Visual pattern preferences were established for 96 9- and 13-week-old infants using stimuli varying in contour density presented either at a low, moderate, or high luminance level. Age differences in the maximally preferred patterns across stimuli and luminance levels indicated that luminance interacts with contour density in determining stimulus…

Two experiments examined the effects of common motion, background texture, and orientation on four-month olds' perception of unity of a partially occluded rod. Results indicated that infants' perception of object unity is not dependent on a single visual cue but on a variety of cues including motion, interposition, depth cues, background texture,…

Infants were familiarized with plastic animals from one of two categories (land or sea) that were judged similar or variable by adults. Infants were then tested with novel animals from the same or a different category. Thirteen-month-olds in the similar familiarization condition dishabituated to novel animals of a different category and, to a…

Challenges conclusions about infants' cognitive processing from prior research in favor of the importance of perceptual processes and the effects of stimulus novelty and familiarization. Considers problems with the two-test habituation design of earlier studies and proposes a new methodology that eliminates those problems. Describes a study the…

Twenty-five older adults with age-related macular degeneration were separated into one of three groups: in-clinic training, take-home-training, or no-training. After testing, results showed that the ability to distinguish figure from ground is an improvable skill with the take-home group improving the most. (Author/DB)

Focuses on investigations of infant sensation and perception over the past 25 years. Describes the knowledge base concerning the sensory and perceptual world of the infant in the mid-1960s. Methodological highlights in the study of vision and audition are covered. (RJC)

Examines the ability to differentiate appearance-reality and Level Two perspective-taking in tactile modality among a total of 92 children aged two-four years in three studies. The results indicate that three-year-olds find tactile appearance-reality and Level Two perspective-taking tasks easier than visual ones. (RJC)

Two experiments examined children's ability to use lengths of lines on a page to show orientations of object surfaces. Found that five- and six-year olds are more reluctant to depart from actual object proportions than seven- and eight-year olds, but children in both age groups can foreshorten line lengths to indicate surfaces receding from a…

Two studies investigated the effect of age on memory for visual and spatial information. Five to 10 year olds were asked to reconstruct a previously seen spatial arrangement of objects. The association between an object's identity and its location was weaker for younger than for older children. (LB)

Assessed infants' detection of relative motion between a target and its surrounding static reference features in two experiments. Found evidence for 8- and 20-week-olds' detection of a moving target, and a target and surrounding reference features moving in opposite directions. Twenty-week-olds detected a target that moved faster and in the same…

Investigated 4-6 year olds' ability to compare the distances covered by a direct and an indirect route to a location. Although many children believed that both routes covered the same distance, about 40% of the four year olds could explain why the direct route was shorter. (MDM)

Two experiments studied whether and how 5-year-olds integrate single facial features to identify faces. Results indicated that children could evaluate and integrate information from eye and mouth features to identify a face when salience of features was varied. A weighted Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception fit better than a Single Channel Model,…

When an object moves behind an occluder and re-emerges, 4-month-old infants perceive trajectory continuity only when the occluder is narrow, raising the question of whether time or distance out of sight is the important constraining variable. One hundred and forty 4-month-olds were tested in five experiments aimed to disambiguate time and distance…

Elementary school children made same-different judgments of prototypes of letterlike forms paired with transforms of these prototypes generated on a dimension either critical or noncritical for object identification. Results challenge the view that dimensions irrelevant in object identification are ignored or not detected in graphic…

Learning characteristics of children with spina bifida (lesions on the spinal cord) are reviewed in the text of a presentation with slides, and the effects of such factors as hospitalization experiences and the presence of hydrocephalus are considered. Characteristics related to intelligence, sensory integration, tactile responsiveness, tactile…