Chapter 5: Infant Perception, Motor Development and Learning

Question 1

Methods to test infant visual acuity

Answer 1

Habituation, preferential looking, psychophysiology (heart rate, EEGs, etc.)

Question 2

Acuity in infants

Answer 2

Sharpness of vision; most babies average around 20/120; develops very quickly

Question 3

Visual scanning in infants

Answer 3

Tracking eyes across an environment. Babies lack smooth pursuit tracking skills due to underdeveloped muscles. Scanning pattern becomes more feature focused with age

Question 4

Sticky perception

Answer 4

Babies have trouble disengaging their attention due to low eye motor control and lack of smooth tracking skills

Question 5

Color vision in infants

Answer 5

Develops during the first year; newborns can only see high contrast, color develops around 2-3 months old

Question 6

Facial processing in infants

Answer 6

Scan outer parts of the face at one month, then inner features at 2+ months. Prefer parents faces, faces of the same gender as the primary caregiver, and attractive people. Babies will focus on eyes before speech development, and mouths after

Question 7

Other race effect

Answer 7

Babies cannot discriminate between faces of different races until about 9 months. Prefer the race of their caregiver or whoever they are most exposed to.

Question 8

Other species effect

Answer 8

Babies cannot discriminate between animal and human faces until about 9 months old. 6 month old can differentiate monkey faces (tell the difference between animal faces)

Question 9

Perceptual narrowing

Answer 9

Our perception of differences decreases over time as we mature; rate of decline is faster for less exposed stimuli. Possibly due to synaptic pruning

Question 10

Familiarity preferences

Answer 10

Preference for faces you see often, usually parents. Occurs because 25% of all visual input for a newborn is other’s faces. Percentage decreases as the baby gains mobility

Question 11

Visual benefit of babies’ short arms

Answer 11

The object they are holding takes up more of their visual field, helping them pay attention to it (substitutes endogenous attention)

Question 12

Object segregation

Answer 12

Differentiating objects in an image

Question 13

Perceptual constancy

Answer 13

Objects being perceived as the same shape and size despite the retinal image changing (occurs in infants; proved by the fact that they dishabituate a larger object that takes up the same amount of retinal space)

Question 14

Object permanence

Answer 14

An object is not present in the mind when it leaves the visual field; age prediction possibly inaccurate as babies will reach for items in the dark AND they are confused when a solid wall occludes an object but does not contact the object (passes through as if it wasn’t there)

Question 15

Kellman and Spelke rod and block experiment

Answer 15

Habituate babies to a rod hidden by a block. Rod is either moving or still. Showed babies image of full or split rod. Measured dishabituation. Found no difference in still group, but difference in moving group. Split rod caused more dishabituation. Argued babies understood that items moving together sound be one object. Found in 2 month olds, not in newborns

Question 16

Depth percpetion

Answer 16

Ability to see how far away objects are. Possibly maturational, but we see blinking reflexes in 1 month olds at looming objects

Question 17

Stereopsis

Answer 17

both eyes converging to track an object. Develops around 4 months old, experience-expectant. Studied by Hubert and Weisel

Question 18

Auditory localization

Answer 18

Perception of the spatial location of a sound source, improves with age

Question 19

Music perception in infants

Answer 19

Prefer being sung to than spoken to; pay attention to consonant tones and are sensitive to melodic and rhythmic changes. Experiences perceptual narrowing

Question 20

Development of taste and smell

Answer 20

Occurs before (and directly after) birth through amniotic fluid. Important for nutrition

Question 21

Development of touch

Answer 21

First experiences are from the mouth, hand manipulation begins around 4 months old.

Question 22

Visual cliff experiment

Answer 22

Illusory drop off is made using clear glass and a box. Tested if children will crawl across it. 6-14 month olds will not cross it. 1.5 will see it but not be afraid of it. Age of crossing depends on how long you’ve been crawling.

Question 23

Visual/motor matching

Answer 23

Integrating the skills of looking/perception and moving (multi-modal input is key)

Question 24

Pacifier study (Multzof)

Answer 24

Babies habituate to sucking on a smooth or bumpy pacifier. Then visually shown either the smooth or bumpy pacifier. Track visual preference. Babies will look at the pacifier they are sucking on. Supports visual/motor matching occurs at a young age

Question 25

Visual/Auditory matching

Answer 25

Integrating visual perception skills with listening skills

Question 26

Spelke bouncing animal experiment

Answer 26

Videos are shown alongside an audio clip. One video matches, the other does not. Babies will look longer at the video that matches the audio sound (measuring preferential looking). Supports that visual/auditory matching occurs at a young age.

Question 27

Strabismus

Answer 27

Lack of stereopsis, can be corrected during the sensitive period

Question 28

Congenital cataracts

Answer 28

Clouded lenses, can be medically reversed, sensitive period of removal where visual acuity can be restored

Question 29

Motor development

Answer 29

Milestones are culturally dependent; babies generate their own motor experience/practice; parental input can facilitate development (stretching and movement)

Question 30

Sticky mittens experiment

Answer 30

Gave babies velcro gloves that they could use to pick up items before their grasping skills were developed yet. Kids exposed to sticky mittens had more sophisticated reaching skills and object exploration skills at an earlier age

Question 31

Thelen study of stepping reflex

Answer 31

Hypothesis: disappearance of stepping reflex is due to increase in weight before increase in muscle strength
Test: Put non-walking babies in water (decrease gravity) and put weights on walking babies (increase gravity)
Found: Walking increased in water babies and disappeared in weighted babies.
Supports competence vs. performance: babies know how to step but they cannot perform the knowledge due to bodily restrictions

Question 32

Diaper impact on walking

Answer 32

The bulk of the diaper can affect the natural gait of a child and delay walking. Proof that environmental factors (clothes) can affect development

Question 33

Adolf slopes research

Answer 33

Tested new crawlers and experienced crawlers on slopes of different angles. Found that trepidation of crawling down a slope for experienced crawlers did not extend to walking in those same children. Proves experience in motor control may not transfer between pathways/actions

Question 34

Meltzoff and Moore facial experiment

Answer 34

Made facial expressions at newborn babies and found that they copied them. Suggested this was due to mirror neurons (will activate when observing another’s actions). Controversial conclusion/findings

Question 35

Types of learning in newborns

Answer 35

Classical conditioning, habituation, statistical learning, observational learning, operant conditioning, rational learning, active learning

Question 36

Mobile studies of memory (Rovee and Callion)

Answer 36

Babies tethered to a mobile. Let them explore and figure out that they can control the mobile. Brought back a week later to see if they kick faster than before. Found yes and that it improves with age. If the stimulus changes shape the memory will not transfer (but not with color).

Question 37

Deferred imitation

Answer 37

imitating something you have seen before, thus requiring memory

Question 38

Imitation preference in infants

Answer 38

At 18 months, babies will prefer to imitate actions of humans over robots, because they ascribe intention to human actions but not robots. Will prefer to imitate trustworthy people

Question 39

Statistical learning in infants

Answer 39

Babies prefer probable events. Tested with made up language habituation, then presentation with probable and improbable syllable combinations. Babies would dishabituate to improbable combinations.

Question 40

Rational learning

Answer 40

Integrating prior belief with what occurs in the environment; using prior experience to predict an event outcome. Proved by the colored ping-pong ball experiment.

Question 41

Active learning

Answer 41

Learn by acting on the world. Driven by seeking explanations to surprising outcomes