Ten kindergarteners with no known communication problems were given 10 sets of the "Repetition Task," a procedure used to assess auditory perception, over a span of 5 days. Results suggest the possibility that differences between dysphasic and normal children on the "Repetition Task" may result from differences in perceptual learning. (Author/CL)

Concludes that there is little or no relationship between creativity and perception variables and relates conclusions to art education. (This report is part of a larger study in Creativity and Perceptual Learning in Art, done under a U.S.O.E. grant.) (DR)

To test whether six-month-old infants recognize the auditory similarity of speech sounds sharing a value on a phonetic-feature dimension, an operant head turn procedure was used. Results indicated that the performance of infants trained on phonetically related speech sounds was far superior to that of infants in the nonphonetic control group.…

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the development of visual accommodation in one- to three-month-old infants. Accommodation responses and pupil diameters were measured at various stimulus distances. Results suggest that changes in depth of focus in the first three months are largely responsible for growth in accommodation. (Author/SS)

Three studies explored preschoolers' assertions that objects come closer together when part of the distance between them is occluded. Findings indicated that preschoolers do not appear to change the geometries they use to represent space, but do show increases in the generality and explicitness with which they map spatial knowledge onto spatial…

Explores how a dyadic understanding of perception cancels the validity it might have as a model for the linguistic process. Discusses commonly misunderstood exhibits in the gallery of perception studies--the duck-rabbit and Magritte's pipe. (RS)

Perception training can be an integral part of management development programs. These games can help trainees understand what perception is, how it works, and how it applies in the workplace. (JOW)

Adults use both first-order, or categorical, relations among features (e.g., the nose is above the mouth), and second-order, or fine spatial relations (e.g., the space between eyes), to process faces. Adults' expertise in face processing is thought to be based on the use of second-order relations. In the current study, 5-month-olds detected…

Rule use in perceptual classification was investigated in adults and in 4- to 12-year-old children. Two studies of performance on triad classification tasks with large samples (N=226 and N=328) are presented to (a) contrast theoretical predictions from the holistic-to-analytic-shift theory (Smith & Kemler, 1977) and the differential-sensitivity…

Gottlieb promoted the value of a developmental psychobiological systems approach to the study of human development. This approach recognizes the importance of comparative, animal-based research to advancing our understanding of the complexities and dynamics of the process of development. The major contribution of animal developmental studies is…

To examine the ontogeny of emotional face processing, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from adults and 7-month-old infants while viewing pictures of fearful, happy, and neutral faces. Face-sensitive ERPs at occipital-temporal scalp regions differentiated between fearful and neutral/happy faces in both adults (N170 was larger for fear)…

A study explored a developmental theory of perceptual skills in theater, assessing developmental perception, reflection, and evaluation of theatrical reality, conventions, and themes. Subjects, 33 second graders, 33 fourth graders, 23 sixth graders, and 23 adults, viewed a 48-minute, nonrepresentational, metatheatrical play entitled "This Is…

The effects of pure tone stimulation on ongoing motor activity of infants 1 to 4 days of age were studied using a passive, contactless monitoring device. Stimuli were pure tone bursts of 0.5, 1, and 4 kHz presented free field at an approximate level of 70 dB A. Signal trials consisted of 500 ms tone bursts, with rise/fall time equal to 10 ms, and…