VISUAL PERCEPTION ABILITIES--INDIVIDUALS WITH SEVERE INTELLECT DISABILITIES

这项申请寻求支持一项为期五年的关于严重智力残疾个人视觉感知技能的研究。目的是确定知觉上的困难对辨别性学习的影响程度。在上一个赠款期间完成的工作产生了一套有效、综合的方法，用于评估和教授难以教授的人群的相同/不同判断。到目前为止，使用的刺激是在几个维度上不同的形式。在目前的项目中，我们询问参与者是否有能力区分彼此更相似的刺激(即，在较少维度上不同的刺激)。如果参与者要对印刷字母(例如，m和n)或数字等抽象刺激做出不同的反应，做出这种区分的能力是必不可少的。(例如，3比8)。为了做出相对精细的辨别，必须检测(感知)具有决定性的刺激差异。然而，直到最近，描述严重残疾个人感知能力的方法学基础还不存在。我们的工作已经确立了这一潜力，并直接导致了目前的提案。总而言之，我们未来五年的计划是详细阐述和扩展我们开发的程序，以便对严重发育迟缓和语言技能有限的人进行第一次真正的视觉感知理解。

This application seeks support for a five-year study of visual perceptual skills in individuals who have severe intellectual disabilities. The goal is to determine the extent to which difficulties in perception affect discrimination learning. Work accomplished during the previous grant period has resulted in an effective, integrated set of methods for assessing and teaching same/different judgements with difficult-to-teach populations. Stimuli used thus far have been forms which differed along several dimensions. In the current project, we ask whether participants are capable of discriminating stimuli that are more similar to one another (i.e., that differ along fewer dimensions). The ability to make such discriminations is essential if participants are to respond differentially to abstract stimuli such as printed letters (e.g., m versus n) or numbers. (e.g., 3 versus 8). To make thee relatively fine discriminations, the defining stimulus differences must be detected (perceived). Until recently, however, the methodological foundation for profiling the perceptual abilities of individuals with severe disabilities did not exist. Our work has established this potential and led directly to the current proposal. In overview, our plan for the next five years is to elaborate and extend procedures we have developed in order to conduct the first truly comprehension of visual perception in individuals with severe retardation and limited language skills.