Twenty children, aged 7-12, with severe visual impairments completed a series of visual tasks requiring interpretation, analysis, manipulation, and visual motor coordination. Findings are discussed in terms of total performance, individual task performance, performance of younger versus older children, and performance of good versus poor readers.…

Imaginal perspective switches are often considered to be difficult, because they call for additional cognitive transformations of object coordinates (transformation hypothesis). Recent research suggests that problems can also result from conflicts between incompatible sensorimotor and cognitive object location codes during response specification…

After distinguishing between neocortical abilities for executive control and subcortical sensory motor skills for proprioceptive and vestibular integration, we compare a sample of 116 normal preschoolers with a sample of 31 preschoolers receiving occupational therapeutical treatment. This is done in an experimental design controlled for age (mean:…

This report relates current attentional research and theory to the development of skilled performance, with emphasis on how performance changes with practice. Dual process attention theory is reviewed, and the distinction between automatic and controlled processing is examined. The changing interactions between automatic and controlled processing…

It is argued that the current theoretical orientation of motor behavior research toward information processing is only at the descriptive level. An outline of requirements for motor behaviorists to discover the mental operations that precede motor performance is presented. It is suggested that unless basic knowledge is obtained on how movement…

Perception is a process by which simple and complex information (stimuli) is experienced. We gain information about how such stimulus inputs are experienced by a child, for example, by his responses or outputs. Outputs are in the form of vocalizations and motor acts. Thus, the perceptual process is frequently called perceptual-motor. But the…

The purpose of this study was to determine how retarded readers differed from normal readers in the various ways laterality is manifested. An additional purpose was to investigate the development of laterality as seen across several age levels. Subjects were 80 white male 9-, 10-, 11-, and 12-year-olds from regular classrooms in suburban…

Findings from relevant research applying Piaget's theory to mental retardation, psychosis, and autism are reviewed. Many autistic individuals show an arrest in operative functions at the sensorimotor functions. The early arrest interferes with subsequent development of higher-level conceptual, symbolic, and social skills. (Author)

Researchers studied the effect of interpolating extraneous information on students' ability to process cognitive information concerning their prior performances on the McCloy block test. The extraneous information was given in the interval between their last test and their next attempt to perform it. Results are discussed. (Author/PP)

The article describes the neurolinguistic programing model and applies it to teaching orientation and mobility skills to congenitally blind students, who have access to only the auditory and kinesthetic primary systems. Understanding the effects on thought of limited representational systems can help trainers teach more effective cane or dog guide…

Presents results of a study of the role of context upon English children's estimation skills. Includes estimation tasks involving distance, area, and volume measurements and children's answers about how they carried out the tasks. Concludes that estimates in contexts perceived as mathematical differed from those involving perceptual-motor skills.…

Most social interactions involve spontaneous or unintentional behavior. Deliberate behavior, however, represents intentional action. An individual may display a particular emotion or behave in a systematic fashion to convey or conceal a specific type of affect. Often, an observer will question the authenticity of a behavior sequence, deciding…

Discussed are Piaget's methods, his relation to other theories, and an overview of his theory. Described are the six stages of his sensorimotor period with a summary of imitation and play, and the concrete operations period with the subperiods of changes from sensorimotor in preoperation, differences from the adult in preoperation, and the…

This curriculum is designed primarily for individualized classrooms where the teacher is working with an assistant, but has also been proven effective in traditional classrooms and in remedial situations. It is designed to test and teach children the basic abilities (readiness skills) assumed by the present primary-grade reading, writing,…

The Process Oriented Interactive Learning System postulated in this paper starts with the generation of a set of process objectives for children which are based on the principles of development - intellectual and social - and related to the substance of the basic goals which society holds for education: reading, language, number, independence, and…