Ch 6 - sensory, perception, attn

Question 1

Constructivists

Answer 1

on the side of nurture

- Argue that perceptions are constructed through learning

Question 2

Nativist

Answer 2

on the side of nature
- Argue that innate capabilities and maturational programs drive perceptual development and that perception does not require interpretation

Question 3

Main methods used for studying infant perception

Answer 3

Habituation
Preferential looking
Evoked potentials
Operant conditioning

Question 4

Habituation

Answer 4

The process of learning to be bored with a stimulus

- used to test for discrimination of stimuli by all the senses

Question 5

Preferential looking

Answer 5

• Researchers present an infant with two stimuli at the same time and measure the length of time the infant spends looking at each
• A preference for one over the other indicates that the infant discriminates between the two stimuli

Question 6

Evoked potentials

Answer 6

Researchers can assess how an infant’s brain responds to stimulation by measuring its electrical conductivity

Question 7

Infant and vision.. they can -

Answer 7

detect changes in brightness and can track a slow-moving object or picture

Question 8

Visual acuity as an infant

Answer 8

ability to perceive detail

Optimal at about 8 inches from the face or if objects are boldly patterned with sharp light-dark contrasts

Question 9

Visual accommodation - infant

Answer 9

– ability to focus on objects at different distances

Takes 6 months to 1 year before can see as well as an adult

Question 10

Infants’ visual preferences

Answer 10

• Attracted to patterns that have light-dark transitions, or contour
  Sharp boundaries between light and dark areas, such as offered by black and white objects
• Attracted to displays that are dynamic – contain movement – rather than static
  Can track a slow-moving object
• Attracted to moderately complex patterns
  Prefer clear patterns (checkerboard) to blank or complex stimuli
  Prefer “top-heavy” patterns such as the human face

Question 11

Depth perception - Newborns

Answer 11

• appear to have size constancy

- Recognition that an object is the same size despite changes in its distance from the eyes

Question 12

Classic study to examine depth perception in infants using the visual cliff: Gibson & Walk (1960)

Answer 12

• Most infants older than 6 ½ months crossed the “shallow” pattern but would not cross the “deep” or “cliff” pattern
• Infants can perceive the cliff by 2 months
• Most infants of crawling age (typically 7 months or older) clearly perceive depth and have learned to fear drop-offs

Question 13

(in re research on infant vision) infants have intuitive theories –

Answer 13

• organized systems of knowledge

– that allow them to make sense of the world

Question 14

Hearing - Basic capacities are present at birth

Answer 14

• Can hear better than they can see
• Can localize sounds
• Can be startled by loud noises
• Can turn toward soft sounds
• Prefer relatively complex auditory stimuli
• Can discriminate among sounds that differ in loudness, duration, direction, and frequency/pitch

Question 15

The pioneering research of Eimas (1975, 1985) demonstrated …

Answer 15

that infants could distinguish similar consonants (ba and pa) and vowels (a and i) and between standard and rarely heard sounds
- can discriminate basic phonemes

Question 16

Gibson (1988) suggested that infants engage in three phases of exploratory behavior

Answer 16

• From birth to 4 months, infants explore their immediate surroundings by looking and listening and especially by mouthing objects and watching them move
• From 5 to 7 months, once infants can grasp, they explore objects with their hands as well as with their eyes
• By 8 or 9 months, infants use crawling to extend their explorations into the larger environment and carefully examine an object by fingering it, poking it, and watching it

Question 17

Among humans, early experiences affect the development of vision during multiple sensitive periods, which refers to -

Answer 17

“. . . a window of time during which an individual is more affected by experience, and thus has a higher level of plasticity than at other times throughout life . . . ”

Question 18

Sensory experience is vital in

Answer 18

determining the organization of the developing brain

Question 19

Sensory and perceptual development is largely complete at …

Answer 19

the end of infancy and becomes more refined during childhood
- learn to use their senses more intelligently

Question 20

Infants are “captured by” something –

Answer 20

they react to environmental events

They have an “orienting system”

Question 21

Children are “directed toward” something

Answer 21

They have a focusing system that seeks out and maintains attention to events

Question 22

Improvements in sustained attention occur from ages .. because…

Answer 22

age 5-6 to ages 8-9

- as the parts of the brain involved with attention become further myelinated

Question 23

selective attention –

Answer 23

deliberately concentrating on one thing while ignoring something else
- infants not good at this

Question 24

When do children become systematic in their visual searchs?

Answer 24

In a research study (Vurpillot, 1968)

• children aged 4-5 were not systematic in a visual search
• but most children older than 6 were very systematic

Question 25

Exposure to sounds above _____ can result in hearing loss

Answer 25

75 decibels

Question 26

tinnitus –

Answer 26

ringing sounds in one or both ears

Question 27

Changes in taste during adolescence

Answer 27

• Slight decline in preference for sweets and an increased sensitivity to sour tastes
• Adolescents are more likely to have an acquired taste for previously disliked or avoided foods

Question 28

Sense of smell in adolescence

Answer 28

Women generally demonstrate greater sensitivity than men to a variety of odors (including body odor)

Question 29

Sensory losses take two forms in adults

Answer 29

1. Sensory thresholds are higher
   - Sensitivity to very low levels of stimulation is lost
2. Perceptual abilities decline in some aging adults
   - Difficulty in processing or interpreting sensory information

Question 30

Adult and aging - vision

Answer 30

• Pupils become smaller and do not respond as much when lighting conditions change
• Sharp drop in visual acuity when contrast is poor and light levels are low
• Dark adaptation occurs more slowly
• The lens becomes denser and less flexible
• Cannot accommodate to bring objects at different differences into focus
• Thickening of the lens results in presbyopia, decreased ability to accommodate objects close to the eye

Question 31

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) results from

Answer 31

damage to retinal cells responsible for central vision

• Vision becomes blurry and begins to fade from the center of the visual field – blank or dark space in the center of the image
• Leading cause of blindness in older adults
• Causes are unknown and there is no cure

Question 32

Loss of peripheral vision leads to

Question 33

Retinitis pigmentosa is a …

Answer 33

group of hereditary disorders that involve gradual deterioration of the light-sensitive cells of the retina

Question 34

Glaucoma is caused by ..

Answer 34

increased fluid pressure in the eye that can damage the optic nerve, cause loss of peripheral vision, and lead to blindness

Question 35

Older adults have the greatest difficulties in processing visual information when …

Answer 35

• the situation is novel (when they are not sure exactly what to look for or where to look) and - when it is complex (there are many distractions)

Question 36

Most age-related hearing problems originate in

Answer 36

the inner ear

- Auditory receptors and hearing-related structures and neurons degenerate during adulthood and result in presbycusis

Question 37

Among older adults, hearing impairments are ___ times as prevalent as visual impairments

Answer 37

• three times

Question 38

Among adults aged 65 and older, as many as ___ have mildly impaired hearing that progressively worsens with age

Answer 38

• 90 percent

Question 39

The most common form of presbycusis is

Answer 39

.. loss of sensitivity to high-frequency or high-pitched sounds
- Results in difficulty hearing a child’s high voice, the flutes in an orchestra, or high-frequency consonant sounds such as s, z, and ch

Question 40

After age 50, it also becomes difficult to hear

Answer 40

lower-frequency sounds