When 2 targets are embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation stream of distractors, perception of the second target is impaired when the intertarget lag is relatively short (less than 500 ms). Stimuli concurrently presented with the stream can affect this phenomenon, which is called attentional blink (AB). Previous studies have yielded…

The generation manipulation has been critical in delineating differences between implicit and explicit memory. In contrast to past research, the present experiments indicate that generating from a rhyme cue produces as much perceptual priming as does reading. This is demonstrated for 3 visual priming tasks: perceptual identification, word-fragment…

Visually-based navigation is a key competence during spatial cognition. Animals avoid obstacles and approach goals in novel cluttered environments using optic flow to compute heading with respect to the environment. Most navigation models try either explain data, or to demonstrate navigational competence in real-world environments without regard…

Adults rapidly learn phonotactic constraints from brief production or perception experience. Three experiments asked whether this learning is modality-specific, occurring separately in production and perception, or whether perception transfers to production. Participant pairs took turns repeating syllables in which particular consonants were…

Although the relationship between "mere exposure" and attitude enhancement is well established in the adult domain, there has been little similar work with children. This article examines whether toddlers' visual attention toward pictures of foods can be enhanced by repeated visual exposure to pictures of foods in a parent-administered picture…

The problem of feature binding has been examined under conditions of distributed attention or with spatially dispersed stimuli. We studied binding by asking whether selective attention to a feature of a masked object enables perceptual access to the other features of that object using conditions in which spatial attention was directed at a single…

A simple low cost demonstration experiment is performed using common apparatus in order to show various flexural patterns and to give a dynamical measure of Young's modulus. (Contains 4 figures.)

The present research examined whether infants as young as 6 months of age would consider what objects a human agent could perceive when interpreting her actions on the objects. In two experiments, the infants took the agent's actions of repeatedly reaching for and grasping one of two possible objects as suggesting her preference for that object…

Previous research has shown that preschoolers extend labels and internal properties of objects based on those objects' causal properties, even when the causal properties conflict with the objects' perceptual appearance [Nazzi, T., & Gopnik, A. (2000). "A shift in children's use of perceptual and causal cues to categorization." "Developmental…

Two studies were designed to test the hypothesis that actively creating novel distinctions and sonically portraying them during the performance of orchestral music is preferable to attempting to re-create a past performance. The data suggest that orchestral musicians preferred creating music when they were encouraged to mindfully incorporate…

The "correspondence problem" is a classic issue in vision and cognition. Frequent perceptual disruptions, such as saccades and brief occlusion, create gaps in perceptual input. How does the visual system establish correspondence between objects visible before and after the disruption? Current theories hold that object correspondence is established…

This paper evolved from my perception of an "unpleasant attitude" shown by primary school teachers towards research in general and my inquiry in particular during a study conducted in selected schools in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Teachers' negative attitudes led to their refusal to participate in a survey and the…

Neuroscience offers more than new empirical evidence about the details of cognitive functions such as language, perception and action. Since it also shows many functions to be highly distributed, interconnected and dependent on mechanisms at different levels of processing, it challenges concepts that are traditionally used to describe these…

Autism is characterized by deficits in attention. However, no study has investigated the dynamics of attentional processes in autistic patients yet. The attentional blink (AB) paradigm provides information about the temporal dynamics of attention in particular about the allocation and the duration of an attentional episode. We compared 11 high…

Infant's face preferences have previously been assessed in displays containing 1 or 2 faces. Here we present 6-month-old infants with a complex visual array containing faces among multiple visual objects. Despite the competing objects, infants direct their first saccade toward faces more frequently than expected by chance (Experiment 1). The…