Investigates the dominance of global versus local visual properties in four-month-old infants as a function of individual differences in fixation duration. Suggests that long-looking infants process visual information more slowly than short-looking infants, and there may be qualitative differences in the manner in which the two groups of infants…

When a visual target is identified, there is a period of several hundred milliseconds when the processing of subsequent targets is impaired, a phenomenon labeled the attentional blink (AB). The emerging consensus is that the identification of a visual target temporarily occupies a limited attentional resource that is essential for all visual…

Bilingual reading can require more than knowing two languages. Learners must acquire also the writing conventions of their second language, which can differ in its deep mapping principles (writing system) and its visual configurations (script). We review ERP (event-related potential) and fMRI studies of both Chinese-English bilingualism and…

Describes an experiment measuring response latency which required subjects to make a word-nonword decision in response to a visually presented item. (AM)

Previous studies have found that an object can be categorized faster at a basic level (hammer) than at either a subordinate (club hammer) or a superordinate level (tool). While some attribute this result to basic categories having more distinctive attributes, other factors might cause this result. For example, basic categories routinely have…

Earlier research with the lexical decision task led to the hypothesis that semantic context facilitates the encoding of words related to the context. Six experiments which employed different tasks (e.g., making a lexical decision) and different experimental paradigms (e.g., tachistoscopic exposures with masking stimuli) further investigated this…

This review analyzes research on the influence of perception on reading disabilities among adolescent and young adult populations. It addresses three primary areas associated with reading achievement: perceptual discrimination, memory and retrieval, and comprehension. Implications for reading instruction are drawn. (Author/SJL)

Discrepant effects of drugs on behavior maintained by temporal-discrimination procedures make conclusive statements about the neuropharmacological bases of timing difficult. The current experiment examined the possible contribution of a general, drug-induced disruption of stimulus control. Four pigeons responded on a three-component multiple…

Existing data indicate that newborns are able to recognize individual faces, but little is known about what perceptual cues drive this ability. The current study showed that either the inner or outer features of the face can act as sufficient cues for newborns' face recognition (Experiment 1), but the outer part of the face enjoys an advantage…

In order to enhance the understanding of visual literacy, one of its constituents, visual learning (VL), is examined in terms of underlying assumptions, hypothesized behaviors, and implications of both assumptions and behaviors. Assumptions are: (1) VL encompasses all changes in behavior arising from the individual's responses to visual…

This experimental study was conducted in an attempt to determine how children--four, seven, and 11 years old--perceive implied motion cues in combination with a variety of objects. Ninety children, 30 in each age group, were shown 24 pictures. There were three kinds of objects, each with an inherent active and static dimension. Each of these six…

This study examines the effects of three levels of visual complexity upon the learning of an instructional slide tape program about the functions of a human heart. The three levels of complexity were a simple line drawing in color, an illustration in color, and a realistic color photograph. The effects of visual stimulus complexity upon…

The reflection-impulsivity (R-I) dimension of individual variation incognitive processes is discussed. A literature review focuses on studies that have supported the validity of the R-I dimension as a concept, and studies providing evidence of a direct relationship between the R-I dimension and visual scanningstrategies. This study compares the…

Prekindergarten children were given a perceptual discrimination task using letterlike forms and their transformations. The magnitude of the relation to subsequent achievement in reading varied according to the difficulty of a transformation. More easily discriminated transformations were associated with higher correlations. Patterns were similar…