In this article, the author responds to a teacher's request for an advice on how to help a 5-year-old child in her class who has difficulty moving from place to place. The author states that the child has a problem on processing information and sensations that have to do with what he sees. This is called "visual-spatial processing" or…

Background: For many years, and especially since Waynbaum and Wallon, psychology and psychopathology have dealt with cognitive perception, but have had little to do with the affective qualities of perception. Our aim was to study the influence of the sensory environment on people with autism. Method: Several experiments were carried out using…

We proposed that mitral cell [beta]1-adrenoceptor activation mediates rat pup odor preference learning. Here we evaluate [beta]1-, [beta]2-, [alpha]1-, and [alpha]2-adrenoceptor agonists in such learning. The [beta]1-adrenoceptor agonist, dobutamine, and the [alpha]1-adrenoceptor agonist, phenylephrine, induced learning, and both exhibited an…

The human brain is not a passive organ simply waiting to be activated by external stimuli. Instead, we propose that the brain continuously employs memory of past experiences to interpret sensory information and predict the immediately relevant future. The basic elements of this proposal include analogical mapping, associative representations and…

This study compares the tendency for numerals to elicit spontaneous perceptions of colour or taste (synaesthesia) with the tendency to visualise numbers as occupying particular visuo-spatial configurations (number forms). The prevalence of number forms was found to be significantly higher in synaesthetes experiencing colour compared both to…

It has been proposed that infants can form global categories such as animate and inanimate objects (Mandler, 2004). The inductive generalization paradigm was used to examine inferences made by infants about the bodily, motion, and sensory capabilities of people and animals. In Experiment 1, 14-month-old infants generalized bodily and sensory…

A critical review of the theoretical basis and empirical results of the frequency accrual speed test (FAST) developed by D. Vickers and others (1993) leads to the conclusion that the FAST is not appropriately described as an alternative to the inspection time (IT) task, and that results from FAST are not generalizable to IT. (SLD)

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…

The author partially describes a few of the immanent qualities of dreaming imagery and metaphor. The concept of the ineluctable modality is introduced to illustrate the spontaneous synthesizing of cognitive and noncognitive elements. A short dream excerpt is shared to clarify the pervasive contrapuntallike depth of dreaming imagery. (Author/SJL)

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…

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)

Examines the specific problems of roof support in coal mines to construct a theoretical framework that describes how texts represent information that is embodied, sensory, and uncertain. Raises ethical questions about (1) textbook notions of instructions as systematic procedures designed to produce predictable outcomes; (2) limits of particular…

Fetal and infant rats can learn to avoid odors paired with illness before development of brain areas supporting this learning in adults, suggesting an alternate learning circuit. Here we begin to document the transition from the infant to adult neural circuit underlying odor-malaise avoidance learning using LiCl (0.3 M; 1% of body weight, ip) and…

Reasserts view that there can be emotional or affective arousal without prior cognitive appraisal. Criticizes Lazarus's rejection of this view on the grounds that it presents no empirical evidence, is based on an arbitrary definition of emotion, and obliterates all distinctions between cognition, sensation, and perception. (CMG)

Responds to Zajonc's criticism of author's own belief in primacy of cognition by defining what he means by "emotion" and discussing whether sensory preferences can be regarded as emotions. Says that the evidence Zajonc presents to supporting his claim for the primacy of emotion and its independence from cognition is specious. (CMG)