Holistic processing of faces is characterized by encoding of the face as a single stimulus. This study employed a composite face task to examine whether holistic processing varies when attention is restricted to the top as compared to the bottom half of the face, and whether evidence of holistic processing would be observed in event-related…

Children aged 2 and 3 years were exposed to a novel paradigm designed to train visual perception skills. The results indicate that children of this age could be trained to perform both percept deprivation and percept diagnosis tasks. Results are discussed with reference to engagement, a precursor to an adult-like understanding of perception.

Evidence suggests that visual processing is divided into the dorsal ("how") and ventral ("what") streams. We examined the normal development of these streams and their breakdown under neurological deficit by comparing performance of normally developing children and Williams syndrome individuals on two tasks: a visually guided action ("how") task,…

An experiment with monochromatic lights is discussed in terms of the selective effects of wavelength on looking time and pleasantness, comparisons of infant and adult data, and differentiation of the selective effects of color category centers and color category boundaries. (JMB)

Two experiments were conducted to demonstrate that human infants 3 months of age perceive color in a normal, trichromatic manner. Results from these studies of the neutral zone and hue discrimination evidence trichromatic vision in infancy and are discussed in the context of their clinical, social, and intellectual implications. (Author/SB)

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the development of visual accommodation in one- to three-month-old infants. Accommodation responses and pupil diameters were measured at various stimulus distances. Results suggest that changes in depth of focus in the first three months are largely responsible for growth in accommodation. (Author/SS)

The present study examined two key aspects of young children's ability to explain human behaviour in a mentalistic way. First, we explored desires that are of a level of difficulty comparable with that of false beliefs. For this purpose, the so-called "alternative desires" were created. Second, we examined how children's psychological…

This study tested the hypothesis that newborns selectively orient toward angular elements in their visual field. Subjects were 36 awake and alert infants under 6 days of age. For each newborn, the study compared visual attention to three separately presented stimulus patterns: a complete outline triangle, only the sides of this triangle, and only…

A study investigated how children between ages 5 and 11 perceive three types of film transition. A second purpose was to determine if there was an emergent recognition pattern among these three types of film transition devices: image magnification on a cut (a camera transition), lap dissolve (an optical transition), and clean exit (a subject…

Corneal infrared photography was used to record the visual fixations of 24 infants (4-6 weeks and 10-12 weeks) exposed to simple geometric figures. The results are discussed in relation to developmental changes in responsiveness to visual figures and in increasing ability to process information. (JMB)

The relation between Matching Familiar Figures Test performance and Piaget's construct of perceptual activity was examined with 48 third- and fourth-grade boys. (SB)

The analysis of I-scale preference orders of 71 infants (2 to 9 months old) to four face-like stimuli suggested a common J-scale stimulus ordering for each of four age groups. Changes in I-scale frequencies were used as a measure of age-related changes in preference orders. (MS)

In three experiments, three- and four-year olds were asked to map relative size from one array of objects to another, map relative size to relative proportion, and map relative size to a variety of perceptual dimensions. Children were able to make relational mappings based on size when spatial positions and concrete representations of size of…