Chapter 5

Question 1

What do constructivists say about sensory learning/experience?

Answer 1

Piaget argues that nurture, in the form of perceptions of the world that are constructed over time through learning, make up most of our experiences. Where, when we have a retinal image, we can interpret its meaning only through nurture.

Question 2

What do nativists say about sensory learning/experience?

Answer 2

They argue that perception is not created by interpreting external input but that innate capabilities and maturational programs are the driving forces in perceptual development. Sensory capabilities are nature, but perceptions are too since they follow an innate plan.

Question 3

What do ecologists say about sensory learning/experience?

Answer 3

Developed by the Gibsons, it proposes that information important to perception is readily and directly available in the environment - objects themselves. As we move in the world, our position relative to other objects is constantly changing and altering the flow of information and images projected to our retina. Also, how we percieve objects and their affordances - which is determined by our genetic predispositions and goals/motivations

Question 4

Newborns and their vision

Answer 4

Social parts of the brain that work on interaction are seen in newborns when they view a human face but not any other body part. Therefore, the visual system already works and that the brain cand distinguish faces to other parts of the body. However, visual acuity is still worse in newborns and visual accomodation has not been fully formed yet.

Question 5

What are some methods for assessing infant perception?

Answer 5

1. Habituation
2. Preferential looking
3. Evoked potentials
4. Operant conditioning

Question 6

What do infants particularly struggle with?

Answer 6

They find it difficult to seperate the visual field into distinct objects - where one object begins and one ends. Form perception also only starts at 3 months and only at 2 months do they understand interiors of figures to determine what something is - also getting better at shifting attention instead of having it fixed and differentiating between moving/stationary obejcts.

Question 7

What are the properties that catch the attention of infants most?

Answer 7

1. Patterns with lots of light-dark transition/contour.
2. Displays that contain movement
3. Patterns that are moderatly complex that are not too simple or complex.
4. They prefer objects in their upper visual field (ones that are top-heavy)

Question 8

Why do infants have particular visual patterns?

Answer 8

They prefer to look at whatever they can see well where the input can stimulate the development of the visual center of their brain

Question 9

Why is face perception important?

Answer 9

To distinguish between human and non human faces as well as other human faces are critical for social interaction

Question 10

Infants and facial perception

Answer 10

Infants prefer to look at schematic drawings of faces rather than other patterned stimuli. They can also dinstinguish their mother’s face from others. However, actions are more saliant than faces for infants and can not attend to both an action and face, but one at a time.

Question 11

Does face recognition improve with age in adolsecence?

Answer 11

There are further refinements in both the accuracy and speed of face recognition.

Question 12

Newborns and depth perception

Answer 12

Infants can understand when an object is moving toward them but only at 4 months do they understand size constancy. In the visual cliff experiment, it was thought that infants could percieve depth and avoid drop-offs. But it seems more that infants percieve a difference between the deep and shallow sides but not nescessarily fear the deep side.

Question 13

How may infants be intuitive theorists?

Answer 13

They are already equipped with a sense of the world and its physics and are surprised if objects dont follow those rules. They also organise information into different domains and have some innate knowledge that is expanded upon.

Question 14

How does prenatal exposure to music affect brain activity?

Answer 14

Infants previously exposed to music in pregnancy will have an increase in brain activity when hearing the music again.

Question 15

Sounds in post and prenatal environments

Answer 15

In the womb, fetuses often hear low-frequency sounds but in postnatal environments, they often hear high frequency sounds. If exposed to low-frequency sounds postnatally, babies are more likely to develop a larger auditory cortex.

Question 16

How do infants percieve speech?

Answer 16

Infants show a preference for speech than nonspeech sounds. They can also discriminate between similar consonant sounds. They also learn in prenatal environments and can already distinguish between their family’s native/non-native laguage - this is decreased with age. Infants also are more attentive to female voices and can distinguish their mother’s voice (not so much to father’s) - likely as fetuses hear and get used to their mother’s voice during pregnancy.

Question 17

How are chemical senses percieved by infants?

Answer 17

Taste and smell are chemical senses. Babies can percieve differences and different concentrations of certain tastes (such as sweetness or bitterness). Babies show a higher preference for sweets if there are higher concentrations of sugar in amniotic fluid. Basic flavours are innate, but sophisticated flavours are learned. Smell is also favoured through exposure in amniotic fliuid, breast milk etc, and it is likely responsible for allowing babies to recognise their mothers smell and the mother their babies smell.

Question 18

How do babies shape their food preferences?

Answer 18

Depending on the formula they were given, babies would show different food preferences to those formulas. Bitter/sour formulas meant babies and later toddlers showed preference to bitter and sour foods. They also need to be fed this over a long time period. This also applies to smell.

Question 19

How are somaesthetic senses percieved by infants?

Answer 19

It includes senses of touch and its correpondents. Touch operates before birth but sensitivity to tactile stimulation develops in a cephalocaudal way. Premature babies who are systematically stroked over their entire body gain more weight and exhibit relaxed behaviour. Newborns are also sensitive to warmth and cold and painful stimuli. They learn from these stimuli and respond later with increased emotion.

Question 20

What is the influence of early experiences on infants?

Answer 20

Sensory input from actions and perceptions lead to better development of the corresponding parts of the brain - making it so that experience can change, for worse or better, an infant. These sensitive periods in infancy could forever change the brain.

Question 21

What are the different sensitive periods where vision can be influenced by experience?

Answer 21

1. The visually driven normal development - when expected developmental changes in vision will occur with exposure to normal visual input and wont without them.
2. The damage period - a period when abnormal or absent visual input can lead to permanent deficits in some aspect of vision.
3. the recovery period - when the visual system has the potential to recover from damage

Question 22

What do infants need in their experiences to develop properly?

Answer 22

They already actively combine perception and action in their exploratory behaviour and create sensory environments that meet their needs.

Question 23

What is Gibson’s ecological perspective on infant development?

Answer 23

1. birth to 4 months - exploring immediate surroundings
2. 5 to 7 months - as babies can voluntarily grasp, they pay attention more to objects and interact with them
3. 8 to 9 months - infants extend exploration to the larger environment

Question 24

What two accomplishments are not really achieved during infancy?

Answer 24

1. The coupling of perception and action leading to purposeful movement
2. Integration of multiple sources of sensory information

Question 25

How do babies improve on perception and action over time?

Answer 25

Walking can expand their opportunities to interact with the environment differently, reaching for things higher. It is first through gross motor skills that babies become more speicalised in fine motor skills - following the cephalocaudal principle as neurons between the brain and the muscles acquire myelin.