Presents the procedures, results, and conclusions of a study designed to examine the performance of three distinct socioeconomic groups on several dimensions of resemblance sorting. (LC)

The production and discrimination of eight basic facial expressions were investigated among 34 preschool children three to five years of age. Children's productions were elicited and videotaped under four different prompting conditions. Children's discrimination of drawings depicting facial expressions, sociometric ratings, and spontaneous…

Two tests of field dependence-independence (the Embedded Figures Test and Inverted Tracing Test) are examined as potential predictors of student clinical performance. Results suggest that field-independent students may have an advantage in the clinical dental curriculum. (Author/MSE)

Children's abilities to judge "who is older" without using size as a cue were studied. Five-year-olds were better able to discriminate age than four-year-olds but were not equal to adults. No significant sex differences were found. (Author/RD)

The authors discuss methodological and theoretical issues in psychological investigations of infant attention, fixation times, habituation, and intelligence. A consensus on how to measure individual differences in habituation has not been reached. The relation between IQ and attention is discussed. (RD)

Effects of target-noise similarity on the ability to discriminate between two target letters were investigated. Performance was low when the noise letter shared the same name as the target. Thus, interletter interference effects cannot be explained in terms of inhibition between visual features. A "cognitive masking" hypothesis is proposed.…

The relationship between latency to respond and performance on the ITPA Visual Association subtest was investigated for 50 preschoolers. Performance was a function of age and response latency. It was concluded that for children who don't have the appropriate search strategy, the visual association subtest doesn't give a valid assessment.…

The results showed that accuracy depended on both stimulus complexity, modality, and mental age, regardless of whether or not the Ss were retarded. The selection of haptic search styles also depended on these factors but, in addition, was influenced by the intellectual status of the children. (Author/DLS)

Describes a study of 16 kindergarten children--eight good prereaders and eight poor prereaders--designed to determine if there were relations between reading skill and the processing of distinctive features of patterns. Concludes that both pattern classification and feature processing appear to be involved in early reading skills. (TJ)

Cites studies showing that impulsive children can perform more reflectively with respect to response time and/or accuracy if exposed to reflective models, self-verbalization strategies, increased concern over performance accuracy, and training in attention deployment, delay of response and visual discrimination. (BF/JH)

A series of experiments tested a recent suggestion that vertical symmetry of a stimulus display can serve as a visual diagnostic for responding "same" in a letter-matching task. The data of chief interest were same reaction times to vertically symmetric (e.g., AA) and asymmetric (e.g., LL) displays, each composed of two side-by-side uppercase…

Matching-to-sample skills are involved in language acquisition and reading and counting abilities. The rapid, even errorless, induction of matching performances in young children and 28 individuals with mental retardation (ages 11-20) was demonstrated through the structuring of a visual array that promoted detection of the relevant stimulus.…

Discussion of how to teach students to use different environments for learning focuses on visual awareness and visual problem solving skills in a visual literacy walk. Highlights include observation techniques, multiple perspectives, categorizing and analyzing visual information, and generating multiple solutions for problem solving tasks. (six…

Investigated relationship between critical flicker fusion (CFF) thresholds and five personality characteristics (alienation; social nonconformity; discomfort, expression, and defensiveness) under three auditory stimulus conditions (quiet, noise, meaningful verbal stimuli). Results from 60 college students revealed that auditory stimulation and…

Argues that reading instruction should be understood as an integrated instructional program simultaneously juxtaposing learning styles, modality dependencies, and visual literacies. Argues, too, that teaching the "basics" of reading includes mastery of the fundamentals, involvement leading to verbal interaction, critical reading, and synthesis…