Advises that teachers help journalism and mass communication students learn to interpret and create clear, effective visual messages. Argues that each introductory journalism course should explore connotations of colors, shapes, and texture in print and broadcast media. (PA)

Describes microlevel features associated with fear spots. Respondents were interviewed about their fear of victimization in relation to eight outdoor areas that varied in the degree to which they offered prospect, concealment, and ease of escape. Higher levels of fear were associated with negative aspects of the former attributes. (JBJ)

Four experiments with 36 infants studied how children organize objects categorically in the absence of input. Outcomes were not consistent with the predictions of bias accounts and considerably weaken the case for a psychologically real noun-bias prior to the vocabulary explosion. Findings are more consistent with children's use of information as…

To control wanderers' exiting, the view and light through a window were manipulated using visual barriers: window blind, cloth barrier, and a combination of the two. The closed blind decreased exiting by 44% while the cloth barrier was 96% effective. Combining the blind and cloth barrier lessened exiting by 88%. (RJM)

Brainstem, middle-latency, and long-latency auditory-evoked potentials and visual-evoked potentials were recorded for 66 individuals (ages 9-19) in the following comparison groups: cultural-familial mentally retarded, organically mentally retarded, and nonretarded. Target stimuli were evaluated more slowly by both groups with mental retardation.…

Proposes a system for document organization based on cueing and page formatting techniques, in which the logical and systematic use of cueing and formatting creates a visual hierarchy organizing and signalling information for the reader. Maintains that proper application produces increased reading speeds, ease of access, and comprehension. (SR)

This study evaluated the Columbus (Ohio) Children's Hospital vision stimulation program, involving in-home intervention with 15 visually impaired infants. Comparison with controls indicated benefits of appropriate vision stimulation in increasing the neural foundation for vision and visual-motor function in visually impaired infants. (Author/DB)

Two experiments with 129 college undergraduates tested the conjoint retention model by having subjects learn an intact map and text and then see the map as a retrieval cue in its original or reorganized form. Subjects remember more when cued by the original, supporting the conjoint retention theory. (SLD)

Describes Image-Making, a workshop in creative bookmaking based on a series of simple, carefully structured, parallel verbal and visual activities. Explains how each teacher and student designed and created an individual book (of his or her own poems and visual images) and a large communal book. (MG)

Event-related potentials (ERPs) of children and adults were measured while subjects observed pictures of facial expressions. Adults had greater ERP responses to happy than to angry faces, whereas children had greater ERP responses to angry than to happy faces. (BC)

Assessed the effectiveness of exclusion or selection (modified trial-and-error) training in establishing auditory-visual conditional relations. Subjects were boys (ages 8 to 11) with learning problems in school. Found that exclusion training was significantly more effective in teaching new auditory-visual conditional relations and in generating…

Tested infants' latency in turning toward stimulus patterns and the duration of their initial fixation. Results showed that "turning latency" fell in a linear manner from 36 to 120 weeks after conception. Fixation time fell abruptly at 53 weeks. Preterm and full-term infants showed the same developmental trends. (BC)

Confirms the existence of a right-hemisphere advantage in the process of discriminating between face stimuli. The advantage was weaker in females than in males. No hemispheric transfer of learning was observed. Subjects were 18 infants of 42 weeks who were presented with an operant conditioning situation in which they discriminated between their…

Analyzes John Trumbull's documentary painting, "The Declaration of Independence," for its didactic importance. The painting actually represents the moment in which the declaration is presented to the Second Continental Congress, rather than the signing of the document. The historic and visual importance of the work for educators is…

Discusses the use of quick-image activities in which the teacher flashes one particular image consisting of dots on the overhead projector screen for three seconds, hides it from view, then asks students to tell how many dots were shown and to describe what they saw. (ASK)