This study examined the effectiveness of using "subject-performed tasks" to improve memory efficiency of eight autistic children. The procedure involved instructing children to carry out and later remember a series of actions. The procedure's effectiveness was attributed to autistic subjects' lack of verbal encoding strategies and…

Two studies examined executive functions in children with autism. Results indicated that subjects performed like normally developing children when either no arbitrary and novel rules were involved or the output was verbal. Results support the hypothesis that these children are challenged by executive tasks because they are unlikely to encode rules…

Proposes a theory of social cognition to account for the comprehension and verification of social information. The theory views comprehension as a process of constructing situation models of new information on the basis of previously formed models about its referents. The comprehension of both single statements and multiple pieces of information…

A common cellular alteration, reduced post-burst afterhyperpolarization (AHP) in CA1 neurons, is associated with acquisition of the hippocampus-dependent tasks trace eyeblink conditioning and the Morris water maze. As a similar increase in excitability is correlated with these two learning paradigms, we sought to determine the interactive…

To provide practice for newly acquired assertiveness skills, leaders have stressed the importance of role playing. This emphasis on verbal exchange sometimes causes the attrition of quiet, introspective participants. This program suggests that art exercises activate the imagination and provide nonverbal methods of practice. (Author/BL)

Three studies examining the effects of correspondence training (reinforcement for matching verbal and nonverbal behavior) with 22 mildly and moderately retarded students revealed that the approach can be used to decrease maladaptive and increase adaptive behavior and that it can produce generalized behavior change. (CL)

Maze learning was used with preschool children to test the hypothesis that the hippocampus (a distinctive cortical structure) in the human brain matures at about four to five years of age. (JMB)

Findings confirmed that whereas six- to eight-month-old infants revealed reliable acquisition under immediate reinforcement, a three-second delay precluded response acquisition, as did six-second and ten-second delay of reinforcement. A modified delayed-reinforcement scheduling procedure enabled a previous methodological criticism to be…

This study examined conceptual relationships in semantic memory using an indirect priming technique in high-functioning autistic adolescents and controls. The autistic subjects and controls showed similar semantic priming effects. However, correlations with nonverbal cognitive measures for the autistic subjects suggests that semantic processing in…

Combined activation of dopamine D1- and NMDA-glutamate receptors in the nucleus accumbens has been strongly implicated in instrumental learning, the process in which an individual learns that a specific action has a wanted outcome. To assess dopaminergic activity, we presented rats with two sessions (30 trials each) of a one-lever appetitive…

The cannabinoid CB1 receptor has been shown to be critically involved in the extinction of fear memory. Systemic injection of a CB1 receptor antagonist prior to extinction training blocked extinction. Conversely, administration of the cannabinoid uptake inhibitor AM404 facilitated extinction in a dose-dependent manner. Here we show that bilateral…

In two studies of verbal instruction of young mentally retarded adults, increasing the speed of verbal instruction reduced the level of nonverbal performance, particulary in subjects with poor nonverbal scores. Slight increases in speed of instruction can have major and negative impacts. Redundancy in verbal instruction inhibits nonverbal…

Challenges the identification of literacy with intelligence and abstract reasoning ability. Suggests nonverbal projects as a way of broadening the definition of intelligence in the English classroom. A bibliography is included. (DF)

Describes characteristics of students with nonverbal learning disorders and offers teachers suggestions for helping them work with students with these disabilities. Includes story of one nonverbal learning-disabled student's school experience. (PKP)

Nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) are characterized by weaknesses in narrative discourse. Thirty-three children (M age=11.7 years), 15 girls and 18 boys, listened to stories to evaluate their narrative comprehension and retelling abilities. Children with NLD (n=11) performed as poorly as children with verbal impairment (n=10) on all narrative…