Showing papers on "Perceptual learning published in 1975"

The Relationship of Selected Visual- Perceptual Abilities to School Learning

Abstract: DONALD D. HAMMILL, Ed.D. Austin, Texas The relationship between certain visualperceptual abilities and school learning has long been a source of interest to educators, many of whom have speculated that deficits in visual perception may cause or, at least, contribute to academic failure. Historically, this assumption has been based upon the clinical experience of various members of the educational community as well as upon some basic research (Barrett, 1965; Bryan, 1964; Frostig & Maslow, 1969; Goins, 1958; Kephart, 1971; Pitcher-Baker, 1973; Rosen, 1966; Wepman, 1964). While visual perception and, in particular, its relationship to school learning have received much attention in professional journals, the educational usefulness of this important theoretical construct has never been fully substantiated. In fact, recent opinion and research have seriously questioned its relevance as a practical correlate of learning failure (Cohen, 1969; Hammill, 1972; Mann, 1970). It is important to note, however, that many school systems throughout the country are still committing large numbers of man hours

Learning to See Complex Random-Dot Stereograms:

Abstract: Many observers of complex random-dot stereograms find that the depth effect takes several seconds, or even minutes, to develop. Julesz (1971) has noted that giving a priori information to such observers about the nature of the ‘hidden’ cyclopean object appears to facilitate their stereopsis. An experiment is reported which investigated this possible facilitation. Naive subjects were shown a complex stereogram following various kinds of preliminary assistance, ranging from simply telling them about the amount of depth they could expect to see to showing them a full-scale model of the cyclopean object. Surprisingly, no benefit from such assistance could be demonstrated. All observers improved their stereopsis perception times with repeated presentations of the stereogram, showing that they could, in principle, benefit from assistance. A follow-up study three weeks later revealed that a substantial part of this improvement was maintained, indicating that the perceptual learning involved can last for a consid...

Intermodal transfer in temporal discrimination

Abstract: This study determined if training for accuracy in temporal discrimination would transfer across sensory modalities. A fractionation method was used in which subjects bisected the durations of acoustic and visual signals at three standard intervals (6, 12, and 18 sec). Absolute error was the performance index. Half of the subjects were trained with acoustic stimuli and then tested in vision; the remainder were trained in vision and tested in audition. Similar negatively accelerated acquisition functions were noted for both modalities. Positive intermodal transfer, characterized by symmetry across modalities, was obtained at all standard durations. The results were considered to provide support for the notion that a common mechanism underlies temporal discriminations in different sensory systems.

Effect of Modality of Instruction on the Learning of Meaningful and Nonmeaningful Material by Auditory and Visual Learners

Abstract: PHYLLIS L. NEWCOMER, Ed.D. University of Texas LIBBY GOODMAN, Ed.D. Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania Special educators have, in general, accepted the premise that many children fail to learn efficiently in school because of modality deficits in processing information. They theorize that children with disabilities relating to the auditory channel benefit little from instructional approaches which are presented primarily auditorally, such as phonics methods to teach reading. Similarly, they feel that children who appear unable to process information presented through the visual channel are likely to experience difficulty if taught by methods which essentially require visual processing ability, such as a &dquo;look-say&dquo; approach to reading. Teachers of children with learning problems are frequently advised by psychodiagnosticians and learning specialists to use the results of modalityrelated diagnostic devices, such as the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) (Kirk, McCarthy, & Kirk. 19681, the Motor Free Test of Visual Perception (Colarusso & Hammill, 1972), and the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (Frostig, Horne, & Lefevre, 1964), among others, to develop ac-

Perceptual training of height and brightness seriation in kindergarten children.

Abstract: A study of seriation was conducted from the perspective of Gibson's theory of perceptual development. Kindergarten children who evidenced little seriation of height or brightness were assigned to either 1 of 3 perceptual training conditions or to a fourth, control condition. Training consisted of nonreinforced same-different judgments to wooden dowels varying in height, or in brightness, or simultaneously in height and brightness. The theoretical rationale for this training was that it would facilitate perception of the stimulus dimension(s) on which the dowels differed. It was found that perceptual training did facilitate seriation, particularly if both the height and brightness dimensions varied simultaneously in training.

Perceptual-learning machines and the brain

Abstract: A short review is given of the necessity for, and evidence of, synaptic facilitation as a mechanism which organises the microcircuitry of the brain as a result of experience. Conditional probability statistics described this process and perceptual learning machines illustrate it. A brief review of animal and machine pattern recognition and learning is given. A simple model is described which simulates learning and pattern recognition. It is suggested that certain brain processes and perceptual learning machines are homologous rather than just analogous.

Cultural differences in perceptual selectivity.

Abstract: Summary Children in India from three different cultural backgrounds—Hindu, Muslim, and US white—were the subjects in a study of perceptual organization under the controlled conditions of perceptual learning With the use of a scheme of monetary reward and punishment it was found that the Hindu and the Muslim children perceived significantly more often than the Americans those aspects of the figure-ground situation which were previously associated with punishment during perceptual learning On the other hand, the American children perceived the reward associated aspects significantly more often than the Hindu and the Muslim children Further, perceptual responses of both the Hindu and the Muslim children were found to be significantly different from the responses of the American children

Method for analyzing serial perceptual-motor responses.

Abstract: (1975). Method for Analyzing Serial Perceptual-Motor Responses. Research Quarterly. American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation: Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 514-516.

"SHAPING" OF FREQUENCY DISCRIh4INATION PERFORMANCE USING ONLY INTRINSIC REINFORCEMENT1

Abstract: St~mmary.-This experiment compared two modes of practice at a difficult frequency discrimination, i.e., one in which the frequency difference was initially correctly discriminated only 65% of the trials in a two-alternative forced-choice task. One group of Ss (N = 13) was assigned to a progressive-practice group, in which the frequency difference to be discriminated was progressively changed from a large, easy, difference to the difficult, small, difference. 'The other group of Ss (N = 13) received the same amount of practice as the first, but all at the difficult discrimination. Only the progressive-practice group improved their discrimination performance. Since no feedback was given, the effect of progressive practice is interpreted as "shaping" Ss' attentional response by virtue of the information provided by the successively more difficult discriminations. This "shaping" process is potentially available as a learning mechanism for other fine discriminations. Ordinary perceptual learning and development proceed without systematic extrinsic reinforcement, i.e., explicit reinforcement for a perception or the response appropriate to it. There is little or no systematic reinforcement of the ability to make fine discriminations, for example, and yet children's ability to do so improves as they get older (E. J. Gibson, 1969). On the assumption that learning requires some sort of reinforcement, it has been argued that the processes of perceptual learning and development are reinforced by their consequences for the perceiver. Various theorists have suggested alternative reinforcers: Woodworth ( 1947) postulated thac clear perceptions are reinforcing because they reduce the effort involved in perceiving; Piaget (1952) postulated thac there is a tendency to assimilate perceptual data to existing perceptual schema, and that doing so is reinforcing; and J. J. Gibson (1966) postulated that perceptual learning involves "tuning the perceptual system" in order to attend maximally to information available in the stimulation and that this attention is itself reinforcing. In this paper we will use the term "intrinsic reinforcement" to refer to any of these consequences or any others the reader can imagine. The aims of the present paper are to demonstrate that intrinsic reinforcement can produce improvement of frequency discrimination and to elucidate the mechanism by which it does so. The perceptual task at which Ss were trained involved discriminating between two tones which were very close in frequency. The training procedure involved "progressive practice" by which is meant a procedure in which a difficult discrimination is taught by progressively

Perceptual Organization in Blind Children.

Abstract: The blind child builds his perceptions from tactual (haptic) and auditory information. Assumptions on the part of professionals that tactual and visual data are identical can result in misconceptio...