Four severely retarded and four nonretarded adolescents learned compound discriminations in the haptic (touch) modality using D. Ray's conflict-compound procedure. Subjects evinced selective attention effects in posttraining tests conducted in the haptic modality. Visual transfer tests revealed the effects of conflict-compound discrimination…

Three studies that investigate the effect of information on teachers' stereotypic perceptions and on their evaluations and expectations of students are reported. The results of the studies indicate that teachers differentially evaluate individuals on the basis of cues of sex or ethnic origin. (Author/PN)

Argues that knowing how infants process speech is a prerequisite to any definition of linguistic experience and therefore, the discrimination paradigm does not provide a test for the effect of experience on infants' speech discrimination. Outlines conditions to be met in order to conclude an effect of experience. (EKN)

Measured children's identification with and perceived reality of television characters and children's rating of peers on 11 traits. Found, among other results, that identification with television characters was a significant predictor of the mean evaluation of peers, and that television viewing was a significant predictor of the variance in…

Two studies investigated how components of speaking rate, articulation rate and pause rate, combine to influence processing of the silence-duration cue for the voicing distinction in medial stop consonants. Listeners adjust for both articulation rate and pause rate changes in articulation rate had more effect on phonetic judgments. (Author/RD)

Describes how role-playing is used to get high school students involved in the critical reading of novels like Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native." (RL)

Examines visual cognitive processes having to do with perception, the assimilation of new information, and learning by analogy, and identifies instructional strategies to control each process. Discussion of relationships between visual learning and instruction includes implications for research and design. An extensive bibliography is provided.…

Examines the differences in visual and pictorial conventions between people in less technologically developed countries and those in the industrialized European sphere. The implications of these differences are assessed in light of cultural factors rooted in both geographic location and level of technological development. (MER)

Two experiments examined the perceptual processing of letters embedded within one- and two-syllable words and visually similar nonwords. Results suggest that (1) the size of compelling perceptual units seems limited, and (2) unit size is not necessarily related to the correspondence between letter order and pronounceability. (Author/BW)

Using data on 682 couples from a national probability sample, demonstrated that a wife's perception of her husband's attitude toward her employment is moderately inconsistent with the husband's actual attitude. Found several couple characteristics significantly affect the level of inconsistency, indicating degree of couple communication. (Author)

Investigated dimensions along which self-analytic group sessions vary. Identified three common dimensions: evaluation, potency, and activity. Used dimensions to describe phases of group development and individual differences in the perception of group sessions. (RC)

Examined role expectations and realities among Italian-American, single, older women and their daughters. Found the quality of the relationships quite high. Results showed high consensus for the expectations and realities. A greater number of specific resources were expected and received of daughters. (Author)

An awareness of negative effects of mind set is promoted, and ways to minimize harmful sets are suggested. Visual perception, Eistelung effect, and functional fixedness are discussed as categories of potentially negative mind sets, with several examples given of each. Fixation combinations are noted as well. (MP)

The role of assignment rationale on the attitudinal effects of peer tutoring is examined. Tutors had more positive attitudes than tutees when they had been given a competence or physical characteristic rationale but not when the tutors were provided a chance rationale or no rationale. (Author/GK)

Three experiments studied the perception of tone sequences. Ratings of perceived structure and ease of recognition in transposition were both influenced by harmonic progression, the contour, and the excursion or repetition pattern within the sequence. Results are described in terms of the abstraction and analysis of levels of pitch relations.…