Developmental Psychology: Infant Perception Basics
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Questions and Answers

Infants are born with the ability to see in full color.

False (B)

Which of the following is NOT a method used to study infant perception?

  • Habituation paradigm
  • Self-report (correct)
  • Eye tracking
  • Preferential looking paradigm

    • What is the preferential looking paradigm?

    The preferential looking paradigm is a method of studying infant perception involves presenting an infant with two stimuli simultaneously and observing which stimulus the infant looks at longer.

    What is the habituation paradigm?

    <p>The habituation paradigm is a method of studying infant perception that takes advantage of the infant's natural preference for novelty.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the difference between habituation and dishabituation?

    <p>Habituation refers to the decrease in a response to a stimulus due to repeated exposure. Dishabituation, on the other hand, is the renewal of a response to a stimulus, often because a new stimulus has been introduced.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The ability to identify that objects are separate from each other is called ______.

    <p>object segregation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Infants are born with the ability to perceive depth.

    <p>False (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Explain what is meant by a "sensitive period" in development.

    <p>A sensitive period in development refers to a specific time frame during which an organism is particularly susceptible to certain environmental influences. During these periods, specific experiences are crucial for the development of certain skills or abilities.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The Other-Race Effect in infants is thought to be due primarily to innate factors.

    <p>False (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Synaptic pruning is the process of forming new connections between neurons.

    <p>False (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Flashcards

    Preferential Looking Paradigm

    A method to assess infant visual preferences by presenting two stimuli and measuring how long the infant looks at each.

    Habituation Paradigm

    A method to assess if infants can differentiate between stimuli by repeatedly showing one stimulus until they lose interest (habituation), then presenting a new one to see if they regain interest (dishabituation).

    Visual Acuity

    The sharpness of visual discrimination, assessed by the ability to distinguish stripes or patterns of increasing detail.

    Visual Scanning

    The process of systematically moving the eyes to explore the visual environment.

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    Face Perception

    Infants' ability to recognize and discriminate faces.

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    Object Segregation

    The ability to perceive separate objects.

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    Depth Perception

    The ability to judge the distance of objects.

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    Binocular Disparity

    The difference in the images seen by each eye, used by the brain to perceive depth.

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    Monocular Depth Cues

    Depth cues that can be perceived with only one eye, such as relative size or overlap.

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    Perceptual Constancy

    The ability to perceive objects as constant in size, shape, colour, etc., even when their retinal images change.

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    Perceptual Narrowing

    The phenomenon where infants become more sensitive to perceptual stimuli they frequently experience, while becoming less sensitive to stimuli they do not frequently experience.

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    Visual Cliff

    An apparatus used to study depth perception in infants.

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    Other-Race Effect

    The tendency for people to be better at distinguishing faces from their own racial group versus faces from other racial groups.

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    Sensitive Period

    A period of development during which certain experiences are crucial for normal development.

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    Synaptic Pruning

    The process by which unused or unnecessary synapses in the brain are eliminated.

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    Cone Cells

    Light-sensitive neurons in the retina responsible for seeing fine details and colours.

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    Visual Cortex

    The part of the brain responsible for processing visual information.

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    Habituation

    A decrease in response to a repeated stimulus. Infants may look less at a repeated stimulus.

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    Dishabituation

    An increase in response to a new stimulus after habituation to a previous one. Infants may look more at a new stimulus.

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    Study Notes

    Visual Development

    • Infants' visual development is not as underdeveloped as previously thought
    • Babies scan their surroundings and focus on interesting things from birth
    • Research methods are used to assess infant perception, including preferential looking and habituation paradigms

    Methods in Infant Research

    • Preferential Looking Paradigm: Assess infant preference for one stimulus over another. Two stimuli are presented side-by-side, and researchers measure how long the baby looks at each one
    • Habituation Paradigm: Repeatedly present a stimulus to an infant until the baby becomes bored (habituates) or loses interest. Then researchers present a new stimulus. If the infant's interest is renewed (dishabituation), it shows they can distinguish between the original and new stimuli

    What do babies see at birth?

    • Previous assumptions were that infants' vision was almost non-functional at birth, but recent evidence shows this is inaccurate
    • At birth, infants visually scan their environments and pause to look at things
    • Researchers must get creative to assess what infants can see

    What is interesting to infants?

    • Infants prefer to look at complex and highly saturated stimuli (strong colors).
    • Familiarity is also an important factor.

    Habituation Paradigm

    • The habituation paradigm takes advantage of a baby's inborn attraction to novelty
    • Repeatedly showing a baby the same stimulus will eventually lead them to lose interest
    • If the baby then shows renewed interest when a new stimulus is presented, it suggests the baby can distinguish between the two

    Familiarity vs. Novelty

    • Generally, infants prefer familiar stimuli
    • Repeated exposure to a stimulus will lead to a shift in their preference towards novelty.

    Summary of Visual Development

    • Preferential-looking: Two stimuli are presented to infants, and researchers record where the infant looks longer. This indicates a preference.
    • Habituation: A stimulus is repeatedly shown until the infant is no longer interested. Then another stimulus is introduced to see if the infant's interest is recovered. This indicates discrimination.
    • Both paradigms are used to assess an infant's ability to distinguish between different stimuli

    Visual Acuity and Colour Perception

    • Poor visual acuity at birth, infants prefer high-contrast visual stimuli.
    • Infants' color vision gradually improves and matures by 5 to 8 months, reaching adult-like levels.
    • At birth, visual acuity is poor, but by 8 months, it approaches adult levels.
    • Inability to discern details at birth is due to immature cone cells in the retina
    • Cone cells are light-sensitive cells in the retina responsible for fine details and color vision.

    Development of Visual Acuity

    • Visual acuity improves gradually until 8-12 months after birth.
    • Infants' vision becomes sharper over time with maturation

    Color Perception

    • At birth, infants' vision is primarily grayscale.
    • Color perception develops to adult-like levels by 5 months of age due to maturing cones and visual cortex neural connections.

    Visual Scanning

    • Infants start visually scanning their environment from birth
    • Early on, eye movements are jerky, but smooth visual tracking develops in stages.
    • Smooth visual tracking and following movement is fully developed by 8 months.

    Face Perception

    • Newborns have a preference for faces and face-like stimuli over non-face stimuli
    • This suggests a potential innate mechanism for face perception.
    • Infants show preference for stimuli that are top-heavy, as opposed to bottom-heavy.

    Why are infants drawn to faces?

    • Hypothesis: Infants might have a generalized preference for top-heavy stimuli, not only faces.
    • Researchers presented babies with upright faces, upside-down faces, and scrambled or top-heavy/bottom-heavy faces.
    • Results indicated babies prefer upright faces over upside-down faces, and faces with a top-heavy arrangement to faces with bottom-heavy arrangement.

    Seeing Mom's Face

    • Within days after birth, babies prefer their mothers' faces over other women's faces.

    Becoming a Face Specialist

    • Over the first year of life, infants gradually develop specialization in face recognition
    • Improved ability to distinguish between faces that are frequently experienced versus those less frequently seen.

    Other-Race Effect in Infants

    • Infants show an easier time distinguishing faces of their own race compared to other races.
    • This preference is not innate but a result of exposure and experience. Frequent exposure to faces from one's own racial group leads to better recognition of those faces.
    • Three-month-old babies can generally distinguish amongst all racial faces
    • Nine-month-olds can better discriminate between faces from their own race.

    Perceptual Narrowing

    • Perceptual narrowing is the tuning of perceptual mechanisms in infants to specific sensory inputs within their environment
    • This improvement in perceiving common stimuli comes at the expense of the ability to discriminate stimuli not frequently encountered
    • It is due to synaptic pruning, where less used neural connections are eliminated.

    Recap: Synaptic Pruning

    • Synaptic pruning eliminates unused neural connections, improving efficiency
    • Follows the "use it or lose it" principle.
    • Rapid synaptogenesis occurs after birth leading to hyperconnectivity, which is later pruned

    Face Perception in Children with ASD

    • Children with autism spectrum disorder may have difficulties recognizing faces, including avoiding eye contact.
    • Toddlers with ASD have displayed preferences towards geometric shapes over faces
    • In infants, preference for non-faces could be an early indicator of ASD later in their lives.

    Summary of Face Perception

    • Infants have a preference for faces, especially their mothers' faces, from birth
    • This preference is likely not innate but a result of a general preference for top-heavy stimuli
    • By 9 months of age, infants become specialists in recognizing faces.

    Object Perception

    • Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize objects as staying constant in size, shape, and color despite changes in retinal image.
    • Infants exhibit evidence of perceptual constancy from birth.
    • The ability to distinguish between objects is called object segregation. Movement is a key cue.

    Perceptual Constancy in Infants

    • Studies using habituation paradigms show that infants as young as newborns can perceive objects as being the same, regardless of changes in retinal image due to changes in distance.

    Object Segregation in Infants

    • The ability of infants to identify separate distinct objects is called object segregation
    • Infants show evidence of object segregation as early as four months of age.
    • Research suggests this ability is dependent on experience and perceptual development, not purely innate

    Depth Perception

    • Binocular disparity is the slightly different retinal image from each eye used to perceive depth, developed by 4 months of age.
    • Infants depend on binocular disparity for depth perception
    • Infants need both eyes for binocular vision; it can be impacted by visual experiences.
    • Monocular cues for depth perception (size, overlap, etc) emerge around 6 months, and are dependent on visual experience and improvement in visual acuity

    Sensitive Period for Binocular Vision

    • A sensitive period for binocular vision from birth to age three exists.
    • Infants that don't receive normal visual input during this time may not develop appropriate binocular vision and will encounter issues with depth perception.

    Visual Development Timeline

    • A summary of visual development progresses from birth to 9 months of age, demonstrating the progressive development of infants' vision

    The Nature and Nurture of Visual Development

    • Some visual abilities are innate, including perceptual constancy and preference for top-heavy stimuli
    • Other abilities depend on experience and maturation in the brain

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    Related Documents

    Visual Development (PSYC 304) PDF

    Description

    This quiz explores the fundamentals of infant perception, including methods used to study it and key concepts such as depth perception and sensitive periods. You will encounter questions about paradigms like preferential looking and habituation, as well as important developmental phenomena. Test your knowledge on what makes infants unique in their perceptual abilities.

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