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A preliminary study is reported which attempted to define gifted rapid readers, authenticate the performances of three subjects who were designated as gifted rapid readers, and explore the relationship of a subject's ability to perceive print eidetically and to read and/or skim. Volunteer subjects were a 15-year-old girl from the Philippines, a 12-year-old American girl, and a 38-year-old housewife. Impartial reading experts observed each subject reading an article on mental health by Menninger. The article was estimated to be college level of difficulty and was selected from Brown's "Efficient Reading." All three subjects successfully absorbed the article at rates beyond 20,000 words per minute with 70 percent comprehension or above. The two younger subjects demonstrated characteristics similar to those described by Haber as highly eidetic. Both young subjects also demonstrated strong dominance traits, according to Butt's Factoral Facet Scale. References are included. (WB)

Two groups of children took part in this longitudinal study of eidetic imagery (EI). The New Haven sample consisted of 12 elementary school children, and the Rochester sample consisted of 23 children (aged 7 to 11 years at the beginning of the study). The study was designed to find out some of the qualities of EI and its relationship to memory. An eidetic image was defined as a long-lasting visual image of a figure localized in space in front of the subject, positive in color, and usually on the place where the original figure was shown. The image persists after the stimulus is gone. Subjects were shown pictures one at a time for a brief period and asked to comment on each picture once it had been removed. Study results suggest that eidetic imagery is a stable perceptual ability, without developmental trends as the subject grows older. The amount of information reported on a picture in eidetic imagery differed little from that of normal memory. Study conclusions indicate that EI i s a visual phenomena, not merely a report of vivid memory. Additional research is needed to relate EI to perceptual and developmental theories. (MS)

The "page-at-a-glance" reading phenomenon in two gifted readers using only monocular vision was investigated. The specific questions to be answered in this preliminary study were (1) What is the average duration of fixations made by gifted readers while reading a somewhat familiar article? and (2) What degree of comprehension on materials of general interest can be obtained during phenomenal rates of reading? Subjects were a 15-year-old Filipina and a 12-year-old American girl who had received instruction in rapid reading. Both successful and unsuccessful reading behavior of each in the test situation was observed by a group of reading experts. In the test situation, the 15-year-old girl read a 6,000 word essay from Brown's "Efficient Reading" at a rate of 80,000 words per minute with 100 percent comprehension. The 12-year-old girl attained a rate of 54,825 words per minute with 90 percent comprehension on a more difficult essay. While reading, the eye movements of only the subject's right eye were recorded with the photo-electric mystagmographic instrument (PENG). Each subject grasped both columns of a page in one vertical fixation, apparently focusing her right eye near the center of the page. Further testing with these and other subjects is planned. References are included. (Author/CM)

Another source for non-representational subject matter and new images is the world of light designs (photograms) which may be created directly on paper or film. Their creation was described, materials for their production suggested, and their impact on the world of art noted. (Author/RK)

Presents the results of investigating mature readers' focal points when viewing letters, words, and phrases. Several hypotheses from the experiments imply subconscious preprocessing for the mature reader. (JM)

Suggestions for organizing the material in teaching the visual qualities of films and television. (CH)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the fifth in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses to these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. Interurban comparisons are presented in the form of separate analyses based, in turn, on each of the principal modes of observer response--free descriptions, selections of significant questionnaire attributes, and judgments of environmental attribute pairs. Each of these response-type sections is divided into subsections dealing with the various parameters of environmental differentiation--cities, specific milieus, observer groups, and environmental attributes--followed by synopses describing the uniquely apperceived characteristics of each of the four cities and their differences from one another. Finally, the various facets of the enterprise are summarized in a concluding section, which combines all modes of environmental response into a general statement on urban resemblance and difference. Related documents are SE 015 658 - SE 015 665. (BL)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the third in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses to these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. Observers, varying systematically in age, sex, occupation, education, and residential background, individually traversed a set of half-mile walks, selected to provide a representative array of local environments. Analysis of observer responses yielded a composite image of Cambridge as green, run down and messy, varied and different, busy and crowded, academic-residential, sometimes depressing and dull, and sometimes calm. The judgmental and perceptual differences among Cambridge observers--Boy Scouts, secretaries, housewives, and senior citizens--were also analyzed and explanations suggested for these differences in terms of their environmental and sociological backgrounds. Related documents are SE 015 658 - SE 015 665. (BL)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the seventh in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses to these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. This paper explores the distinctive patterns, disclosed by divergent and unique correlations of environmental judgments, found in each of the cities and observer groups. Attribute combinations significant to all cities as well as those which contribute most, and in what ways, to differentiate cities are described. Since cities differ from one another not only in the ways their environments are judged, in some respects similar, in other's quite divergent, this dualism is also true of environmental configurations in the minds of urban observers. However, the linkages of environmental association that characterize types of observer groups are less numerous, less statistically significant, and less structurally consistent than those that differentiate urban milieus. Related documents are SE 015 658 - SE 015 665. (BL)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public response, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the sixth in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses to these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. Interrelationships among environmental judgments and preferences is the subject of this report. It was found that many types of statistical analyses--phi correlation matrix, diagramatic extrapolations, and factor analysis--reveal sets of consistent patterns among judgments about the characteristics of various urban milieus. Structures of environmental association appear to be of two kinds. One kind comprises connectivities that are universal, in the sense they are powerful in all milieus and for all types of observers. The second kind involves connectivities whose character and strength diverge strongly from place to place or from observer to observer. Thus, the degree of universality and strength in mental structures generated by environmental experience varies with person and place. Related documents are SE 015 658 - SE 015 665. (BL)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the eighth in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses to these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. Along with direct environmental experience, linguistic modes of expression also influence what people respond to and how they respond to it, as analyzed in this report. It is shown that both environmental experience and purely semantic responses reveal mental structures comprising clusters of attributes that shape many of our views of the world. Among strongly evidenced configurations independent of milieu, those that derive from actual observation overlap considerably with those generated by semantic response. But while language at times reinforces environmental experience, at other times the two are opposed. The differences help to show how and explain why the way we think we see the world is in many respects not the way we actually do see it. Related documents are SE 015 658 - SE 015 664. (BL)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the fourth in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses to these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. Observers, varying systematically in age, sex, occupation, education, and residential background, individually traversed a set of half-mile walks, selected to provide a representative array of local environments. Analysis of observer responses for Columbus (Ohio) show considerable disparity for a composite image--dull and unexciting, interesting and pleasant, clean, new and old: new in being different from what it once was, old in retaining so many physical traces of a real or fancied past. The judgmental and perceptual differences among Columbus observers--male university students and local clubwomen--were also analyzed and explanations suggested for these differences in terms of their environmental and sociological backgrounds. Related documents are SE 015 658 - SE 015 665. (BL)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the first in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses of these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. Observers, varying systematically in age, sex, occupation, education, and residential background, individually traversed a set of half-mile walks, selected to provide a representative array of local environments. Analysis of observer responses yielded a composite image of Midtown Manhatten as busy and bustling, rich and wealthy, fashionable and unfashionable, lively and alive, and crowded and depressed. The judgemental and perceptual differences among Midtown Manhatten observers--student nurses, college students, and architects--were also analyzed and explanations suggested for these differences in terms of their environmental and sociological backgrounds. Related documents are SE 015 659 - SE 015 665. (BL)

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the second in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and Columbus (Ohio), together with a comparative analysis of the four cities; the remaining analyze the relationships among responses to these milieus and interpret the resulting configurations of environmental traits. Observers, varying systematically in age, sex, occupation, education, and residential background, individually traversed a set of half-mile walks, selected to provide a representative array of local environments. Analysis of observer responses yielded a composite image of Boston as essentially seedy (decayed, littered, grimy, and dreary), crowded, busy, and strongly idiosyncratic (quaint, historic, colorful, and full of "atmosphere"). The judgmental and perceptual differences among Boston observers--medical technicians, secretaries, architects, and Boy Scouts--were also analyzed and explanations suggested for these differences in terms of their environmental and sociological backgrounds. Related documents are SE 015 658 through SE 015 665. (BL)

Based on the more general principle that all thinking (including reasoning) is basically perceptual in nature, the author proposes that visual perception is not a passive recording of stimulus material but an active concern of the mind. He delineates the task of visually distinguishing changes in size, shape, and position and points out the complexity of the task accomplished each time the sense of vision establishes the size, shape, location, color, brightness, and movement of an object. The effect of the memory of past experience on perception provides a framework for his discussion of mental imagery and its relation to direct sensory observation. He postulates that mental images are a necessary precondition for "thought," and he uses line drawings to illustrate the organization of mental images into concepts. The functions of three categories of images--pictures, symbols, and signs--are explained. The author describes two antagonistic theories of abstraction and states that it is the indispensable link between perceiving and thinking. He believes that words are not indispensable to thought, but serve as labels for images, and that art is not just a form of visual thinking, but fulfills other primary functions by creating beauty, perfection, harmony, and order. In conclusion, he proposes that the means and ends of science and art are closely allied. (JY)

Phenomenology has made an important contribution to understanding the human mind by offering a rigorous description of consciousness. This essay's intent is to provide a familiarity with the vocabulary and concepts of phenomenology as an aid to the general scholar. (Author/JB)

Article introduces a framework for the recognition stage of auditory information processing. (Author/ML)