This study investigated the effects of two stimulus manipulations (spatial distinctness and number of dimensions) on the performance of 24 kindergartners and 24 fifth graders in (1) tasks requiring distributed attention and (2) tasks requiring selective attention. Results suggest that kindergartners attempt to use one processing mode (distributed…

Seventeen preschool children were administered two color-discrimination pretests, verbal and nonverbal. The five children who scored lowest were chosen to recieve the color program. Four scored elow 85 percent on the nonverbal pretest, whereas the other 12 children scored above 85 percent. On the verbal pretest, all five experimental subjects…

This study examines some variables that may affect two aspects of syntax in Head Start children; the use of descriptors and the use of complete sentences. Thirty-six children were assigned to six experimental conditions in a design which varied adult verbal modeling, feedback, and sex. Children given adult verbal modeling produced significantly…

Results revealed that (1) relevant verbal experience facilitated learning only for preschoolers, (2) irrelevant verbal experience did not interfere with learning, and (3) visual highlighting exerted no significant effects. (Author/MB)

Two experiments explored the nature of perceptual development in 5- and 10-year olds and adults. The primary finding was that preassessed salience significantly influenced 5-year olds' ability to discriminate two objects, while salience did not affect 10-year olds' or adults' response times. Results showed that salience effects in perceptual…

Children often perseverate, repeating prior behaviors when inappropriate. This work tested the roles of verbal labels and stimulus novelty in such perseveration. Three-year-old children sorted cards by one rule and were then instructed to switch to a second rule. In a basic condition, cards had familiar shapes and colors and both rules were stated…

Three studies explore the development of discrimination and memory for symmetry in preschoolers four to six years of age. Issues addressed include the young child's ability to discriminate and reproduce symmetry, and the effects of pattern orientation and complexity on the young child's symmetry discrimination and reproduction. Results indicate…

Overselective attention in discrimination between picture cards was investigated with three groups of children with different IQ levels: 10 severely retarded (IQ = 29 - 51, CA = 9.6 - 18 years), 10 moderately retarded (IQ = 56 - 85, CA = 12.8 - 16.3 years), and 10 non-retarded (CA = 10 - 12 years). (Author/IM)

In two studies with 50 male and 50 female undergraduates, differences in learning highly interfering paired-associate discrimination tasks were compared with or without visual mediational cues and with aural cues only. Visual mediational instruction reduced interference between similar signals and facilitated their association with the correct…

This study was designed to investigate the effects of modeling or training with and without rule provision on the employment of strategies in solving four-dimensional, discrimination-learning problems. Subjects were 144 second and sixth-grade children from the New York City Public Schools. The blank-trial hypothesis testing paradigm was used. The…

Six same-different matching tests, both verbal and nonverbal in three modalities along with a set of reading tests, were administered to 120 Israeli children in second, third and fourth grade. (MS)

Four-, five-, and six-year-old children were used as subjects in this investigation. There were 192 experimental and 96 control children used, divided equally between the three age groups. The experimental children received a 1-minute pretest exposure procedure in which 1/4 of the children observed 4 two-dimensional stimuli (irregular pentagons),…

This study was designed to examine the effects of age and sex on susceptibility to field dependence training and to determine whether the field dependence phenomenon is a function of cognitive style or of a general inability to make correct judgments because of confusing and inaccurate information. (MS)

This study investigated attention to and recognition of components in compound stimuli among infants and preschoolers. Oddity tasks with preschoolers and familiarization/novelty-preference tasks with infants demonstrated successful discrimination among stimuli components on basis of edge property information. Matching tasks with preschoolers and…

This experimental study has three aims: (1) to give a detailed description of imitative behavior as it develops during the first six months of life; (2) to compare imitative responses perceived through visual, kinesthetic and auditory modalities; and (3) to describe and explain the regulating mechanisms and processes present in the early…