Effects of test order within Ayres Southern California test battery were studied in 5-, 6- and 7-year old children referred for perceptual motor evaluation.

Twenty-one children ages 6 through 13 were taught to use their hands independently when reading braille to determine how this pattern of hand movements affected reading variables, excluding character recognition. The results strongly suggested that skill in tracking and use of an efficient hand movement pattern is closely tied to perceptual…

Response times among four starting techniques (cross-over step, jab step, standing sprinter's start, and momentum start) were compared. The results suggest that the momentum start was the fastest starting technique for optimum speed in running bases. (FG)

Guidelines are discussed regarding the development and implementation of perceptual motor programs for autistic children. Among suggestions offered are to choose reasonable objectives, use movement to develop child-therapist rapport, emphasize the elements of transfer, use the kinesthetic approach and make use of teachable moments. (CL)

The visual and motor responses to novel and familiar stimuli were measured in twelve 6-month-old infants, using new measures of integration and concordance. Results indicate that the infants' responses to the stimuli were both integrated and concordant. (Author/JMB)

The episodic buffer component of working memory is assumed to play a role in the binding of features into chunks. A series of experiments compared memory for arrays of colors or shapes with memory for bound combinations of these features. Demanding concurrent verbal tasks were used to investigate the role of general attentional processes,…

Using four-dimensional (4D) ultrasonography, arm and hand movements toward the face were examined in 27 human fetuses at 19 to 35 weeks of gestation, thereby enabling the continuous monitoring of their faces and other surface features such as the extremities. More than half of the observed arm movements resulted in the hand touching the mouth…

The two studies reported here sought to discover to what degree tracking activities are supported by the displacement of an object relative to a background in contrast to displacement of the whole field. (Author/RK)

The role of the strength factor in the accomplishment of precision tasks was investigated. Forty adult males weight trained to develop physical strength in several muscle groups, particularly in the elbow flexor area. Results indicate a decrease in incidence of accuracy concurrent with an increase in muscle strength. This suggests that in order to…

R. Martens' hypothesis that an audience acts as a stimulus to elicit arousal or drive in the performance of an individual, which in turn enhances the emission of the dominant habit, is reexamined. Where incorrect responses are dominant, learning of a novel task will be inhibited, or at least improvement will not be as rapid as for individuals…