Infant Perception Lecture 4 PDF

Lecture 4 Tuesday, January 14, 2025 6:28 PM Perception: - Sensation: ○ Involves the processing of basic information from the external world ○ Utilizes receptors in the sense organs and the brain - Perception: ○ Involves the organization and interpretation of sensory infor...

Lecture 4 Tuesday, January 14, 2025 6:28 PM Perception: - Sensation: ○ Involves the processing of basic information from the external world ○ Utilizes receptors in the sense organs and the brain - Perception: ○ Involves the organization and interpretation of sensory information ○ Focuses on objects, events, and spatial layout in the surrounding world Methods for Studying Infant Visual Perception: - Preferential-looking Technique: ○ Method for studying visual attention in infants ○ Involves presenting two images simultaneously to infants ○ Measures preference by observing which image infants look at for a longer duratio - Fantz Visual Stimuli: ○ Utilized in preferential-looking technique ○ Named after Robert Fantz, involves presenting visual stimuli to study infant perception - Modern Version with Automatic Eye Tracker: ○ Contemporary adaptation of preferential-looking technique ○ Incorporates automatic eye tracking technology for more precise measurements of infants' visual attention Vision: - Preferential-looking Technique: ○ Method for studying visual attention in infants ○ Involves presenting two images simultaneously to infants ○ Measures preference by observing which image infants look at for a longer duratio - Fantz Visual Stimuli: ○ Utilized in preferential-looking technique ○ Named after Robert Fantz, involves presenting visual stimuli to study infant perception - Modern Version with Automatic Eye Tracker: ○ Contemporary adaptation of preferential-looking technique ○ Incorporates automatic eye tracking technology for more precise measurements of infants' visual attention on f on f  perception - Modern Version with Automatic Eye Tracker: ○ Contemporary adaptation of preferential-looking technique ○ Incorporates automatic eye tracking technology for more precise measurements of infants' visual attention Visual Acuity and Colour Perception: - Visual Acuity ○ Definition: Sharpness and clarity of vision ○ Assessed through the ability to perceive simple and complex patterns - Contrast Sensitivity ○ Definition: Ability to detect differences in light and dark areas in a visual pattern ○ Involves distinguishing between high-contrasting and low-contrasting patterns - Cone Cells: ○ Definition: Light-sensitive neurons concentrated in the fovea (central retina) ○ Significance: Play a crucial role in visual acuity ○ Development in Infants: Cones not fully developed in infants, leading to lower acuit (e.g., 20/120 at birth) - Colour perception development ○ Emerges at 2 months of age in infants - Colour preference in infants ○ Shows a preference for unique hues over combinations of hues - Evidence of colour language categories ○ Research using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) suggests the existence of colour language categories in an infant's brain before birth. - Colour categorization preference ○ Infants demonstrate a preference for colour categorization before acquiring language skills. Face Perception in Infancy: - Infants prefer to face-like shapes ○ Dr. Daphne Maurer - Face perception is shaped by perceptual narrowing ○ As infants gain experience with faces, particularly those from their own race or social group, their ability to distinguish faces outside of that familiar category decreases, leading to a narrowing of their face perception abilities, where they become more adept at recognizing familiar faces and less skilled at identifying unfamiliar ones; essentially, their brain prioritizes the faces they encounter most often, refining their perception based on experience. Perceptual Narrowing: - Newborn stage: general bias for face-like stimuli with interest in human and monkey righ side-up faces - 6-month-olds: discriminate between human and monkey faces, exhibiting a generalist f ty e ht-  often, refining their perception based on experience. Perceptual Narrowing: - Newborn stage: general bias for face-like stimuli with interest in human and monkey righ side-up faces - 6-month-olds: discriminate between human and monkey faces, exhibiting a generalist approach - 9-month-olds: specialization occurs, with discrimination focusing solely on human faces Face Perception: - Attentional changes across development: ○ 4 months § Really focused on eyes ○ 6 months + § Fixation on mouths, not babbling just learning ○ 2 years § Able to track where others are looking, and looking there Object Perception: - Perceptual constancy ○ Perceiving objects as maintaining constant size, shape, and colour despite variation in the retinal image ○ Children exhibit size constancy even without prior experience. - Object segregation ○ Identification of separate objects in a visual array ○ Infants benefit from experience with specific objects in understanding physical properties. Role of Culture in Object Perception: - Attention to objects and events - Scene perception ○ Culture plays a significant role in how infants perceive scenes by influencing where they focus their attention within a visual scene. ○ Studies show that even very young infants from different cultural backgrounds can exhibit distinct patterns in their gaze depending on the cultural emphasis placed on objects versus background context. ○ This is potentially due to early socialization practices and the visual environment they are exposed to; this suggests that cultural influences on scene perception can begin very early in development. Object Knowledge: - Young infants continue to represent object that has vanished from sight ○ Violation-of-expectancy procedure § When something happens that is different from what was expected. It can ht- ns e n n Object Knowledge: - Young infants continue to represent object that has vanished from sight ○ Violation-of-expectancy procedure § When something happens that is different from what was expected. It can cause feelings of surprise, anger, or disappointment. § Researchers show infants events that are either consistent or inconsistent with expectations. They then compare the infants' reactions to the events to see if they have expectations about the outcome. ○ Recognition of non-visible objects experiment § A psychological study designed to investigate how people can identify or recognize objects even when parts of them are hidden or completely occluded, relying on their prior knowledge and visual context to fill in the missing information, essentially testing the brain's ability to perceive objects based on partially visible cues. Depth Perception: - Optical expansion ○ As objects are closer, they project larger image on our retina - Binocular disparity ○ Difference between what each eye sees. ○ Infants develop the ability to use binocular disparity between 4 and 7 months of age. ○ This allows them to perceive distance and depth. - Stereopsis ○ Emerges at 4 months - Monocular depth ○ Pictorial cues Auditory Perception: - Hearing is the most advanced of the newborn senses, but there are still improvements across infancy - Auditory localization ○ Perception of the location in space of a sound source; improves as the infant grows ○ As a newborn, they are incapable ○ Hypothesized that the distance between their ears is so small; hard to tell where sound is coming from Taste and Smell: - Sensitivity to taste develops prenatally - Newborns prefer sweet flavours and smell of breast milk. ○ Sweetness is sign of safety ○ Infants can recognize the smell of their mothers from the smell of other women. o s Taste and Smell: - Sensitivity to taste develops prenatally - Newborns prefer sweet flavours and smell of breast milk. ○ Sweetness is sign of safety ○ Infants can recognize the smell of their mothers from the smell of other women. - Young children’s adverse reaction to novel foods may be more strongly influenced by smell than by taste. Touch: - Infant learning through touch - Dominance of oral exploration - Development of specific actions - Processing others' touch locations Intermodal Perception: - Intermodal perception - Intermodal tasks ○ Tasks that require perception from several different areas - Infant abilities in intermodal connections McGurk Effect: - A perceptual illusion that occurs when visual and auditory information about speech are inconsistent, causing the brain to perceive a third sound. - The McGurk effect is an example of how the brain combines information from different senses to create a perception. - For example, if you hear the sound "ba" but see someone mouth "ga", you might perceiv the sound "da". Motor Development: - Reflexes ○ Innate fixed, tightly organized patterns of action that occur in response to particula stimulation. ○ Rooting: turning head and opening mouth in direction of a touch. ○ Sucking and swallowing: oral response when the rood of the mouth is stimulated. ○ Tonic neck: when head turn or positioned to one side, the arms of that side of the body extends, while the arm and knee on the other side flex. ○ Moro: throwing back the head and extending the arms, then rapidly drawing then in, in response to loud or sudden noise/movement. ○ Grasping: closing the fingers around an object that is presented to the palm. ○ Stepping: stepping or dancing with feet when being held upright with feet touching a solid surface. Motor Milestones: - Infants progress quickly in acquiring basic movement patterns. ve ar g  ○ Grasping: closing the fingers around an object that is presented to the palm. ○ Stepping: stepping or dancing with feet when being held upright with feet touching a solid surface. Motor Milestones: - Infants progress quickly in acquiring basic movement patterns. - Tremendous individual and cultural differences in the ages these milestones are achieved - Most developmental research still focuses on participants from WEIRD cultures. ○ Differences in course of motor development reflect the contexts in which infants develop. The Expanding World of The Infant: - Reaching ○ Pre-reaching movements: Clumsy swiping movements by young infants toward the general vicinity of objects they see § 3 to 4 months: Successful reaching § 7 months: Leaning facilitates reaching; self-directed visual experiences aid motor development - Self-locomotion: Ability to move oneself around in the environment ○ Crawling ○ Walking Visual Cliff - Perceptual Integration: - Refers to an experimental apparatus used in psychology to study depth perception, wher a baby or animal is placed on a platform that appears to have a drop-off on one side, allowing researchers to observe if the subject perceives the depth and avoids the seemingly dangerous area. ○ This demonstrates their ability to integrate visual cues to understand depth in their environment; this integration of visual information is key to the concept of "perceptual integration." Learning and Memory: Habituation: - Simple, highly adaptive form of learning that involves a decrease in response to a repeated or continued stimulation ○ Reflects general information processing efficiency ○ Indicates learning has taken place ○ Faster habituation in bilingual infants Classical Conditioning: - Learning consists of associating initial stimulus with stimulus that always evokes particula reflexive response. g d. e re r ar  ○ Indicates learning has taken place ○ Faster habituation in bilingual infants Classical Conditioning: - Learning consists of associating initial stimulus with stimulus that always evokes particula reflexive response. ○ Unconditional stimulus (UCS) ○ Unconditional response (UCR) ○ Conditioned stimulus (CS) ○ Conditioned response (CR) Operant Conditioning: - Operant (or instrumental) conditioning: ○ Learning the relation between one’s own behaviour and the consequences that result from it - Positive Reinforcement: ○ Reward that reliably follows a behaviour and increases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated Observational Learning/Imitation: - Learning through observation or other people’s behaviour - Imitation: Form of observational learning ○ Mixed results for newer studies on neonatal imitation; failure to replicate Meltzoff and Moore work ○ Infant attention to intention research Language Development: The Components of Language: - Generative ○ System in which a finite set of words can be combined to generate an infinite number of sentences - Phonemes ○ Smallest units of meaningful sound ○ ant = /ænt/ - Morphemes ○ Smallest units of meaning in a language, composed of one or more phonemes § Ant vs. ants - Syntax ○ Rules specifying how words from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc can be combined - Pragmatics ○ Knowledge about how language is used ar c.)  § Ant vs. ants - Syntax ○ Rules specifying how words from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc can be combined - Pragmatics ○ Knowledge about how language is used ○ “It’s not you, it’s me” - American Sign Language (ASL) ○ All of these same factors are involved in learning a sign language. What is Required for Language: - A human brain is required! - Language is species-specific and species-universal. - Nonhuman primate communicative systems ○ Washoe and Koko § Two famous chimps that demonstrated remarkable abilities to communicate with humans using systems adapted from human language. § Washoe: □ Washoe learned to use over 100 ASL signs to communicate and could combine signs to express novel ideas (e.g., signing "water bird" for a swan). □ She demonstrated the ability to generalize, applying signs to new but related contexts (e.g., using "open" for various objects like doors or containers). □ Washoe taught signs to another chimpanzee, suggesting some ability to transmit learned communication to others. § Koko □ Koko reportedly learned over 1,000 signs and understood spoken English. □ She demonstrated emotional and creative expression, using signs to describe feelings (e.g., "sad" when her pet kitten died) or make jokes. □ Koko showed evidence of using language to convey abstract thoughts and form attachments, such as naming objects or expressing desires (e.g., requesting specific foods or toys). ○ Kanzi § Kanzi was a bonobo § Was trained to use a lexigram system—a visual representation of symbols tha correspond to words or concepts. His achievements provided further insights into the cognitive and communicative abilities of non-human primates, particularly regarding understanding human speech and abstract concepts. - Brain-language lateralization ○ The tendency for language to be processed in one hemisphere of the brain more than the other. - Hemispheric language learning differences c.) e o at s  particularly regarding understanding human speech and abstract concepts. - Brain-language lateralization ○ The tendency for language to be processed in one hemisphere of the brain more than the other. - Hemispheric language learning differences ○ Left-hemisphere for 90 percent of right handers and life-long signers § The left hemisphere is involved in language comprehension and production § The right hemisphere can compensate for damage to the left hemisphere - Sensitive period ○ Early years until around age 5 is sensitive for language learning; children are most receptive to learning language and readily absorb information about sounds, words and grammar from their environment. - Research ○ Genie § 13 year old girl with little to no exposure to spoken language; having no functional language abilities. § Her story showed the importance of early exposure to language. ○ Adult-language learners § focuses on the processes, challenges, and outcomes of learning a second language later in life. ○ Deaf community learners § Examines how Deaf individuals learn and use language, focusing on both sign languages and spoken/written languages. This field is particularly important because Deaf learners often experience unique circumstances, such as delayed language exposure, bilingualism in sign and spoken/written languages, and diverse educational environments. - A human environment is required! - Infants’ auditory preferences are fine-tuned through experience with human language. - Infant-directed speech (IDS) ○ Distinctive mode of speech that adults adopt when talking to babies and very youn children; preferred by infants and used by virtually all cultures ○ Greater pitch variability; slower speech; shorter utterances; more word repetition; more questions ○ Cultural context matters. The Process of Language Acquisition: - Language is acquired by listening and speaking (or watching and signing) Two Languages: - Bilingual infants ○ Learn in the womb; equal language preference if exposed prenatally ○ Discriminate speech sounds of two language at same pace of infants learning one ○ Are better at using silent talking face to discriminate unfamiliar languages ○ Build two linguistic systems; code switching s, n ng Two Languages: - Bilingual infants ○ Learn in the womb; equal language preference if exposed prenatally ○ Discriminate speech sounds of two language at same pace of infants learning one ○ Are better at using silent talking face to discriminate unfamiliar languages ○ Build two linguistic systems; code switching ○ Have vocabularies distributed across two languages ○ Perform better on cognitive control measures Speech Perception: - Prosody: the characteristic rhythm, tempo, cadence, melody, intonational patterns, etc., with which a language is spoken. - Categorical perception: the perception of speech sounds as belonging to discrete categories. - Voice onset time (VOT): the length of time between when air passes through the lips and when the vocal cords start vibrating. - Word segmentation: the process of discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech. - Distributional properties: the phenomenon that, in any language, certain sounds are mor likely to appear together than are others. Preparation for Production: - Babbling ○ Producing syllables made up of a consonant followed by a vowel (“pa,” “ba,” “ma”) that are repeated in strings (“mamama”). ○ Produced as sounds (or hand movements (for learners of sign language). ○ Produced during early phases of language development. - Early interactions and babbling ○ Social interactions learned from parent-infant games. ○ Infant response evokes range of parental response. ○ Signal that infant is attentive is provided. - Successful communication required ○ Intersubjectivity: two different people sharing a mutual understanding ○ Joint attention: two individuals are able to put their attention on the same thing First Words: - Early word recognition ○ Linguistic experience support skilled rapid word comprehension. ○ Parents underestimate this comprehension competence. ○ Older children use context to aid word recognition. - First words produced between 10 and 15 months of age - References to family members, pets, important objects - Early word production ○ Overextension: an overly broad interpretation of the meaning of a word d re )  ○ Parents underestimate this comprehension competence. ○ Older children use context to aid word recognition. - First words produced between 10 and 15 months of age - References to family members, pets, important objects - Early word production ○ Overextension: an overly broad interpretation of the meaning of a word § Ex. Calling all dogs by the name of your dog ○ Underextension: an overly narrow interpretation of the meaning of a word § Ex. Referring to only your dog as 'dog', calling all other dogs 'animals' Putting Words Together: - First sentences ○ Most children combine words into simple sentences by end of second year. § Telegraphic speech: Short utterances that leave out non- essential words; generally two-word utterances - Grammar ○ Mastery of regularities of language ○ Increasing ability to recognize patterns and generalize to novel words - Overregularization ○ Speech errors in which children treat irregular forms of words as if they were regul Later Development: - Development of language skills beyond ages 5 or 6 years ○ Accomplishments in sustaining a conversation ○ Complex grammar mastered by school-age children ○ Appreciation of multiple meanings of words ○ Better comprehension of words - Approximate vocabulary achieved by age: ○ 6-year-olds – 10,000 words ○ 5th-graders – 40,000 words ○ College students – 150,000 words Concept Development: Beginning with Concepts: - Concepts ○ Are general ideas that organize objects, events, qualities, or relations on the basis o some similarity ○ Aid in understanding and effectively acting in the world through generalization of prior experiences Understanding Who or What: - Children divide objects into general categories. lar of  some similarity ○ Aid in understanding and effectively acting in the world through generalization of prior experiences Understanding Who or What: - Children divide objects into general categories. ○ Inanimate objects ○ People ○ Other animals Dividing Objects into Categories: - Children tend to organize categories of objects into category hierarchies. - Categories are organized by set–subset relations, such as animal/dog/poodle. - Infants categorize objects along colour, size, and movement dimensions using perceptual categorization. - During the 2nd year, overall shape is the basis for categorizing objects. Causal Understanding and Categorization: - Young children actively seek knowledge about causes. ○ 3 months ○ 5 months ○ 6 months ○ Around 1 year - Development of causal relations continues long after infancy. Understanding Oneself and Other People: - Eyecams and headcams assess infant’s visual understanding in natural settings. - The most significant lesson from this research is that infants look most at a special type o object — other people! l of