Reports a study designed to determine whether students with learning problems could increase their own reading efficiency by learning through resources that complemented their perceptual strengths. Subjects were 16 children in a second grade learning disabilities class. Their reading vocabularies were improved during the perceptual program.…

Ostensive definitions of words are ambiguities as to their referent. In a study of infant-mother dyads engaged in looking at picture books, 95 percent of ostensive definitions referred to the whole object depicted rather than parts, attributes, or actions. When parts were named, ambiguity was avoided by naming the part and the whole. (PJM)

Discusses a study of the neurophysiological effects of television viewing and their impact on learning. Study of brain waves while viewing indicates that the brain switches off from any analytical processing of the messages. (JMF)

Research is reviewed regarding cluttering (a speech language disorder typified by problems of fluency, articulation, receptive and expressive language, and perceptual motor skills), and the concept is advanced that cluttering is a syndrome of learning disability symptoms. (CL)

The magnitude of the dichotic right-ear advantage was assessed in 48 normal and 48 learning-disabled children representing an age range of approximately five years. (MP)

The results suggested that profoundly retarded children do show habituation and dishabituation to visual stimuli and are actively storing and processing information about their perceptual world. (Author/DLS)

Ss displaying initial subnormal nystagmic functioning responded to therapy with increases in duration, while other Ss displayed decreases; these effects were more apparent after long therapy. (Author/DLS)

Describes the characteristics associated with the left and right hemispheres of the brain and relates the rise of phonetic literacy and logic to left hemisphere dominance and the viewing of television to right hemisphere dominance. (JMF)

Visual pattern preferences were established for 96 9- and 13-week-old infants using stimuli varying in contour density presented either at a low, moderate, or high luminance level. Age differences in the maximally preferred patterns across stimuli and luminance levels indicated that luminance interacts with contour density in determining stimulus…

A participatory science workshop--open house was designed for parents and preschool children to explore together. Organizing and setting up are detailed. (HS)

Examined whether spatial classification is discovered during play and if external products of play lead children to use space to represent similarity. Found through two experiments--a longitudinal study of four children's classification behaviors, and the examination of play behavior with two types of objects--that comparison of different kinds…

Two experiments examined the effects of common motion, background texture, and orientation on four-month olds' perception of unity of a partially occluded rod. Results indicated that infants' perception of object unity is not dependent on a single visual cue but on a variety of cues including motion, interposition, depth cues, background texture,…

Infants were familiarized with plastic animals from one of two categories (land or sea) that were judged similar or variable by adults. Infants were then tested with novel animals from the same or a different category. Thirteen-month-olds in the similar familiarization condition dishabituated to novel animals of a different category and, to a…

Challenges conclusions about infants' cognitive processing from prior research in favor of the importance of perceptual processes and the effects of stimulus novelty and familiarization. Considers problems with the two-test habituation design of earlier studies and proposes a new methodology that eliminates those problems. Describes a study the…