with sound patterns, visual patterns, or long…

Adaptation to distorted faces is commonly interpreted as a shift in the face-space norm for the adapted attribute. This article shows that the size of the aftereffect varies as a function of the distortion level of the adapter. The pattern differed for different facial attributes, increasing with distortion level for symmetric deviations of eye…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate derived manding skills in 2 adults with severe developmental disabilities and language deficits by contriving transitive conditioned establishing operations. Specifically, we evaluated whether a history of reinforced conditional discrimination learning would ultimately result in a derived mand…

Lexical access in language production, and particularly pathologies of lexical access, are often investigated by examining errors in picture naming and word repetition. In this article, we test a computational approach to lexical access, the two-step interactive model, by examining whether the model can quantitatively predict the repetition-error…