A comprehensive understanding of the basic visual and cognitive abilities of individuals with mental retardation is critical for understanding the basis of mental retardation and for the design of remediation programs. We assessed visual search abilities in individuals with mild mental retardation and in MA- and CA-matched comparison groups. Our…

The present study examined two key aspects of young children's ability to explain human behaviour in a mentalistic way. First, we explored desires that are of a level of difficulty comparable with that of false beliefs. For this purpose, the so-called "alternative desires" were created. Second, we examined how children's psychological…

The attentional blink (AB) is a robust phenomenon that has been consistently reported in the cognitive literature. The AB is found when two target images (T1, T2) are presented within 500 ms of each other and errors are induced on the perceptual report of T2. The AB may increase when T1 has some salience to the viewer. This study examined the…

We examined the relationship between three discrimination skills (visual, visual matching-to-sample, and auditory-visual) and four stimulus modalities (object, picture, spoken, and video) in assessing preferences of leisure activities for 7 adults with developmental disabilities. Three discrimination skills were measured using the Assessment of…

The present research identifies an anomaly in sociocognitive development, whereby younger children (8 and 9 years) outperform their older counterparts (10 and 11 years) in a basic categorization task in which the acknowledgment of racial difference facilitates performance. Though older children exhibit superior performance on a race-neutral…

This review focuses on saccade research with adult psychiatric patients. It begins with an introduction of the various types of saccades and the tasks used to evoke them. The functional significance of the different types of eye movements is briefly discussed. Research findings regarding the saccadic performance of different adult psychiatric…

Similar manifestations of functional decline in ageing and Alzheimer's disease obscure differences in the underlying cognitive mechanisms of impairment. We sought to examine the contributions of top-down attentional and bottom-up perceptual factors to visual self-movement processing in ageing and Alzheimer's disease. We administered a novel…

Tangible computing combines digital feedback with physical interactions - an important link for young children. Through the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, a real-world object (i.e. a chair) or a symbolic toy (i.e. a stuffed bear) can be tagged so that students can activate multimedia learning modules automatically. The…

The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the extent to which a subject's ability to conjure up an image of a visual stimulus can substitute for the presence of that stimulus when a comparison with another is required. (Author/RK)

A theory on the features of a visual scene and how these features are organized to provide a representational model of the visual scene is presented. (HB)

Research supported by the Office of Naval Research, ONR Contract Number 1866(52) (ONR Contract Authority NR 142-115).

This study addressed three major questions pertaining to habituation of visual attention in infants: (1) does habituation occur gradually? (2) how do fast and slow habituators compare in their response to discrepancy? and (3) does intervening stimulation produce interference with infants' visual recognition memory? The subjects were 36 17-week-old…

The present study assessed the effects of a distinct visual stimulus (a light) associated with each component of a four-component chain of nonsense syllables. When these added lights were used to train the chains of nonsense syllables, speed of acquisition was unaffected, but errors were reduced, loss of previously acquired responses was reduced,…