A total of 20 neonates were presented with mild intensity blue or blue-green light during presentation of habituation and dishabituation stimuli. Orienting and defensive responses were measured by monitoring heart rate deceleration. (GO)

This study indicates that in performing a task involving verbal control of nonverbal behavior, males and females aged 3-5 integrate functional systems differently in order to achieve the same adaptive effect. (GO)

This study compared the use of discrete and relational aspects of visual configurations in making similarity judgments. Subjects were 3-, 4-, 5-, and 8-year-old children and adults. (BD)

Discussed in the paper is the role of span theory in such intellectual tasks as discrimination learning, language development and behavior, reading, intelligence and learning, and task analysis in training the retarded. Available from: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 355 Chestnut Street, Norwood, New Jersey 07648. (CL)

These experiments show two things: (a) In visual memory, long-term interference on a current item from items previously stored only seems to occur when the current item's retention interval is relatively long, and (b) the visual code appears to decay rapidly, reaching asymptote within 3 seconds of input in the presence of an interpolated task.…

Examines the effects of different-intensity unconditioned stimuli as well as generalization to related and unrelated test words. Its results indicate that semantic generalization is not a consequence of mediated generalization as traditionally conceived. (Editor/RK)

When children with Down's syndrome and normally developing children of comparable mental age were compared in their ability to find things they saw in a mirror, it was found that the ability of children with Down's syndrome paralleled that of normally developing children, but that motivational, attentional, and exploratory differences may exist.…

The effects of visual and auditory modes of input on long-term memory were examined in two experiments, each with 40 and 80 undergraduates, respectively. In both experiments, visual stimulus attributes were a more salient dimension than were auditory features in the long-term encoding and retrieval process. (SLD)

Demonstrates how native speakers of Italian and German rated the "native-speaker-likeness" of recorded speech of other native speakers of Italian and German. Findings indicate that subjects from southern Austria, whose own language norms differ from standard German, marked some German consonant realizations as non-native. (DK)

Three studies involving groups of four- to five-year-old children examined whether the discriminative properties of prompts are critical for establishing a difficult (septagon, octagon) discrimination through time delay. Results confirm superiority of multiple-stimulus, distinctive-feature prompts, implying that stimulus dimensions of prompts are…

In a study of 15 individuals (ages 15-21) with Down Syndrome, auditory brainstem response (ABR) detection levels were elevated, response amplitude reduced, and latency-intensity functions were significantly steeper than for a matched control group. Findings were associated with an impairment in hearing sensitivity at 8000 Hz for the experimental…

Manipulation of mechanical restraint properties were conducted in separate studies with two profoundly retarded adolescents who exhibited both self-restraint and self-injurious behavior. Techniques included prompting, differential reinforcement, and stimulus fading. Results suggested that stimulus fading and transfer may be valuable components in…

In three single-subject experiments with three profoundly retarded adolescent females, the effect of water mist spray on self-injurious and collateral behaviors was compared with either facial screening or forced arm exercise. Results suggested that while water mist spray is effective, it may be less so than alternative procedures. (Author/JW)

Compares estimates of monocular visual resolution of children 6- to 36-months of age with three psychophysical procedures: the Probabilistic Estimation by Sequential Testing (PEST), a modification of the PEST procedure, and the method-of-constant stimuli. (HOD)