In four experiments, younger children and adults showed greater perceptual sensitivity and more extensive conceptual labeling for difference relations than for identity relations. Younger and older children demonstrated consistent dimensional selectivity in tasks involving free classification and the estimation of differences. (Author/BG)

Proposes a system for document organization based on cueing and page formatting techniques, in which the logical and systematic use of cueing and formatting creates a visual hierarchy organizing and signalling information for the reader. Maintains that proper application produces increased reading speeds, ease of access, and comprehension. (SR)

Reviews models of learning style, cognitive style, and thinking style and makes recommendations: (1) style preferences are not unchangeable; (2) style refers to learner actions not ability; (3) learning should be considered broader than cognitive achievement; and (4) teachers should adopt a bilateral approach to influencing student actions. (SK)

This study evaluated the Columbus (Ohio) Children's Hospital vision stimulation program, involving in-home intervention with 15 visually impaired infants. Comparison with controls indicated benefits of appropriate vision stimulation in increasing the neural foundation for vision and visual-motor function in visually impaired infants. (Author/DB)

Thirty-four school-aged children with developmental disabilities were assessed for level of tactile defensiveness (TD) and then presented with a repeated tactile stimulus while engaged in computer games. Evidence was found for a differential sensitivity in TD but not an inhibition deficit. Another finding included a negative correlation between TD…

A six-year-old nonvocal girl with autism who had acquired a variety of signs and imitative responses consistently failed to acquire a tact (labeling) repertoire. When procedures to transfer stimulus control from verbal to nonverbal stimuli were implemented, the subject quickly learned to tact all 18 target stimuli. (Author/DB)

The relationship between general intelligence and the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli appearing in the same visual field as an attended target was studied for 167 college students. Results indicate that psychometric intelligence does not tap visual focused attention. (SLD)

The complex ideas of William James on emotion were oversimplified during his lifetime, with his emphasis on the interpretation of the stimulus largely overlooked. Damaging scientific consequences of this mischaracterization are described. (SLD)

The article by W. K. Estes marks a turning point in the mathematical learning theory movement. The central constructs were stimulus variability, stimulus sampling, and stimulus response association by contiguity, in a framework enabling prediction of response probability and latency. (SLD)

The accuracy and bias of estimates of whisker length based on box, line, and midgap plots were examined. For each type of graph, 20 different undergraduates (n=60) viewed 48 single-plot graphs. Whisker-length estimates for box and line plots were more accurate and less biased than those for midgap plots. (TJH)

Two experiments with 129 college undergraduates tested the conjoint retention model by having subjects learn an intact map and text and then see the map as a retrieval cue in its original or reorganized form. Subjects remember more when cued by the original, supporting the conjoint retention theory. (SLD)

Describes Image-Making, a workshop in creative bookmaking based on a series of simple, carefully structured, parallel verbal and visual activities. Explains how each teacher and student designed and created an individual book (of his or her own poems and visual images) and a large communal book. (MG)

This study found that, compared to measuring approach behaviors to a variety of stimuli, a forced-choice stimulus preference assessment used with four young children with severe mental retardation resulted in greater differentiation among stimuli and better predicted which stimuli would result in higher levels of responding when presented…

Event-related potentials (ERPs) of children and adults were measured while subjects observed pictures of facial expressions. Adults had greater ERP responses to happy than to angry faces, whereas children had greater ERP responses to angry than to happy faces. (BC)

Some speculations, often based on mutually incompatible theories, are reviewed about how blindness can affect the development of language and meaning. Issues covered include preverbal and verbal behaviors, the concept of verbalism, and language as a compensator. (10 references) (Author/LB)