Developmental changes in the encoding of unfamiliar faces was studied in three experiments with Australian 7- to 12-year-old children (N=24 in experiment 1, N=48 in experiment 2, and N=32 in experiment 3). Results showed that younger children encoded unfamiliar faces in terms of striking isolated features and that avoidant children made more…

Discusses how an individual's visual system processes cues to motion in depth. A theoretical model of the operations of the visual system that underlie the perception of motion in depth is included. (HM)

Investigates the dominance of global versus local visual properties in four-month-old infants as a function of individual differences in fixation duration. Suggests that long-looking infants process visual information more slowly than short-looking infants, and there may be qualitative differences in the manner in which the two groups of infants…

Children's use of the middle concept was assessed in two developmental studies. Experiment 1, with kindergarten through fifth-grade students, showed marked improvement in the mastery of the middle concept across elementary grades. In Experiment 2, discrimination pretraining with two nonoverlapping stimulus sets transferred to the novel test…

Investigated degree to which two shape dimensions were represented categorically by children and adults when learning object names. Found that adults accepted names more often to objects that fell within proposed shape boundaries than to objects that crossed boundaries. Children were just as likely to generalize names to novel objects that fell…

Stimulus preference assessments for individuals with developmental disabilities typically involve offering choices among stimuli and providing immediate access to the chosen stimuli. Several researchers have explored the utility of presenting choices verbally, thereby obviating the need to present the choices in tangible form and deliver access to…

In three studies, we investigated to what extent a geometrical representation in a psychological space succeeds in predicting typicality in animal, natural food and artifact concepts and whether contrast categories contribute to the prediction. In Study 1, we compared the predictive value of a family resemblance-based prototype model with a…

This study examined the effects of using either object-form or paper/pencil versions of reading-readiness tests on the test scores of kindergarten children from low, middle, and high socioeconomic strata. Of 453 kindergarten students that were classified into the three socioeconomic strata, 35 boys and 35 girls were randomly selected from each…

Purposes of this study are to determine the effects of (1) preassessed dimensional salience upon performance in a bi-dimensional matching task, and (2) pretraining conditions expected to facilitate bi-dimensional processing. An additional aim was to elucidate a model of development involving changing salience hierarchies by comparing the effects…

This study examined behavioral correlates of the rapid central nervous system changes occurring in the first 4 months of life. It was hypothesized that during the early months of infancy, visual preference would occur as a function of quantitative dimensions of the stimuli (size) which could be mediated at a subcortical level. It was further…

Tests of dimensional dominance with planometric stimuli in either the visual or haptic modality were given to 108 children, 36 from each of the grade levels preschool, kindergarten, and first. Visual dimensions were form and color; haptic dimensions were form and texture. Following initial dominance assessment, one-third of the subjects were…

The present study examines the relationship between alternation behavior and performance, and in addition, the effects of reinforcement configuration and relevant dimension upon the use of alternation strategies in probability learning. Also investigated is the hypothesis that children's errors at terminal levels of performance in a two-choice…

An attempt to isolate possible effects of the application of visual reminders on learning by TV. The underlying assumption was that learning by means of television and other visual media can be enhanced by methodically applying visual reminders. (Author)

Presolution reversal prevented or significantly retarded learning in kindergarten and first-grade children but did not hinder learning in fifth-grade children. (Authors)

Predictions for multidimensional generalization were derived from Hull-Spence learning theory, and an experiment is reported that was designed to test this aspect of the theory. Alternative to this analysis is presented in PS 502 062; authors respond in PS 502 063. (Authors/MB)