The study was undertaken to evaluate the nature of sensory dysfunction in persons with autism. The cross-sectional study examined auditory, visual, oral, and touch sensory processing, as measured by the Sensory Profile, in 104 persons with a diagnosis of autism, 3-56 years of age, gender- and age-matched to community controls. Persons with autism…

Four major types of interaction of stimulus dimensions based on perceptual research are described: integral, configural, separable, and asymmetric separable. Implications of these interactions for concept and choice processes are discussed. (Author/DEP)

Many studies in visual face recognition have supported a special role for the right fusiform gyrus. Despite the fact that faces can also be recognized haptically, little is known about the neural correlates of haptic face recognition. In the current fMRI study, neurologically intact participants were intensively trained to identify specific…

This study examined the relationship between auditory, visual, touch, and oral sensory dysfunction in autism and their relationship to multisensory dysfunction and severity of autism. The Sensory Profile was completed on 104 persons with a diagnosis of autism, 3 to 56 years of age. Analysis showed a significant correlation between the different…

Aesthetic sensitivity is present in children to varying degrees, but creativity emerges and develops with intelligent assessment of aesthetic experiences. (JD)

An experiment with 66 six-year-old children showed that children asked more and better questions about unfamiliar objects (toys) when they had been given an opportunity to manipulate them than when they saw only demonstrations of the toys. (NH)

The Haptic Visual Discrimination Test of tactual-visual information processing was administered to 39 first-graders, along with standard intelligence, academic potential, and spatial integration tests. Results revealed consistently significant associations between the importance of parieto-occipital areas for organizing sensory data as well as for…

Sighted subjects assembled puzzles under separate conditions of visual-haptic perception and used vision and touch simultaneously to illustrate visual-type involvement and links in haptic encoding processes. A cognitive component in perceptions was found. When visual input was inadequate or independent of haptic perception, tactual information was…

Two experiments were conducted to investigate six-month-old infants' recognition memory for the shape of an object following unimodal (visual) and bimodal (visual and haptic) familiarization. Visual recognition memory was evident only when the conditions of familiarization and testing were identical. Two possible explanations are presented and…

Theoretical and empirical issues relating to haptic exploration and the representation of common objects during haptic classification were investigated in 3 experiments involving a total of 112 college students. Results are discussed in terms of a computational model of human haptic object classification with implications for dextrous robot…

This article defines tactile defensiveness as a sensory processing problem that results in aversive responses to touch. The article outlines causes, presents sample behaviors to assist in recognizing the possible presence of this dysfunction in infants and toddlers, and offers suggestions to assist in coping with and seeking appropriate treatment…

A study explored the nature of representational thought in 10 congenitally blind three- to nine-year-olds through interviews during which the subjects defined and described objects and later identified similar objects. Results suggested that blind children should be taught appropriate or systematic methods for tactually obtaining information. (CB)