Child Topic 3: Perceptual development Flashcards
Gibson and Walk background
-Gibson and Walk were interested in why children and young animals would not fall from high places.
-They wondered if this was innate or learnt behaviour
Gibson and Walk aim
-To see if young animals and human children were able to perceive depth innately and therefore know not to crawl/walk over the edge of a visual cliff edge
Gibson and Walk Sample
-36 children
-Aged 6-14 months
Gibson and Walk materials
-A glass pane over a surface that dropped half way across; producing a visual cliff where it appeared to be a drop but wasn’t
Gibson and Walk method
-Each child was placed individually on a board in the centre of the box, so that the child could crawl off onto the deep side or the shallow side of the cliff
-The mothers stood at the shallow end (position A) or the deep end (position B) of the box and called for the child to go to her
Gibson and Walk results
Quantitative findings:
-of the 36 children, 27 moved off the board
-100% moved across the shallow side to get to their mother
-only 11% crawled across the deep side to get to their mother
Qualitative findings:
-Children would peep through the glass at the cliff edge and back away
-Many tested the solidity of the glass but still crossed anyway
Gibson and Walk conclusion
By the time children can crawl they’ve had several months of interaction with the environment so it’s hard to tell if it’s innate or learned
Fantz- preference for complex patterns and faces
-babies have a preference for complex patterns than simple suggesting they’re able to differentiate
-they also showed a preference for human faces
-suggests an innate ability to recognise faces as his stay looked at babies under the age of 5 days old
Hudson- culture and perception
-noticed difficulties in interpreting depth cues by South African Bantu workers
-showed them pictures and asked if the man was trying to an elephant or a dear
-such cues are important as they convey information about he spatial relationship among objects
-results indicated that history and culture play an important role on perception ; perception is concerned with the environment
Blakemore and Cooper- kittens raised in different environments
-they aimed to limit the visual environment of kittens and kept them in the dark from birth to 2 weeks
-later they were put in a cylinder with either only horizontal or only vertical stripes for 5 hours a day
-it was found that kittens raised in a vertical environment could not see horizontal stripes and vice versa
-they also lacked the startle response
Sensory integration therapy (SIT)
-hyposensitive means someone won’t feel pain/ aren’t bothered by strong tastes or smells
-hypersensitive means someone will get overwhelmed quickly and are more sensitive to loud noises, bright lights etc.
-a child is observed and checklists are used to diagnose the sensory issue
-the therapist will then chose appropriate activities in a structured environment, as well as in a repetitive and progressive way
3 evaluation points on sampling bias
-biased when only using people from one culture
-biased if only using a simple from a limited age range
-less bias if it uses more then one species
3 evaluation points for validity
-ecological validity is low because it doesn’t resemble real life
-good population validity if multiple species are used
-low constructor’s validity if methods to collect data aren’t accurate
3 evaluation points for reliability
-lacks reliability due to equipment being used
-sample is too small to establish a consistent effect
-reliable if it uses a standardised procedure
