~Infant Perception Flashcards
Why is it hard to study babies?
-Infants have a limited repertoire of behaviours. We are limited to rudimentary behaviours they show in response to different stimuli, things like brain imaging, and other physiological responses.
What is the first approach that is frequently used when studying infants?
Preference
How is the Preference Method used when studying infants?
In the visual preference method, we present 2+ stimuli to an infant to see if they spend more time looking at one than another. This suggests they can perceive a difference between the stimuli
Early preference studies showed that infants tended to show a preference for the circle that had features resembling a human face, was this true?
Follow-up studies showed that whether it was a face or not didn’t matter. The thing infants are drawn to in the early months is whether there are blocks of high contrast areas that have curved linear shapes that aren’t too complex, but give them something to engage with.
In Fantz’ design, looking time is the ___ variable and the different visual patterns/colors are the ___
dependent // Independent Variable.
What are Head-turn Preference Procedures?
A Preference Method of testing an infants auditory perception
What happens during Head-turn Preference Procedures?
- Associate stimulus A with the left speaker and stimulus B with the right speaker. Infant hears the sound associated with the speaker they look at.
- Once the infant has learned these associations, see if they show a preference for A or B.
Does the stimulus a baby shows a preference for in a Head-turn Preference Procedure mean they “like” it?
It doesn’t necessarily mean they “like” one more than the other—just what they would rather attend
What does Preference mean?
Preference doesn’t mean “enjoy” or “like”, it just means they’re paying more attention to one over the other
Babies’ listening preferences are a little bit fickle, and depend a lot upon their ___, and ___ of the situation.
Age // Characteristics
Why might a baby show preference to a stimulus?
A baby might be paying attention because they like it, or because they find it weird or interesting.
What is Habituation?
Habituation is the type of learning that happens when you learn to tune-out certain stimuli in your environment.
What is the function of Habituation?
You’re learning what warrants your attention (new, startling, and surprising stimuli), but you’re learning to ignore things that are just in the background and probably not a threat to your wellbeing
What can perform Habituation?
A newborn baby and a fetus can Habituate. There are single-celled organisms that have shown evidence of habituation.
What is Dishabituation?
Dishabituation means you’ve stopped responding to one stimulus, but if you notice a different stimulus, you respond to that, because it’s not the thing you’ve learned to tune-out, it’s something different.
At what age does Habituation rate increase?
Habituation rate increases quite a bit around 6 months
What stimuli can newborns Habituate to?
Newborn infants can habituate to familiar stimuli.
Habituation only generalizes to ___
highly similar stimuli
What can we use Habituation and Dishabituation to measure?
We can use Habituation and Dishabituation to get a sense of when infants perceive a difference between two stimuli we present to them
What is a High Amplitude Sucking Procedure?
Babies’ sucking rate is measured (and/or controls presentation of auditory stimuli)
What age group is best for High Amplitude Sucking Procedure?
Good for young infants after birth.
What is sucking behaviour associated with in the High Amplitude Sucking Procedure?
-Sucking behaviour does tend to be linked with their attention to stimuli. Their sucking tends to be faster when interested in something.
Habituation studies have shown that even newborns can discriminate between ___ with different rhythms
Languages
What was shown of babies’ discrimination of languages using the High Amplitude Sucking Procedure?
The babies noticed the difference between the English and Japanese language samples, and it was distinct enough that they were more interested in hearing the Japanese speaker. They dishabituated when the change happened.
This shows us they can perceive a difference, it tells us something about what characteristics of auditory input they’re picking up on
What is Sensation?
Detection of stimuli by the sensory receptors and transmission of this information to the brain
What is the least-developed of newborns’ sensory capabilities?
Vision:
- Sensitive to light (pupillary reflex)
- Rudimentary movement detection/tracking
- Limited visual acuity (approx. 20/400)
- Difficulty accommodating (adjusting shape of lens to bring object into focus)
Babies tend to prefer a lot of ___ in the things they are looking at, and things that aren’t too ___
contrast // complicated
What is Perception?
The process by which we categorize and interpret sensory input. What we do with the info that we’ve taken in
At 4 months, infants are able to use ___ to give an indication that they recognize the two pieces as part of the same whole
kinetic cues //
What happens if babies are habituated to the stationary rod?
If they are habituated to the stationary rod, they don’t really distinguish between the whole rod vs. the one broken in the middle. They don’t seem to treat them differently
What happens if babies are habituated to the moving rod?
They’re a little surprised. The movement suggested it was one single pole that was covered by the block, so when they see the broken rod, they’re surprised because they assumed it was a whole rod behind there.
At 9 months, infants respond to point-light displays in which movement patterns indicate ___
human form
What is The Visual Cliff Experiment?
The visual cliff is a platform that creates the illusion of a dropoff. We can use an infant’s reaction to the cliff to draw conclusions about their depth perception
In The Visual Cliff Experiment, what happens when a 2mo is held over the deep side?
They show decreased heart rate when held over deep side. Suggests they perceive depth. Interest (or at least detection), not fear!
In The Visual Cliff Experiment, what does a 6.5mo do when reaching the shallow side?
Most will cross the shallow side, but pause at the cliff; reluctant to cross deep side. Especially if they have crawling experience
___ influences how babies interpret depth—aware of affordances for how they can interact with the environment
Motor development
Does The Visual Cliff Experiment show that babies are scared of heights?
No, it’s problematic to assume that the decrease in heart rate means the baby is scared of heights. Their motor development is giving them new information to interpret the visual input that they’re getting
