Children, ages 7 and 11, were asked to manipulate strips of cardboard into outlines of ideas and objects. Responses were categorized to show if novel configurations appeared and developed and if this phenomenon was a function of creative thinking as measured by Torrance's Figural Test, Form B. (Author/SJL)

The study explored the concept of space through the tactual discrimination of household objects in 48 4-to-7-year-old blind, partially sighted, and sighted children. (PHR)

Three third graders with a history of low achievement in math were first given verbal (abstract) instruction in solving word problems. Students were then introduced to manipulatives instruction using Cuisenaire rods to set up word problems. Students exhibited immediate and sustained improvement on subsequent probes administered without…

The authors examined the prioritization of abruptly appearing objects in real-world scenes by measuring the eyes' propensity to be directed to the new object. New objects were fixated more often than chance whether they appeared during fixations (transient onsets) or saccades (nontransient onsets). However, onsets that appeared during fixations…

Braking to avoid a collision can be controlled by keeping the deceleration required to stop (i.e., ideal deceleration) in the "safe" region below maximum deceleration, but maximum deceleration is not optically specified and can vary as conditions change. When brake strength was manipulated between participants using a simulated braking task, the…

False memories are often demonstrated using the misinformation paradigm, in which a person's recollection of a witnessed event is altered after exposure to misinformation about the event. The neural basis of this phenomenon, however, remains unknown. The authors used fMRI to investigate encoding processes during the viewing of an event and…

Describes an activity to create squares by placing different numbers of tangram pieces together. Discusses why the combination of six tangram pieces can not create a square. Presents diagrams of the tangram pieces and the squares made. (YP)

Two experiments show that action alters the shape categories formed by 2-year-olds. Experiment 1 shows that moving an object horizontally (or vertically) defines the horizontal (or vertical) axis as the main axis of elongation and systematically changes the range of shapes seen as similar. Experiment 2 shows that moving an object symmetrically (or…

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether playing a specific ball sport, such as tennis, could maintain the coincidence-timing (CT) performance of older adults at a similar level to that of younger ones. To address this question, tennis players and nonplayers of three different age ranges (ages 20-30, 60-70, and 70-80 years)…

The "visual world paradigm" typically involves presenting participants with a visual scene and recording eye movements as they either hear an instruction to manipulate objects in the scene or as they listen to a description of what may happen to those objects. In this study, participants heard each target sentence only after the corresponding…

Explores the relation between the infant's ability to negotiate the environment and the quality of the infant-mother attachment relationship. (HOD)

Tests hypotheses that social and object skills can be equated for cognitive complexity and that correlations between measures organized according to levels are high for all samples spanning the developmental range. Cognitive levels of both object and social skills were assessed for 50 normal and 34 handicapped children. Hypotheses were confirmed.…

Depending on age and the demands of the task, people may use different processing strategies in object categorization. Three-year-olds used a wholistic approach with strong effects of object typicality on three categorization tasks. Older children and adults showed differential effects of typicality, suggesting various strategies including…

Various counting tasks were presented to 24 congenitally, totally blind children, aged 3-13, to determine the behaviors employed to ensure accurate counting. Three dimensions of tactile strategies were found, including "scanning,""organizing," and "partitioning." A developmental progression in the ontogenesis of each…

Examined whether 2-year-olds can learn a novel part name of an unfamiliar object when adult demonstrates action upon object. Asked 24 Japanese 2-year-olds to choose referent for a whole object and part of the object in forced choice tests. Found that young children are able to override whole object assumption when actions of parts of objects are…