Chapter 5 (Siegler et al.): Seeing, Thinking, & Doing in Infancy Flashcards
Perception
Sensation:The processing of basic information
from the world through the sense organs (eyes,
ears, skin, etc.)
Perception:The process of organizing and
interpreting sensory
information about
objects, events,
and the world
around us
Vision
Infants’ vision is initially relatively poor
Vision rapidly improves during the first
months of life
There are different ways of testing
infants’ vision
Preferential looking
Habituation
Visual Acuity in Infants
Development of visual
acuity
8 months = approaches
that of adults
*Young infants prefer to look
at patterns of high visual
contrast (because they have
poor contrast sensitivity)
*Newborns’color vision limited
at first, but similar to adults’by
2-3 months of age.
Types of Knowledge
Object knowledge
Object permanence
Physical knowledge
Understanding support relations
Things don’t float!
Social knowledge
Actions are goal-directed
Visual Scanning
Scanning
One-month-olds (a)
scan the perimeters
of shapes
Two-month-olds (b)
scan both the
perimeters and the
interiors of shapes
Tracking
Infants begin scanning environment right away,
yet cannot track even slowly moving objects
smoothly until about 2 to 3 months of age
Face Processing
From birth, infants are drawn
to faces
bias toward “top heavy”
configurations (e.g., with more
elements in the upper half than in
the lower half)
Infants can recognize/prefer
own mother’s face after only
~12 cumulative hours of
exposure
Perceptual Narrowing
As an adult human,
you no doubt can tell
the two men apart
quite easily
However, judging
whether the two
monkey photos are
of the same or
different individuals
may be difficult
6-month-olds can easily
discriminate both human and
monkey faces
9-month-olds and adults have
a difficult time with the
monkey faces*
*Unless they continue to have exposure to monkey faces!
Face Preferences
Along with the rest
of us, infants
prefer attractive
faces.
From birth infants
look longer at
attractive faces than
at less attractive
faces
Attractiveness based
on adult ratings of
level of attractiveness
Auditory Perception
Hearing is the most advanced of the
newborn senses
A newborn’s hearing can be checked with
advanced equipment, but screening is
needed for hearing loss that may occur later
As a check, does a child react to loud
sounds, imitate sounds – as in peekaboo – or
begin to respond to his or her name?
Auditory localization
Perception of the location in space of a sound
course (improves as infant grows)
Reaches adult accuracy by end of 1st year
Music Perception
Infants prefer infant-directed
singing over adult-directed
singing
Infants also prefer infant-directed
singing over adult-directed speech
Infant music perception is adult-like
Discriminate different sounds
React to changes in musical key and
rhythm
Infants prefer consonant music as opposed
to dissonant music
Taste and Smell
Sensitivity to taste and smell develops
before birth.
Newborns have an innate preference for
sweet flavors.
Newborns prefer the smell of breast milk and
by two weeks of age appear to be able to
differentiate the scent of their own mothers
from that of other women.
Touch
Infants learn about the
environment through
active touch.
Oral exploration
dominates for the first few
months.
Around 4 months of age,
infants gain greater control
over their hand and arm
movements, and manual
exploration gradually
takes precedence over
oral exploration.
Reflexes
Newborns demonstrate
reflexes – innate, fixed
patterns of action that occur
in response to particular
stimulation
Some reflexes, such as
rooting and sucking, have
clear adaptive value
Others, such as the tonic neck
reflex, have no known
adaptive significance
