Subjects were trained against their initial dimensional preference in a two-dimensional simultaneous discrimination learning task. (RH)

Uses the transposition paradigm to compare the influence of the adjectives "same" and "different" on the test choice of 5- and 9-year-old children. (Author/SDH)

A total of 73 university freshman and 93 grade 7 and 8 students took part in a study of the differences in the affective meaning of color and black-and-white pictures. Subjects rated black-and-white and color slides on nine seven-point semantic differential scales and a red-blue scale. Results indicated that differences in affective meaning…

To investigate two measures which have been used to assess children's attention to stimulus dimensions, component selection, and dimension preference, both measures were administered to 38 3 1/2 to 5-year-olds and 20 5- to 6 1/2-year-olds. Seven to ten days after the dimension preference task was given. the component selection measure was…

Results showed that reversal shift was easier than extradimensional shift and that relative shift difficulty was unaffected by instructions, in contrast to findings with college-age subjects. (Authors)

Developmental changes in the encoding of unfamiliar faces was studied in three experiments with Australian 7- to 12-year-old children (N=24 in experiment 1, N=48 in experiment 2, and N=32 in experiment 3). Results showed that younger children encoded unfamiliar faces in terms of striking isolated features and that avoidant children made more…

Children's use of the middle concept was assessed in two developmental studies. Experiment 1, with kindergarten through fifth-grade students, showed marked improvement in the mastery of the middle concept across elementary grades. In Experiment 2, discrimination pretraining with two nonoverlapping stimulus sets transferred to the novel test…

Investigated degree to which two shape dimensions were represented categorically by children and adults when learning object names. Found that adults accepted names more often to objects that fell within proposed shape boundaries than to objects that crossed boundaries. Children were just as likely to generalize names to novel objects that fell…

Purposes of this study are to determine the effects of (1) preassessed dimensional salience upon performance in a bi-dimensional matching task, and (2) pretraining conditions expected to facilitate bi-dimensional processing. An additional aim was to elucidate a model of development involving changing salience hierarchies by comparing the effects…

Presolution reversal prevented or significantly retarded learning in kindergarten and first-grade children but did not hinder learning in fifth-grade children. (Authors)

Major finding of this study is that relative cue similarity can be used as a definition of dimensional dominance and that it predicts both initial learning and shift behavior for normal first- and third-grade children. (Author)

Results suggest that selective attention is a multifaceted skill, with development of its parts progressing at different rates. (Author)

Studied feeding-related arousal effects on a visual recognition paired-comparison task at newborn, 1, and 4 months of age. Found that newborns and 1-month olds shifted from a familiarity preference before feeding to a novelty preference after feeding. Control-group testing confirmed that shift was not due to increased stimulus exposure. By 4…

The effects of making ratings of idea importance, saliency, or textual imagery on story recall was investigated with 180 students (second and sixth grade normal students and mildly mentally retarded adolescents). Ss in eighteen groups attempted to recall a story presented auditorially and in print either before rating on a textual variable…

This study was designed to answer the following question: which of four commonly used art styles (photographic, representational, cartoon, and expressionistic), employed in children's tradebooks, would first, second, and third grade children prefer when (a) pictures only were viewed, and (b) text content (informational or fanciful) accompanied…