This study tested the hypothesis that memory for pictorial material is dependent on initial comprehension of the depicted relationships. A total of 72 second, sixth and ninth graders were compared on ability to remember cartoon pictures which did or did not contain action lines as clues to the interaction between actors. (MS)

The response times of 32 process schizophrenics and 16 nonhospitalized controls were compared on three visual search tasks. Results suggest that process schizophrenics are not abnormally slow when extracting information from visual displays, and they appear to perform similar operations and strategies to those of normals when doing so. (Editor/RK)

This study describes and compares visual encoding processes and copying performance of normal children and children with perceptual and neurological disabilities viewing the Bender-Gestalt designs. Designs of the neurologically impaired children were significantly different from those of either of the other two diagnostic groups. (Author)

Four experiments investigated newborns' ability to discriminate, recognize, and learn visual information embedded in the schematic face-like patterns preferred at birth. Results indicated that newborns discriminated face-like stimuli relying on their internal features and recognized a perceptual invariance between face-like configurations in…

An 18-item "Shortened Visuospatial Questionnaire" (SVS) was validated twice, first by verifying that children (ages 8-13) identified with the SVS questionnaire as having visuospatial learning disability (VSLD) (n=54) actually showed visuospatial deficits on psychometric evaluation, and second, by rating with the SVS a clinically identified…

Visual-spatial orienting in 10 high-functioning adults with autism was examined. Compared to controls, subjects responded faster to central than to lateral stimuli, and showed a left visual field advantage for stimulus detection only when laterally presented. Abnormalities in attention shifting and coordination of attentional and motor systems are…

Three papers--comments, a reply to comments, and a rejoinder--discussing a conclusion about the nature of general intelligence based on the size loadings of a psychomotor test of discrimination reaction time are presented. The use of Spearman's "g" is the center of the controversy. (TJH)

Examined the visual scanning patterns of infants ages 6, 10, and 13 weeks who viewed static geometric figures. Measures of fixation dwell-times, saccade lengths, and the choices and sequences of saccadic targets revealed that, although younger infants demonstrated salience-guided scanning behavior, older infants increasingly utilized volitional…

Reviews selected instructional procedures in the four reading readiness skills that can be taught and learned: auditory discrimination, auditory comprehension, visual discrimination, and visual memory. Stresses that readiness skills are prerequisite to reading skills. (RS)

Studied infant ability to extract depth information from a three-dimensional structure. Found evidence that 8-month-old infants distinguished between lines indicating edges, and lines indicating markings, and that they are able to use line junctions to perceive line drawings as depicting three-dimensional objects in the picture plane. (Author)

After computerized training on visual-visual identity matching, a 5-year old with autism was given visual-visual and auditory-visual matching-to-sample tests with new stimuli. He performed poorly on matching visual stimuli until the stimulus array was changed to resemble the computer-stimulus arrangement, indicating the influence of small…

This study examined 4- and 6-month-olds' responses to static or dynamic stimuli using behavioral and heart-rate-defined measures of attention. Infants looked longest to dynamic stimuli with an audio track and least to a static stimulus that was mute. Overall, look duration declined with age to the different stimuli. The amount of time spent in…

Time perception performance was systematically investigated in adolescents with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Specifically, the effects of manipulating modality (auditory and visual) and length of duration (200 and 1000 ms) were examined. Forty-six adolescents with ADHD and 44 controls were administered four duration…

The Stroop effect is psychology's classic measure gauging the selectivity of attention to individual attributes of complex stimuli. The emotional Stroop effect gauges the influence on behavior of threat and emotional stimuli. The former taps central/executive processes abstracted from particular stimulus contexts, whereas the latter taps automatic…

Sensory or input factors can influence the strength of interference in the classic Stroop color-word task. Specifically, in a single-trial computerized version of the Stroop task, when color-word pairs were incongruent, opponent color pairs (e.g., the word BLUE in yellow) showed reduced Stroop interference compared with nonopponent color pairs…