Tested the model which posits that heart-rate deceleration and respiratory sinus arrhythmia are indices of infant attention. Infants studied cross-sectionally at 14, 20, and 26 weeks of age were presented with complex patterns on a TV screen which were accompanied by an "interrupting stumulus". (Author/BN)

Habituation to single female faces and to single geometric patterns was observed separately in two groups of infants who participated in two sessions separated by 10 days. Habituation was found to be distributed into three patterns and showed moderate but significant reliability between assessment sessions. (Author/RH)

Three experiments tested for developmental changes in attention to auditory and visual signals. Results showed that adults and seven-year-olds tended to allocate their attention to vision rather than audition when no precue was provided. While not entirely consistent, results with four-year-olds suggested a similar biasing of attention to vision.…

Results of a study involving 30 infants of 14, 20, or 26 weeks confirm the existence of distinct developmental phases of attention during the visual preference procedure. Findings suggest a refinement of the use of fixation duration as the major dependent variable in the procedure. (RH)

An experiment was designed to demonstrate that infants as young as 3 months of age would show face/voice coordination in matched and mismatched conditions if exposure trials were extended to 1 minute in duration. A total of 16 infants participated in each of four experimental conditions. Conditions were (1) mother present with mother's voice…

Preschool children's evaluation and integration of visual and auditory information in speech perception was compared with that of adults. Results were used to test current views of the development of perceptual categorization and speech perception. (Author/RH)

Tests infants' dual-process performance (a process mediating response decrements called habituation and a state-dependent process mediating response increments called sensitization) on visual habituation-dishabituation tasks. (HOD)

Experiments were conducted on the speed of encoding differences between 15 school-age individuals with and 15 individuals without mental retardation, while retaining a full memory load or half memory load. Subjects with mental retardation allocated fewer attentional resources to encoding, even though encoding may require more of their resources…

Examines differences in habituation in a visual attention task as a function of chronological age, mental age, and handicapping condition. Subjects were 102 children who ranged in age from 3 to 36 months and who were classified as Down Syndrome, cerebral palsied, developmentally delayed, or multiply handicapped. (Author/RH)

Thirty young and 10 elderly adults were assessed on orienting auditory attention, in a mixed-modal condition in which stimuli were either auditory or visual. Findings suggest that the mechanisms involved in orienting attention operate in audition and that individuals may allocate their processing resources among multiple sensory pools. (Author/JDD)

Describes seven learning techniques that cognitive psychologists have identified as leading to substantially heightened learning across a variety of situations: attention; curiosity and learning; thematic lesson organization; high information flow; mnemonics; concrete representations; and Zeigarnik effect. Research on their effectiveness and their…