THE PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 5 1/2, 6 1/2, AND 7 1/2 YEARS OF AGE ON AN ODDITY PROBLEM UNDER THREE CONDITIONS OF DISTRACTION WAS INVESTIGATED. SUBJECT'S GLANCES AWAY FROM THE TASK WERE RECORDED ALONG WITH THEIR LEARNING DATA. ON THE BASIS OF EARLIER FINDINGS AND AN HYPOTHESIS THAT THE ABILITY OF CHILDREN TO MOBILIZE AND DIRECT THEIR ATTENTION…

Subjects focused attention on actual or imagined stimuli while recording intruding thoughts by pressing a button. Results showed that an internal locus of control was related to fewer intrusions than an external. Actual stimuli resulted in fewer intrusions than imagined stimuli. (Author/BEF)

Mentally retarded and nonretarded adults (n=32) performed visual vigilance tests in which single digits were presented at either a fast or slow rate and the rate shifted without warning. Retarded observers detected fewer targets and made more false alarms than did nonretarded observers in all test conditions. (Author/JDD)

Fifteen autistic and 15 normal Ss were trained to respond to a card containing two visual cues. The children were further tested on the single cues in order to assess whether one or both stimuli had acquired control over their responding. (Editor/RK)

Results support the contention that infant attention should be divided into separate attention-getting and attention-holding processes. (Author)

Compares the effects of the "relative novelty" (Berlyne, 1960) of stimuli on the level of attention and rate of habituation in antisocial and neurotic children. (Author/RK)

Research conducted at Fels Research Institute and supported in part by grants HD-00868, FR-00222, and FR-05537 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Studies of the infant's distribution of attention to stimuli of varying complexity, and of his differential attention to familiar versus novel stimuli (discrepancy), have attempted to shed light on the development of cognitive structures in the non-verbal infant. The subjects have typically been normal infants ages 4 to 6 months. For testing, the…

In the series of experiments supported by this grant, some fundamental characteristics of the concept of attention were explored. The first experiments were based upon the assumption that attention is limited and consequently that adult subjects may only be able to perceive a fairly restricted portion of the stimuli available to them at any moment…

Individual differences in pattern of habituation in fixation time and cardiac change to visual and auditory stimuli are described. Subjects were 94 5- and 10-month-old infants. (Author/MP)