To measure how the complexity of a television image affects the viewer's ability to identify or recognize visual details within the image, two coders rated the form complexity of 30 public service announcements, basing their evaluation on the familiarity of the images in the announcements, the rate at which they presented new information, and the…

In a series of four experiments, subjects used scales of loudness, pitch, and brightness to evaluate the meanings of a variety of synesthetic metaphors--expressions in which words or phrases describing experiences proper to one sense modality transfer their meaning to another modality. (Author/PN)

Although numerous studies have indicated that older persons process visual information more slowly than younger persons, the precise nature of age-associated changes in the processing of visually presented information remains unclear. Older adults (N=18) and college students (N=18) performed a visual search task in which lists of words and…

A previous study by Gibson et al. (1972) that investigated the effect of orthographic structure on letter search was replicated and extended in order to identify factors that might explain the apparent discrepancy between their results and those of comparable studies. Experiment one tested whether the discrepancy might be explained by difference…

An experimental test of visual closure based on an information-theory concept of perception was devised to test the ability to discriminate visual stimuli with reduced cues. The test is to be administered in a timed individual situation in which the subject is presented with sets of incomplete drawings of simple objects that he is required to name…

This study investigated the relationship between intramodal and intermodal information processing and performance on traditional age appropriate tests of spatial and perceptual-motor abilities. The ability of 65 normal kindergarten, first grade and second grade children to match to either a tactile or a visual standard was assessed with a modified…

Two experiments investigated perceptual primacy of dimensional and similarity relations in stimulus classifications of younger and older subjects. Results support a differential-sensitivity view of perceptual development which asserts that individuals at all ages primarily perceive and use separate relations. (RWB)

A correlation exists between verbal ability test scores and name identity minus physical identity reaction times in a letter matching task. The present results support Carroll's (1981) suggestion that the reaction time difference is related more to speed than power component of standardized tests and is not optimum for prediction. (Author/RD)

Discusses changes occurring in two-, four-, and six-month-old infants' visual attention span, through a series of experiments examining their ability to orient to peripheral visual stimuli. The results obtained were consistent with the hypothesis that infants get faster with age in shifting attention to a spatial location. (AA)

The effect of stimulus familiarity on the comprehension of polar adjectives by preschool children was examined by administering a perceptual judgment task. The children's ability to indicate the correct object illustrating a particular word was assessed. Antonyms representing opposite dimensions of quantity, height, length, or size were presented.…

This paper reports on the development of the Youth Bends Easily Instrument designed to assess children's attitudes toward human differences. The instrument was commissioned by the Madison Public Schools (Wisconsin) to evaluate the Individual Differences program designed to help primary grade children deal with racial, physical, and social…

Previous research has demonstrated that bizarre imagery facilitates long-term recall of noun pairs. A study investigated the effects of bizarreness when more pronounced delays were used. Subjects, 40 introductory psychology students from Illinois Benedictine College, were shown 30 plausible and 30 bizarre scenes at a viewing distance of…

Individual differences in perceptual information processing were tested using 327 ten year old children, with verbal tasks representing successive information processing and spatial tasks representing simultaneous information processing. Three sets of tasks, (1) visual/reconstruction (V/R), (2) visual/verbal (V/VL), and (3) verbal/reconstruction…