A sharp improvement in children's understanding of the role of visual perception and linguistic communication in knowledge functions was found between the ages of three and five years. (PCB)

Investigates preschool children's ability (n = 30) to discriminate age, and subject's use of different facial areas in ranking facial photographs into age order. Results indicate subjects from 3 to 9 years can successfully rank the photos. Compared with other facial features, the eye region was most important for success in the age ranking task.…

In this longitudinal study, infants' visual guidance of hand orientation was investigated by presenting a rod either horizontally or vertically to see if the orientation of the reaching hand was adjusted toward the orientation of the rod before contacting it. Subjects were l8 infants seen monthly between 18 and 34 weeks of age. (RH)

At some time during every fixation a decision is made to move the eyes, directing them to a new location in the stimulus array. To understand the eye movement control processes, three general hypotheses concerning the cognitive basis for deciding to move the eyes were investigated: the saccade (movement) initiation time is determined only on the…

A test for sensitivity to binocular disparity and a shape perception test were administered to four-month-olds. Results indicated that disparity-sensitive infants could perceive three-dimensional-object shape from kinetic and binocular depth information. (PCB)

Two different methods which minimize achromatic cues were used to test the ability of one-month-olds to discriminate gray from broadband blue. Test data imply an improvement between birth and one month of age in the discrimination of gray from broadband blue. Possible physiological changes underlying this improvement are discussed. (Author/RWB)

Describes subjective-contour illusions and gives explanations for perception of shape and brightness in these figures. Supports cognitive mechanisms rather than psychological mechanisms. Gives examples of subjective-contour illusions and summarizes explanations of other psychologists with regard to this topic. (CW)

Reports on four experiments on pattern perception in four-month-old infants. The first experiment examined preference for patterns varying in structure; the second examined encoding patterns from different subset sizes; and the last two experiments examined changes in the size, position, and orientation of the habituation pattern. (HOD)

Examines development of processing speed in three backward masking studies, where presentation of second stimulus figure (mask) within a critical time interval from arrival of first figure (target) interrupts processing of first. Results indicate that processing time increases until early adolescence; changes are less marked after 13 years of age.…

Comparison of children (n=6) with either autism or Asperger syndrome (AS) and children (n=9) with neither condition found overall postural instability was significantly reduced in autistic children compared with both AS and normal children and confirms the existence of a visuo-postural detuning in autistic children. Results suggest a…

A profile analysis procedure was used with the Carrow Auditory-Visual Abilities Test to aid in the identification of systematic modality preferences in two preschool children with articulation disorders. Critical values are identified to facilitate the identification of the child's strengths and weaknesses at the subtest level. (Author/DB)

This study compared visual word recognition (speechreading) in video sequences showing either full face or lips plus mandible to 26 normal hearing college students and 4 adults with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Percent phoneme correct scores were similar in the two conditions and scores significantly improved for the repeated measure in…

To investigate sensory dominance in early development, a series of studies examined six-month-old infants' processing of multisensory stimulus compounds. Findings indicated that infants discriminated changes in the temporal characteristics of the auditory component but not in the visual component. This and other findings suggested that auditory…

Involving 10-month-old infants, a series of studies examined responses to temporally modulated compound auditory-visual stimuli. Findings indicated that, although the auditory modality can dominate the visual modality at 10 months of age, the visual modality can process temporal information when the temporal relationship of the information in the…

A series of three experiments was conducted to assess the comprehension of four types of cross-modal (synesthetic) similarities in children and adults. Both perceptual and verbal (metaphoric) modes were tested. (PCB)