Used shift-rate recovery method in three experiments to examine extent to which 6-month-olds find perceptual cues such as density and length useful in discrimination of linearly arranged sets of large numbers of objects. Found that infants can discriminate between large number sets by relying on absolute cues such as density and on relative cues…

Global-local processing was examined in high-functioning children with autism and in groups of typically developing children. In experiment 1, the effects of structural bias were tested by comparing visual search that favored access to either local or global targets. The children with autism were not unusually sensitive to either level of visual…

Experiment 1 supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Grant M2232. Experiment 2 submitted as the senior author's PhD dissertation at the University of Miami and supported by NIMH grant MH-14914.

A report is presented which relates to a general hypothesis suggested by previous data on visual response to faces that in the first weeks of life infants develop expectations regarding the human face. Three predictions were made: (1) Silent human faces would elicit less direct regard than faces accompanied by voices; (2) A familiar face would…

Four experiments investigated newborns' ability to discriminate, recognize, and learn visual information embedded in the schematic face-like patterns preferred at birth. Results indicated that newborns discriminated face-like stimuli relying on their internal features and recognized a perceptual invariance between face-like configurations in…

Three papers--comments, a reply to comments, and a rejoinder--discussing a conclusion about the nature of general intelligence based on the size loadings of a psychomotor test of discrimination reaction time are presented. The use of Spearman's "g" is the center of the controversy. (TJH)

Background: Prior studies have showed that presentation methods could affect the accuracy of a choice assessment. Methods: In the current study, high- and low- preferred work tasks were identified in nine adults with developmental disabilities. Both tasks were then introduced in pairs within a choice assessment using the actual tasks, pictures of…

Following a review of the literature on responses of autistic persons to environmental stimulation, three experiments are detailed which examine the relationship between modality preference and rate of acquisition of a discrimination task. First, seven autistic children's preference for colored lights and/or simple tones was assessed in a sensory…

First and third grade children's ability to coordinate reading and listening was studied using a "mismatch detection" task. A total of 15 first grade children and 15 third grade children of average to below average reading ability read printed texts while listening to recordings of the same texts, in which extraneous spoken words were…

A laboratory and a classroom study were conducted to determine if verbal association learning would be facilitated by visual discrimination training. Kindergarten children who could not recognize the letters used were the subjects for both studies. In the laboratory study, 90 subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental group (E) which got…

This experiment was a direct test of the hypothesis that picture-word differences in discrimination learning are a function of apparent frequency differences associated with two types of material. The subjects consisted of 80 sixth graders randomly selected from two elementary schools located in middle-class neighborhoods. Each subject was tested…

Errorless discrimination training is a technique in which the discriminative stimulus is supplemented with a salient cue which is gradually removed or faded during the course of training. In this study errorless discrimination training was used to teach preschool children the distinctive features of letters of the alphabet that are difficult to…

The purposes of this study were to assess the effect of phoneme-grapheme consistency (PGC) and cue emphasis (CE) on the development of decoding skills in first graders and to determine the relationship of consistency of original lists to the recognition of new words. Subjects were 162 first graders, mean age 6.11 years and scoring above 30 on the…

Investigation indicates that perceptual inadequacy must be controlled in studies that utilize ambiguous, novel or nonsense designs in stimulus materials. (Authors)