Occupational therapists working in the school system setting report using weighted vests as a technique to improve attention and sensory processing for students who have an autism spectrum disorder. Some critics, however, contend that this technique is used without evidence of effectiveness. This study examines the overall research available on…

Contemporary education theory (and official South African policy) underwrites learner-centredness. I analyse learner-centredness as a possible piece of the puzzle about why it is proving so difficult to improve academic achievement. Learner-centred ideas are grounded in the belief that cognitive abilities develop spontaneously in accordance with a…

Experiencing two odors as a mixture can later increase their perceived similarity when presented separately. Such an increase in similarity can be used as an implicit measure of how well participants remember the mixture. Three experiments tested the resistance to interference of this effect by first giving participants exposure to two 2-odor…

George A. Miller's essay gives a clear account of information theory and demonstrates how the concept of limited channel capacity can be applied across sensory dimensions. Its major influence has been demonstrating that immediate memory span is relatively insensitive to the amount of information per item. (SLD)

Based on converging evidence that visual and olfactory images are key components of food cravings, the authors tested a central prediction of the elaborated intrusion theory of desire, that mutual competition between modality-specific tasks and desire-related imagery can suppress such cravings. In each of Experiments 1 and 2, 90 undergraduate…

Neuropsychological findings relevant to the question of whether visual imagery is visual or perceptual are reviewed and compared to cognitive psychology theories. Imagery does not appear to represent information acquired through visual sensory channels; rather, it seems to use some of the same neural representational machinery as does vision. (SLD)

Current theories and research on distributed activation in sleep are reviewed, and a neurocognitive theory of sleep is presented that is based on distributed activation. Neural and cognitive relationships described by the theory are translated into connectionist models, and simulations are described. (SLD)

A modified version of the perceptual taxonomy applicable to allied health education is presented. Methods concerning application of the taxonomy are suggested. Use of the taxonomy of the perceptual domain is recommended to help allied health educators plan instruction and evaluate teaching. (CT)

Explores the relationship between virtual reality (VR) stimulation and perceptual equivalence. Topics include perceived realism; creating a virtual illusion; displayed realism; and VR as an instructional technology. (Author/AEF)

A model is presented that describes four types of emotion-activating systems, three of which involve noncognitive information processing. The four systems are neural, sensorimotor, motivational, and cognitive. They may be seen as a loosely organized hierarchical arrangement, operating under a number of constraints. (SLD)

As human beings, we can interact with our environment through the sense of touch, which helps us to build an understanding of objects and events. The implications of touch for cognition are recognized by many educators who advocate the use of "hands-on" instruction. But is it possible to know something more completely by touching it? Does touch…

This book is about education harvested from self-observation. F. Matthias Alexander (1869-1955) studied the experience of self formation, working with motor habits. His method is used in performing arts training to enhance bodily and vocal expression. Like Alexander, Konstantine Stanislavski (1863-1938) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) studied human…

Following a brief summary of the ideas and assumptions of L. L. Thurstone's law of comparative judgment, this article reviews the subsequent major developments of this model in the sensory area. The law of comparative judgments is part of the body of work called Thurstonian scaling. (SLD)

A theory of visual information acquisition and visual memory is described that conjoins two models that have been used to describe low-level perceptual and higher level cognitive processes. Six experiments with 21 adult observers generally support the theory, although some weakness is discussed. (SLD)

In this article, we studied the paradigm of observation which has been restructured since the beginning of modern sciences. In order to interpret this observation paradigm, an expression, "observation without seeing" was formulated. It was noticed that our interpretation of the observation depends on our knowledge and experiences. Finally, it was…