title: Perception of figure orientation by nonambulatory children with profound mental retardation.
abstract: An habituation-dishabituation procedure was used to study perception of changes in figure orientation by nonambulatory children with profound mental retardation. On each of 3 days, 16 participants were given familiarization trials with either a vertical or an horizontal pattern, followed by test trials with the familiarized stimulus and one of three novel stimuli--a 90 degree or 45 degree rotation of the pattern, or a rearrangement of the pattern elements into a square. Visual fixation times decreased over familiarization trials. Fixation times on test trials were longer for novel than for familiar stimuli, indicating that these children discriminated changes in form and orientation.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
authors: M J
authors: MJ
authors: Krenn
authors: J H
authors: JH
authors: Whiteley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual