Chapter 5 Flashcards
Sensation
The processing of information from the world by the sensory system
Perception
Taking notice of sensation, organizing and interpreting that information.
Until very recently, what was assumed about infants’ vision?
They could barely see. Not true.
Preferential-looking technique
A method for studying visual attention in infants by showing infants two patterns/objects at a time and seeing which they have a preference for.
Modern versions of preferential-looking technique often use:
Eye trackers.
Visual acuity
Sharpness of ability to discern what it is you are looking at.
Contrast sensitivity
the brain’s tendency to notice contrasts in light and darkness.
Stripey pong paddles
Can be used to test infants visual acuity by seeing which they look at first. Different amounts of stripes mean different levels of visual acuity needed to tell that there’s contrast (instead of just looking grey)
Cones
Light-sensitive parts of the human eye
Rods
Color-sensitive parts of the human eye.
Infants’ ability to see color
Cannot see color in the first month, they do not have RODS.
Does language influence perception of color?
Not in infancy! Infants tell changes in color even before they learn language. According to Yang Et Al (2015)
Development of visual acuity in infants
First, they focus on the contours of the face, and then the specific details at above 2 months (typically).
Interesting quirk about bilingual infants
They’re stupid and lame LOL LMAO jk they develop visual acuity faster.
What can they see at 4 months of age?
They start focusing on the mouth of people speaking, as they are learning to speak themselves.
Perceptual constancy
Our ability to percieve the world in a consistent way. When someone walks away, we don’t think they get smaller. We can comprehend 3 dimensions.
Empiricist
Children learn as they grow
Nativist
Children have innate knowledge of things that is just unlocked as they grow up.
Object segregation
Being able to tell the edges and differences between objects.
Rod study
Infants were shown a rod moving behind a box. Two groups, one where the rod was 1 object, but another where the rod was actually split in 2, but just moving together. When the box was removed, infants focused more on the rod that was split in 2. IMPLICATION: Infants have a sense of object segregation, which is why 2 pieces of the rod moving together seemed more interesting.
Infants are focused more on top heavy or bottom heavy facial features?
Top heavy facial features!
Other Race Effect
Tendency for adult humans to be able to distinguish people of their own race easier. Infants of 3 months exhibit this trait as well.
Common movement
Example of a cue that lets children see something as one unified object.
Optical expansion
When an object gets bigger looking as it gets closer to you
When do infants develop depth perception?
3 months for binocular depth cues. 7 months for monocular depth cues
stereopsis
The brain interpreting our 2 eye vision to give us depth perception and gauge how far away something is.
Binocular disparity
We have 2 eyes so we have depth perception!
Monocular depth cues
Things like object size, interposition, used for perceiving depth perception.
Auditory localization
Finding the source of a sound.
perceptual narrowing
Children and infants getting better at perception by experiencing more and more. Example: getting better at playing smash just by experience.
intermodal perception
interpreting information from multiple senses. Like seeing someone hit a drum and hearing the drum sound, interpreting it as one event.
