The present study was designed to investigate the reliability of the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception with retarded subjects. The Frostig test is divided into five subtests involving visuo-perceptual tasks and measurements. This study computed reliability coefficients on all the subtests as well as on the total scores. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Frostig Developmental test of Visual Perception were also correlated in an attempt to assess an aspect of Frostig validity. The sixty retarded subjects used in this study were divided into groups on the basis of both chronological and mental age, and the test-retest method of reliability assessment was used. The results of this study indicate that the total test scores of the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception are reliable when dealing with the perceptual performance of retarded subjects. The stability of the subtest shows greater variation than does that of the total scores. The subtests of Eye-Motor Coordination and Form Constancy yielded the most variable results and it is evident that with the population studied, these subtests cannot be considered stable enough to be individually, diagnostically, useful. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary correlation with the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception of .537 was significant at the .01 level. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Perceptual learning was studied using luminous figures in a dark room. It was found that as a result of previous close temporal and spatial concurrence, discriminably different stimuli under reduced stimulation conditions disappear together more frequently than without such an association. This occurred despite a demonstrated link between identical stimuli prior to the learning experience. Moreover it was shown that the extent to which the stimuli subsequently "operated" together was a function of the frequency and duration of their previous joint occurrence. Temporal and spatial stimulus-stimulus relationships were manipulated and differences between sequential and simultaneous presentations and between different presentation rates were observed and discussed. The effect of auditory experience on subsequent disappearances of the same stimuli presented visually was also examined and the results supported the inter-modal perceptual learning hypothesis. The phenomena observed in all these experiments were interpreted in terms of Hebb's theory of perceptual association. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a cognitive structure, or organizational aid, on the performance of field-independent (FI) and field-dependent (FD) women on an affective sensitivity task.Research has suggested FI individuals generally perform affective sensitivity tasks with greater accuracy than do FD individuals. However, previous research relating FI-FD with affective sensitivity may have failed to account for the influence of cognitive restructuring skills assumed to be required for the performance of an affective sensitivity task. Therefore, this investigation was undertaken to determine if the introduction of a cognitive structure would significantly influence the performance of either FI or FD women on an affective sensitivity task.The research sample included 86 volunteer female subjects recruited from undergraduate classes offered at Ball State University during Spring Quarter, 1979, in the departments of Nursing, Educational Psychology, Counseling Psychology and Psychological Science. Subjects, identified as FI or FD respectively, by their score of + ½ SD or – ½ SDfrom the mean of the norming group for the Group Embedded Figures Test; were assigned to one of two experimental condition groups, treatment or control.A cognitive structure, a commercially prepared audiovisual presentation relating nonverbal communication to specific emotional states, was presented to the treatment group. Two dependent variables were administered to both treatment and control groups. The primary dependent variable, the Affective Sensitivity Scale, Form E-A-2, a 16 millimeter color and sound film of encounters between two or more people, required the identification of the filmed participants' feelings in a multiple choice format. The secondary dependent variable was the Hogan Empathy Scale.The data from these instruments were analyzed using a Multivariate Stepdown Analysis of Variance. Results of this statistical analysis indicated one significant finding. FI subjects scored significantly higher than FD subjects on the Affective Sensitivity Scale, Form E-A-2, when controlling differences due to the Hogan Empathy Scale. INTO support was found for a differential effect of a cognitive structure on the performance of FI and FD subjects on an affective sensitivity task.

Field independence was described by Witkin et al (1962) as the ability to separate an item perceived from its context. Here most experiments have used visually presented material where the subject was shown a simple geometrical figure and then a complex one containing the simple figure as part of it: the subject's task was to find and point out where the simple figure was hidden. Recent work has suggested that the skills involved in Witkin's tests might be associated with particular cultural backgrounds. This extension of Witkin's theory of field independence by Wober linked visual phenomena with those of a social and maturational nature: the ability to separate visual items from their context was shown to be aligned with the development of a sense of personal identity ; the person was considered to be an item set in a context or social field, be it family or society around him: an individual, depending on the way he was socialized as a child, may perceive the world analytically, if he did he was labelled field independent, if not he was field dependent. Intro. p.1.

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This study sought to compare Viktor Lowenfeld's Haptic Visual theory of perceptual types with Herman Witkin's Field Dependent, FieldIndependent classifications, since previous research indicated apparent similarities. The major objective was to compare the two theories by administering five perceptual tasks to 34 college students who had been classified into perceptual types according to Lowenfeld's and Witkin's criteria. Thirty-four randomly selected, female, elementary education majors from Wright State University were administered a series of five perceptual tasks involving visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic stimuli while an electroencephalograph (EEG) recorded their alpha wave responses eminating from the occipital lobe of the brain. Since alpha waves have consistently been found to be negatively associated with visual imagery, it was hypothesized that Lowenfeld's Haptic types, who theoretically function better through tactile and kinesthetic perception than through visual images, would produce a greater number of alpha waves during the specified time limit of each perceptual task, than the Visual type, who apparently relies upon his sense of vision as the dominant intermediary to his environment. It was further hypothesized that Witkin's Field Dependent types would correspond to the Haptic types, and the Field-Independent types would correspond to the Visual types as measured by the EEG.