Ch 5 infancy Flashcards
Perception
the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information
Sensation
the processing of basic information from external world by the sensory receptors in the sense organs and brain
Preferential looking technique
a method for studying visual attention in infants that involves showing infants two patterns or two objects at a time to see if the infants have a preference of one over the other (discrimination)
Visual Acuity
the sharpness of visual discrimination
Contrast Sensitivity
the ability to detect differences in light and dark areas in a visual pattern (infants are bad at this)
Cones
light-sensitive neurons that are highly concentrated in the fovea (the central region of the retina) (immature in infants)
Perceptual Constancy
the perception of objects as being constant size, shape, colour, etc., in spite of physical differences in the retinal image of the object
Object segregation
the identification of separate objects in a visual array (the perception of the boundaries between objects)
Optical Expansion
a depth cue in which an object occludes increasingly more of the background, indicating that the object is approaching
binocular disparity
the 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
–example of experience expectant plasticity
What is strabismus?
a disorder in which the two eyes do not line up in the same direction. Can occur as a result of not hitting the experience expected in vision, from birth to 3 months of age
Monocular depth cues (or pictorial), and when does they develop?
the perceptual cues of depth (such as relative size and interposition) that can be perceived by one eye alone
(develops around 7 months of age)
Auditory localization
perception of the location in space of a sound source, becomes better with age as we develop and fine tune our auditory spatial map
Perceptual Narrowing
developmental changes in which experience fine-tunes the perceptual system
ex) infants can notice a note change in same key that adults can’t because they are highly sensitive at that point to tiny changes.
Intermodal perception
the combining of information from two or more sensory systems- facilitated by sensory experience
Do infants prefer consonance or dissonance ?
Consonance, just as even animals and adults do.
Reflexes
innate, fixed patterns of action that occur in response to a particular stimulation
Stepping reflex
a neonatal reflex in which an infant lifts first one leg and then the other in a coordinated pattern like walking
Pre-reaching movements
clumsy swiping movements by young infants toward the general vicinity tog objects they see
Self locomotion
the ability to move oneself around in the environment- occurs at about 8 months of age typically in the form of crawling
Scale errors
the attempt by a young child to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the large discrepancy in the relative sizes of the child & object
Differentiation
extracting from the constantly changing stimulation and events in the environment the relation of those elements that are constant-invariant, or stable.
Affordances
the possibilities for action offered, or afforded, by objects and situations
What is the Goldilocks effect? What does it suggest?
The tendency to avoid patterns that are too easy or too hard, while continuing to focus on those that are just right, given the infant’s learning abilities.
-suggets that infants allocate attention differently to different learning problems, preferentially attending to the patterns that are most informative
Classical Conditioning
a form of learning that consists of associating an initially neutral stimulus with a stimulus that always evokes a particular reflexive response
ex)Pavlovs dog salivating with bell
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
in classical conditioning, a stimulus that evokes a reflexive response
ex) food causes dogs to salivate
Unconditioned response (UCR)
in classical conditioning, a reflexive response that is elicited by unconditioned stimulus
ex) the saliva in dogs caused by food
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
in classical conditioning, the neutral stimulus that is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus
ex) the bell in Pavlov’s experiment
Conditioned Response (CR)
in classical conditioning, the originally reflexive response that comes to be elicited by the conditioned stimulus
ex) the salivating caused by the bell
Instrumental (operant) Conditioning
learning the relation between one one’s behaviour and the consequences that result from it
ex) learning that pulling a lever gives you sugar candy
Positive reinforcement
a reward that reliably follows a behaviour and increases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated
ex) the sugar candy given to rat who pulled lever
Active Learning
learning by acting on the world, rather than passively observing objects and events
(think Piaget’s theory)
Violation of expectancy
a procedure used to study infant cognition in which infants are shown an event that should evoke surprise or interest if it violates something that the infant knows or assumes to be true
