CHAPTER 5: SEEING, THINKING AND DOING IN INFANCYPERCEPTION vision, auditory perception, taste, smell, touch, intermodal perception- Sensation- the processing of basic information from the external world by the sensory receptors in the sense organs and brain- Perception- is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information about the objects, events and spatial layout of the world around us. - Vision: o Preferential looking technique- study visual attention in infants where different visual stimuli are presented on two screens and if an infant looks longer at one of the two stimuli the researcher can infer that the baby is able to discriminate between them and prefer one. Preferred patternso Habituation- repeatedly presenting a given stimulus until the infants response to it habituates and declines. Then a novel stimulus is presented and if the infants response increases the researcher infers that the baby can discriminate between the old and new stimulus. o Visual Acuity- fineness of detail an infant can see. Develops so rapidly that by 8 months their vision approaches that of adults. Full acuity at 6 years. o Contrast Sensitivity- poor for infants meaning they generally prefer patterns of high visual contrast and can detect a pattern only when it is composed of highly contrasting elements. Due to immaturity of cones (no color vision until 2-3 months) Catch only 2% of the light striking the fovea as opposed to 65%o Visual Scanning- attracted to moving stimuli but do not track it until 2-3 months and only able to track slowlyo Object Perception: Perceptual constancy- the perception of objects being seen asconstant size, shape, color in spite of physical differences in theretinal image of the object. Object segregation- perception of separate objects in a visual array (where one object starts and ends)- Influenced by common movement, and general knowledge o Depth Perception: Optical expansion- the visual image of an object increases in size as the object comes toward us occluding more and more ofthe background. Binocular disparity- difference between the retinal image of an object in each eye that results in two slightly different signals being sent to the brain Stereopsis- the process by which the visual cortex combines the differing neural signals caused by binocular disparity resulting in the perception of depth Monocular/pictoral cues- the perceptual cues of depth that can be perceived by one eye alone (relative size and interposition)- Auditory Perception- well developed at birth (cat in the hat study)o Auditory localization- perception of the location in space of a sound source. Most likely to localize a sound that continues for several secondso Music Perception- consonant tones are more pleasing and rhythms as well as melodies are most sensitive- Taste and Smell- smell develops before birth and newborns prefer sweet flavors - Touch- how infants learn about the environment. Oral exploration dominates for the first few months through sucking on their own fingers and toes or objects. Manual control increases.- Intermodal Perception- combining of information from two or more sensory systems. Sight and sound, oral and visual, and visual and tactileo Piaget- information from different sensory modalities is initially separate and only after some months do infants become capable of forming associations with how things look , sound, taste, or feel.o Gibson- from very early on infants integrate information from different senses (looked longer at pacifier they sucked on) Relation between human faces and voices. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT- Reflexes- innate, fixed patterns of action that occur in response to particular stimulation. Indicates a strong nervous systemo Grasping- newborns close their fingers around anything that presses against their hando Rooting- turn their head in the direction of the touch and open their moutho Sucking- oral contact with nippleo Swallowingo Tonic neck- when an infants head turns or is turned to one side the arm on that side extends while the arm and knee on the other side flex. Effort to keep hand in view- Motor milestones- affected by cultural factors because some discourage early locomotion. Derive pleasure by pushing their motor milestones.- Expansion of their World:o More to see and explore when they sit up or reach for things and discover movement. o Reaching: interactions of multiple components muscle movement, postural control, development of perceptual and morot skills. Experience matters.- 3-4 months successful reaching- 7 months they sit independently and reaching stabilizeso Self Locomotion- ability to move oneself around the environment, Crawling- starts with belly crawling then to hands and knees walking- 11-12 months and widened stance. Ex. Visual cliff-shows the interdependence of different domains of development and found that experience of moving around plays a very important role in babies developing understanding of heights and surfaces. (p.197). Challenges- integrating perceptual information in the planning and execution of actions, which comes from experience. - Scale errors- attempt by a young child to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the large discrepancy in relative sizes of the child and object. LEARNING- Habituation- simplest and earliest form of learning is recognizing something. Reveals that learning has taken place and is highly adaptive because it shows a lessened response to what is old and enables new attention to what is new.- Perceptual Learning- learn from paying attention to the objects they perceiveo Differentiation- extraction from the constantly changing stimulation in the environment of those elements that are invariant or stable. o Affordances- the possibilities for action offered by objects and situations - Statistical learning- picking up information from the environment and forming associations among stimuli that occur in a statistically predictable pattern (2-8 months experience patterns)- Classical Conditioning- consists of associating an initially neutral stimulus with a stimulus that always evoked a particular reflexive response. o UCS- evokes a reflexive responseo UCR- reflexive response elicited by UCSo CS- neutral stimulus that is repeatedly paired with the USo CR- original reflexive response that comes to be elicited by CS- Operant conditioning- learning the relation between ones own behavior and the
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