chapter 7: sensory and perceptual abilities

Question 1

What is sensation?

Answer 1

the experience resulting from the stimulation of a sens organ

Question 2

What is perception?

Answer 2

the interpretation of sensory stimulation based on experience. Ability to make sense of pattern in stimuli.

Question 3

what is attention?

Answer 3

the selection of particular sensory input for perceptual and cognitive processing and the exclusion of competinig input.

Question 4

true or false: the earlier in development a perceptual skill appears, the more likely it is that it has been acquired by experience.

Answer 4

false

Question 5

this approach emphasizes the role of experience in guiding development. Development occurs as babies learn through experience to construct increasignly complex perceptions from seperate input of senses.

Answer 5

Environmental/learning theories and perceptual development

Question 6

-approach in which biological basis for perceptual development, but also nurture plays a role—interactionist

Answer 6

Gibson theory of perceptual development

Question 7

the perceptual experience that results from active exploration of objects by touch

Answer 7

haptic perception

Question 8

What are newborns’ senses?

Answer 8

• touch
• vision
• vestibular sensitivity
• smell and taste
• hearing

Question 9

how can we investigate newborn’s smell and taste capabilities?

Answer 9

• habituation-dishabituation

- examine facial reaction, body language

Question 10

True or false: taste receptors function before birth

Answer 10

true: functionning of taste receptors before birth comes from the evidence that exposure to flavours prenatally will affect taste preferences after birth

Question 11

True or false: Newborns prefer vanilla, strawberry, banana smells and sweet tastes from salty, sour or bitter tastes.

Answer 11

true

Question 12

the perceptual experience that results from motion of the body and the pull of gravity and necessary for the development of motor skills.

Answer 12

vestibular sensitivity

Question 13

what are infants preferences for taste at around 4 months

Answer 13

they begin to prefer salty tastes which previously they found aversive.

Question 14

how can we investigate newborn’s hearing capabilities?

Answer 14

• reactions to sound: tighten eyelids, turn head and eyes away from source or towards, or become quiet and listen
• habituation/dishabituation procedure to detect their ability to discriminate between sounds

Question 15

What are fetus’s prenatal hearing abilities?

Answer 15

• 25 weeks after conceptions fetus’ can hear

- 28 weeks after conception all fetus’ clamped eyelids in response to sound

Question 16

What which age can babies discriminate between their mother’s voice and strangers voices?

Answer 16

-4 days old (compared by sucking rythms)

Question 17

Who were Decasper and Spence and their findings?

Answer 17

studied fetus’ prenatal hearing abilities. Pregnant women read a story each day of the last six weeks to their fetus, their babies teste at 3 days of age showed a preference for the familiar story over new story.

Question 18

What are newborn’s hearing abilities?

Answer 18

• less sensitive to sound than are adults

- hear relatively better at low frequencies

Question 19

A research method for the study of visual abilitiy in infancy. Two visual stimuli are presented simultaneously, and the amount of time the infant looks at each one is measured. If the infant stares at one more than the other, we conclude that he/she can discriminate between stimuli.

Answer 19

Preference method (Robert Fantz)