ADAPTIVE ATTENDING BEHAVIOR: MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN

描述：这项提案是为了继续支持 一项研究探索了视觉结构和 智障和非智障个体的注意功能。 因为多元素刺激阵列的基本属性本质上是 关系，并且嵌入在无处不在的环境上下文中， 检测类似相似/不相似的相互刺激关系的能力是 对于适应性注意功能来说是必不可少的。尽管孩子们都有 低智龄(包括智障儿童和非智障儿童) 通常在以下任务中表现出明显不足的表现 关系回应，目前的调查人员已经证明 对可视化数组进行适当修改，旨在增加 相关刺激关系的知觉突显，可以迅速 促进弱智人士在这方面的表现 实验背景。根据获得的关于以下方面的调查结果 知觉结构对刺激检测的影响 现在提议将他们的方法扩展到几个新的范例，包括 (A)将奇特方法和样本匹配方法结合起来，以及(B) 智力低下者视觉加工能力的评估 处于关键的注意前阶段。这是一个基于感知的“前端” “引导”注意力的方法是基于已经被 在许多以前的研究中成功地使用，特别是在当前的研究中 调查人员。拟议的研究涉及审查一系列 共享共同感知变量(例如，对称性)的实验环境 和邻接性)，并评估这些变量对 有注意和无注意个体的注意和前注意加工 精神发育迟滞。拟议研究的结果预计将 告知有关注意的应用和理论问题 精神发育迟滞个体的功能。 拟议中的实验包括一项奇特和 与样本匹配的方法(即，基于奇异性的比较数组) 对泛化绩效的影响以及将该范例扩展到 匹配/奇数中集合大小和空间邻接性的研究 框架。在样本匹配范例中，刺激变量包括 刺激结构、刺激模式的对称性和元素的邻接性 将调查和分析刺激之间的关系 将进行检查时间和刺激变量。实验： 提出了解决元素刺激变量的视觉搜索 邻接性和对称性，并随后对引导的 搜索。建议的其余实验使用随机点运动图 也要评估运动定义形式的刺激组织变量 由于训练对检测和运动方向的影响 歧视。

DESCRIPTION: This proposal is for continued support for a program of research that has explored the relationship between visual structure and attentional functioning in mentally retarded and nonretarded individuals. Because basic properties of multi-element stimulus arrays are intrinsically relational and are embedded in ubiquitous environmental contexts, the ability to detect interstimulus relations like similarity/dissimilarity is essential for adaptive attentional functioning. Although children who have low mental ages (both mentally retarded and young nonretarded children) typically exhibit markedly deficient performances on tasks that demand relational responding, the present investigators have demonstrated that appropriate modifications of the visual array, designed to increase the perceptual salience of relevant stimulus relationships, can rapidly facilitate the performances of mentally retarded individuals in such experimental contexts. Informed by the findings obtained concerning the effects of perceptual structure on stimulus detection, the investigators are now proposing to extend their approach to several new paradigms, including (a) an integration of oddity and match-to-sample methodologies, and (b) assessing the visual processing abilities of mentally retarded individuals at the critical preattentional stage. This "front-end" perceptually-based approach of "guiding" attention is based on manipulations that have been used successfully in much prior research, particularly that of the current investigators. The proposed studies involve an examination of a range of experimental contexts that share common perceptual variables (e.g., symmetry and contiguity), and assess the relative contribution of these variables to attentional and preattentional processing in individuals with and without mental retardation. The findings of the proposed studies are expected to inform both applied and theoretical issues with respect to the attentional functioning of individuals with mental retardation. The proposed experiments include an integration of oddity and match-to-sample methods (i. e., oddity-based comparison arrays) with implications for generalized performances and extension of that paradigm to the investigation of set size and spatial contiguity in the matching/oddity framework. In a match-to-sample paradigm, stimulus variables including stimulus structure, symmetry of stimulus pattern, and adjacency of elements will be investigated and an analysis of the relationship between stimulus inspection time and stimulus variables will be conducted. Experiments on visual search are proposed that address stimulus variables of element contiguity and symmetry, and are followed by an investigation of guided search. The remaining experiments proposed utilize random dot kinematograms to evaluate stimulus organization variables in motion-defined forms, as well as the influences of training on detection and motion direction discrimination.