Gestalt psychologists have given many examples to demonstrate that laws of visual organization cause one view of scene to dominate others. This is also true for simple shapes. A figure can be articulated into many fragments but only a few will be perceptually dominant. (Author)

Preference for field dependence independence and verbal imagery was assessed in 96 14-year-olds. Their map reading performance was measured in terms of map-aerial photograph correlation, symbol translation, and view identification. The results suggest that map reading performance depends on the learning style, sex of the pupil, and the type of…

The encoding mechanism involved in perceptual recognition of words and pictures was investigated. Latencies in naming targets were analyzed as a function of several characteristics of a preceding prime. Results indicated that a common semantic code is available that can represent the meaning of either a word or a picture. (Author/RD)

Thirty middle-class preschoolers (ages three to five) were tested with the Acuff and Sieber-Suppes Manual for coding children's responses to paintings and two forms of the Embedded Figures Test. At age 5, significant positive correlations were found between cognitive style and total cue attendance and two attributes, sensory and organizational.…

One- and two-month-old infants were shown schematic drawings of a human face with features arranged (1) naturally, (2) symmetrically but scrambled, and (3) asymmetrically and scrambled. Two-month-olds discriminated among all arangements and preferred the natural arrangement; one-month-olds showed no discrimination or preference. (Author/DB)

Eight men and eight women responded "same" or "different" to pairs of geometric figures. Male subjects showed a left visual-field advantage regardless of the level of processing, whereas female subjects did not show a clear-cut hemispheric asymmetry. Results are discussed in terms of sex differences in processing strategies. (Author/SJL)

The preference for color or form as bases for similarity judgments among preschoolers (ages 2-5) and its relationship to the differentiation of form and color concepts as indexed by discrimination, identification, and labeling were investigated. (SB)

Boys and girls in second and fourth grades were presented with a two-choice simultaneous form discrimination. The forms were five or ten-sided and symmetrical or asymmetrical. Boys performed better than girls and older children were more accurate than younger ones. (MS)

Three studies investigated whether eye gaze cueing in 4-month-old infants is the result of a domain-specific module or reflects the activity of domain-general processes. In two of three experiments, infants perceived apparent motion of the pupils, and this directly elicited saccades, but only when this motion was preceded by a period of direct…

A new analysis, based on the concept of the ideal observer in signal detection theory, is described. It allows: tracing of the flow of discrimination information through the initial physiological stages of visual processing for arbitrary spatio-chromatic stimuli, and measurement of the information content of said visual stimuli. (TJH)

Investigated infants' integration of visual information across space and time. In four experiments, infants aged 12 months and 6 months viewed objects after watching light trace similar and dissimilar shapes. Infants looked longer at novel shapes, although six-month-olds did not recognize figures taking more than 10 seconds to trace. One-year-old…

Capitalizes on students' interest in driving by using road signs, which are classified by shape as well as by color, to teach about geometric shapes. (HTH)