Infancy: perception, knowledge and action

Question 1

What are the 4 tools used to produce a 3D image in the brain?

Answer 1

Size constancy
Shape constancy
Binocular parallax
Monocular cues

Question 2

What are the monocular cues? (5)

Answer 2

Size/visual angles
Occlusion
Texture gradient
Lighting/shading
Motion parallax

Question 3

Gibson and Walk (1960)

Answer 3

Visual cliff:
Illusion of depth created on one side of a table
Infants (with an eye patch and without) refused to crawl over the deep end
Consequence of motion parallax and the deep floor doesn’t move as much as the shallow floor
Shows infants have depth perception

Question 4

Campos et al. (1992)

Answer 4

Learned response: ability to move under own volition is important for depth perception
Infants who could crawl were scared when lowered over the deep end
Infants who couldn’t crawl were not - except those who could move around with a walker, these were also scared when lowered

Question 5

Bower (1960)

Answer 5

Depth perception is innate:
3 month olds have size and shape constancy
- Still recognised a box was unfamiliar even when it was further away and therefore looked the same as the one they knew

Question 6

Slater et al. (1990)

Answer 6

2 day olds look for longer at novel stimuli even if the familiar stimuli was presented at different distances
Size and depth constancy

Question 7

Value of innate knowledge of depth?

Answer 7

Defensive reaction towards an object heading towards you

Question 8

Evidence supporting evolutionary defensive reason for innate knowledge of depth

Answer 8

Bower et al. (1970): defensive reaction in 2 week olds when object projected at their faces
Ball and Tronick (1971): defensive reaction in 2 weeks olds for rapidly expanding patterns on screen

Question 9

Kelman and Spelke (1983)

Answer 9

3 month olds were exposed to a black bar with a white line running across it
They looked for longer at a static broken bar compared to static solid bar suggesting it was new to them
Demonstrates concept of occulsion

Question 10

Slater et al. (1991)

Answer 10

Comfirmed that previous research is reliable as 2 day olds can remember what they saw previously
They had a preference for the new shape regardless of the orientation of the shape they were habituated to

Question 11

Social stimuli, evidence for innate response

Answer 11

Fantz, 1961: 1 month olds prefer correctly arranged faces
Fogel & Melson, 1988: 1-2month olds fixate on the eyes
Carpenter, 1975: 2 weeek olds recognise their mother’s face

Question 12

Social stimuli, evidence for learned response

Answer 12

Meltzoff: baby can imitate the facial expressions they see (cross modal mapping)
Emotions and language is learned by attending to others

Question 13

Study showing perceptual to conceptual knowledge

Answer 13

Rattle is hidden under cloth A so the child removes cloth A to get the rattle
Then the rattle is moved to cloth B
The child still reaches for cloth A
Suggests they understand the object in terms of previous reaching movements, not as a separate reality

Question 14

Thouless (1932)

Answer 14

Participants had to stand at the end of a table and draw a dinner plate that was on the table as it appears (an ellipse)
Pps. exaggerated the circularity of the plate because they knew it was round

Question 15

Taylor and Mitchell (1997)

Answer 15

Circularity exaggeration is still found when shape is presented in a black box (removes ambient perspective cues)
Exaggeration is less when they’re unaware the object is a circle

Question 16

Ropar and Mitchell (2002)

Answer 16

Autistic individuals exaggerate the circularity less than those without autism