Six experiments involving 192 infants and 1 experiment with 16 college students examined sensitivity to acoustic correlates of phrasal units in English. A basic finding is that nine-month-old infants are sensitive to acoustic markers that correspond to major phrasal units, a sensitivity that develops after six months. (SLD)

The task was to survey an area of a planet's surface to identify the presence of various geological features such as a trench, ridge, or basin. Students who received prior pictorial representations of features performed more accurately than students who did not, but there was no significant effect for including verbal statements about strategies…

In this article, the author discusses two strategies--visual cues (modeling) and verbal cues (short, accurate phrases) which are related to teaching motor skills in maximizing learning in physical education classes. Both visual and verbal cues are strong influences in facilitating and promoting day-to-day learning. Both strategies reinforce…

Large and reliable laterality effects have been found using a dichotic target detection task in a recent experiment using word stimuli pronounced with an emotional component. The present study tested the hypothesis that the magnitude and reliability of the laterality effects would increase with the removal of the emotional component and variations…

This study was designed to assess the potential benefits of using spatial auditory warning signals in a simulated driving task. In particular, the authors assessed the possible facilitation of responses (braking or accelerating) to potential emergency driving situations (the rapid approach of a car from the front or from behind) seen through the…

Like all probabilistic decisions, recognition memory judgments are based on inferences about the strength and quality of stimulus familiarity. In recent articles, B. W. A. Whittlesea and J. Leboe (2000; J. Leboe & B. W. A. Whittlesea, 2002) proposed that such memory decisions entail various heuristics, similar to well-known heuristics in overt…

This paper presents Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior as a framework for understanding language acquisition in children with autism. We describe Skinner's analysis of pure and impure verbal operants and illustrate how this analysis may be applied to the design of communication training programs. The picture exchange communication system…

A total of 121 third and fourth graders were randomly assigned to instructional treatments which each featured a short children's story. The treatments were oral-only, picture-only, and a combination of oral and pictures. Students saw and/or heard the presentation and were tested immediately and after a two-week retention interval for recall of…

Adapted from a series of 20 monthly columns which originally appeared in Highlights for Children, Inc.'s "Newsletter of Parenting," the material in this booklet explores: (1) ways in which television influences viewers; (2) what television teaches; and (3) some positive aspects of television. It also suggests activities for parents which…

Seventeen preschool children were administered two color-discrimination pretests, verbal and nonverbal. The five children who scored lowest were chosen to recieve the color program. Four scored elow 85 percent on the nonverbal pretest, whereas the other 12 children scored above 85 percent. On the verbal pretest, all five experimental subjects…

The effect of verbal labeling in a serial position short term memory task was investigated. Forty female college students were given 16 trials each. Eight trials involved only central items which had to be recalled. The other eight trials involved both central and incidental items. Half of the subjects verbalized the names of the central items as…

To determine whether increased teacher use of student ideas would produce increased verbal initiation, an experiment was conducted with 16 second grade teachers and their classes. First, a series of observations were made under normal class conditions to determine the usual percentages of teacher use of student ideas and student initiation. Then,…

A timeout stimulus control procedure for reducing self-stimulation and disruptive behaviors in autistic children was examined. The three subjects were diagnosed as autistic, exhibiting numerous behaviors incompatible with learning. Severe hand biting, inappropriate noises, and prolonged tantrums were the target behaviors linked with the timeout…

A study of the effects on responses to a word association task of varying the modality of the input of the stimulus word was used as a means of doing step-wise analysis of word association data. Subjects were 70 males and 70 females randomly selected from adult basic education classes in the Atlanta, Georgia, area and assigned to one of the…