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…

Strategy use, task performance, and perceptions of difficulty were studied for 34 mildly retarded children and 34 who were not retarded. Results showed that retarded children rated tasks more difficult than nonretarded students and responded less well to brief task training. Metacognitive variables predicted recall performance independently of…

In a study of drawing development, children's and adults' drawings of cubes were classified into drawing types. Differences between children's and adults' drawings suggest that younger children use a similarity geometry with feature-based criteria, whereas older children and adults use a vantage-point geometry that includes direction-based…

College students listened to recordings of infant cries that varied in the duration of crying sounds and of pauses between crying sounds. Results indicated that the shorter the duration of the pause the more informative, arousing, and aversive was the cry in the judgment of the students. (BC)

Six experiments with 145 adult student subjects were performed to determine whether texture segregation and grouping by similarity are perceived under conditions of inattention. Results establish that neither is accomplished under conditions of inattention, indicating that there is an earlier stage of processing than that called preattentive. (SLD)

Results of 3 experiments indicated that 12 month olds, but not 8 and 10 month olds, looked longer at objects of a different shape from test objects than at the test objects. Twelve month olds recognized rectilinear, but not curvilinear, forms. They recognized differences in forms for three-dimensional, but not two-dimensional, objects. (BC)

Presented in the form of a debate and rebuttals are both sides of the issue, first stated by Lord Brougham in 1820, of a client's legal and moral rights to his counsel's total support. It is concluded that advocacy in law does not carry some special authority or excuse the lawyer from accepting moral responsibility for his professional choices.…

A cell-by-cell analysis of finger movements of 16 blind adolescent braille readers was conducted to separate, catalog, and measure the components of scanning movements across braille cells as a function of reading proficiency. Results confirmed the superiority of bimanual reading and suggested that the two hands may perform different functions.…

Used data from National Survey of Families and Households to examine stepfathers' (n=195) perceptions about stepfather role and relationship with their oldest minor stepchild living at home. Stepfathers with more fatherlike perceptions, socialization values emphasizing conformity to external authority and obedience, and wife/partner with positive…

Groups of 10 and 15 year olds were shown a capital letter visual stimulus followed by a masking grid pattern. Sensory transmission time was the same in both groups. Older children showed a greater rate of information accrual and a greater amount of information extraction than did members of the younger group. (BC)

Likens the role of a public relations practitioner to that of a lawyer, as an advocate in an adversarial society. Argues that this role justifies the distribution of "selective truth," relieves the public person from the obligation to tell "objective truth," allows for ethical persuasion, but does not delineate the parameters of ethical behavior.…

Finds that perceptual identification of target words explicitly presented was significantly higher than that of new targets and that targets inferred to maintain coherence and targets predicted by the text were identified as well as explicit targets and significantly better than targets schematically appropriate to the text. (SR)

James J. Gibson (1954) viewed perception as a system that picks up information which supports coordination of the agent's actions with the systems the environment provides. This led him to develop the idea of affordances, characteristics of objects and the environment that support their contributions to interactive activity. (SLD)

Compares probabilistic models of same-different and identification judgments concerning their sensitivity to perceptual dependence or the degree to which underlying psychological dimensions are correlated. Results support a perceptual independence assumption when using these models and pertain to studies of different decision rules used at…

Three experiments with 29 college students and 8 members of a university community demonstrate that shape recognition processes influence perceived figure-ground relationships in 3-dimensional displays when the edge between 2 potential figural regions is both a luminance contrast edge and a disparity edge. Implications for shape recognition and…