Sensation process by which sensory receptor neurons detect info and transmit it o Detecting light sound odor sensing environment Perception interpretation of sensory input o Recognizing what you see understanding what you hear knowing etc Habituation learning to be bored by the familiar to not respond to a repeated to the brain stimulus o Show a blue circle repeatedly to an infant they get bored and look away show a red circle and they regain interest has discriminated between the two stimuli Preferential Looking a preference for one thing over another o How long an infant looks at one object over another o Prefer to look at what they can see well Infant visual perception o Visual acuity ability to perceive detail 40x worse than adults but improves across 1st month of life to 20 120 vision objects are blurry unless 8in from face or are bold w sharp contrast contour o Visual accommodation ability of lens of eye to change shape to bring objects at different distances into focus takes 6mo 1yr before infant can see as well as adult o Pattern Perception attracted to contour movement moderately complex patterns o Depth Perception size constancy recognize that an object is the same size despite changes in its distance from the eye Visual Cliff tests the depth perception of infants conducted by Gibson and Walk an elevated glass platform that creates the illusion of depth one shallow side one deep side mothers on opposite side coax their child to cross 27 36 crossed shallow side 3 36 crossed deep side infants of crawling age 7mo perceive depth and are afraid of drop offs 2 months old perceive a difference but not a fear Therapy for premature infants Premature infants can have problems such as low birth rate heart and respiratory problems however most develop neurosensory impairments and academic problems as the child gets older o To prevent these issues therapy such as kangaroo care and massage therapy can help decrease these problems Pre mature infants that experience kangaroo care settle into mature patterns of quiet sleep and alert wakefulness Babies that experience massage therapy not only gain more weight but they also seem to be more relaxed and less aroused Development of Attention o Attention the focusing of perception and cognition on something in particular o Longer attention span Longer attention span occurs from the ages of 5 6 to 8 9 where those parts of the brain involved with attention become further mylinated beyond 8 9 not much increase o More selective attention deliberately concentrating on one thing while ignoring something else Btwn 3 5 4 yrs there is a significant increase in focused attn o More systematic attention Children search more slowly than adults and are less efficient However children older than 6 are very systematic they are able to visually search things faster and more efficiently than children younger than 6 ADHD and Sex Differences o ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms inattention impulsivity hyperactivity reveals itself in infancy 5 9 of kids meet ADHD criteria At least 2 boys for every girl has ADHD Girls may be underdiagnosed b c don t show as much of the acting out Causes low levels of dopamine and NE genes environment Visual and Auditory problems of the aged o Become noticible in 40s o Sensory thresholds are raised need more stimulation perceptual abilities decline o Visual Changes in pupil Changes in lens Retinal Changes Pupils become smaller and don t change much to lighting greater difficulty seeing in dim bright and when it suddenly changes Dark adaptation occurs more slowly Presbyopia decreased ability of the lens to accommodate objects close to the eye b c of thickening of lens w age Cataracts cloudiness of the normal clear lens in your eye Visual acuity declines more so in women than men Age related macular degeneration AMD results from damage to cells in the retina responsible for central vision blank dark space in center of an image leading cause of blindness in elderly Retinitis Pigmentosa RP A group of hereditary disorders that all involve gradual deterioration of the light sensitive cells of the retina visual problems at night loss of peripheral vision Glaucoma increased fluid pressure in the eye can damage the optic nerve and and can cause a progressive loss of peripheral vision and ultimately blindness Other examples Diabetic retinopathy Age related macular o Auditory degeneration Hearing impairment is 3 times as prevalent as visual impairment among older adults 95 of adults age 65 have at least mildly impaired hearing Most age related hearing problems originate in the inner ear Hearing problems range from wax build up to infections to sluggish nervous systems Presbycusis problems of the aging ear loss of sensitivity to high frequency or high pitched sounds Older adults have more difficulty understanding conversations even under ideal listening conditions More noticeable in men than women Cognitive psychologist doctor that studies mental processes attention language use perception memory prob solving thinking o Jean Piaget became intrigued by the fact that children make same or similar mental mistakes Piaget o methods began observing his own 3 children then studied larger o o o sample clinical method the flexible question and answer technique used to discover how children think about problems schema cognitive structures organized patterns of actions or thought that people construct to interpret their experiences a set of rules or procedures that provide structure to our cognition assimilation process by which we interpret new experience in terms of existing schemes or cognitive structures we deal with our environment in our own terms by bending the world to squeeze it into our own existing categories For example labeling a dog doggie object permanence otherwise known as object concept fundamental understanding that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or otherwise detectable to the senses developed gradually over the sensorimotor period up thru 4 8 months it is out of sight out of mind o disequilibrium uncomfortable state of mind that child seeks to resolve lack of balance stimulates cognitive growth and formation of more adequate understandings conservation idea that certain properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way water in 2 diff glasses fixed on own point of view EGOCENTRISM tendency to view world solely from ones own