perception, action, and learning in infancy Flashcards
sensation
the processing of basic information from the external world via receptors in the sensory organs/brain
perception
process of organizing and interpreting sensory information about objects, events, layouts, of the world
preferential-looking technique
showing infants two images simultaneously to see if they prefer one of the other, indexed by looking time
what is an infant’s vision at birth?
20/120
visual acuity
sharpness and clarity of vision
contrast sensitivity
ability to detect differences in light/dark areas in visual patterns, poor in infants
cone cells
concentrated in fovea of retina, light-sensitive neurons
smooth pursuit eye movement
visual behavior in which the viewer’s gaze shifts at the same rate as a moving object,
bottom up approach
focus on input, stimulus driven
top down approach
focus on higher cognitive processes, knowledge driven
other race effect (ORE)
babies tend to prefer looking at others of their own race or the race of their caregiver
perceptual constancy
perception of objects being constant size, in spite of different retinal image
object segregation
identification of separate objects in a visual array
- importance of individual motion, ex. cup and saucer
- Kellman and Spelke, cube and rod
violation of expectancy
procedure used to study infant cognition, infants shown an recent that should evoke surprise of it goes against something already known
optical expansion
depth cue, object occludes increasingly more of the background, indicating the object is approaching
binocular disparity
difference in retinal image od an object in each eye, slightly different signals sent to brain
- convergence: closer the object, greater the disparity
stereopsis
visual cortex combines differing neural signals, results in the perception of depth (emerges around 4 months)
monocular depth cues
depth cues perceived by one eye (ex. relative size, interposition)
auditory localization
perception of the location in space of a sound source
what is the most advanced sense at birth
hearing
what sounds do infants prefer?
“baby talk”, high-pitched, consonant
perceptual narrowing
developmental changes in which experience fine-tunes the perceptual system (infant becomes less sensitive to certain distinctions)
taste/smell
- develop prenatally
- early exposure/timing is key
- smell influences food neophobia, even before tasting
touch
- generally oral exploration
- 4 months, develop mental map of body, maybe even mirror neurons
intermodal perception
combining of information from two or more sensory systems
McGurk effect
visual and auditory interact, ba + ga = da
synesthesia
arbitrary association between senses
- infant brains may be overly connected (pre-pruning)
Arnold Gesell
Maturational Theory - infant skills emerge on the timeline based on maturing nervous system (1925)
reflexes
fixed patterns of action that occur in response to a particular stimulation
what are some types of reflexes?
rooting, sucking/swallowing, tonic neck, moro/startle, grasping, stepping
how does culture influence motor development?
sanitation, available furniture, encouragement
ex. baby stretching
stepping reflex
infant lifts one leg, then the other in coordinated pattern, like walking, but disappears around 2 months
- because of weight gain, not brain maturation!
affordances
possibilities for action offered, or afforded, by objects and situations
pre-reaching movements
clumsy swiping movements by young infants toward objects they see (successful around 3-4 months)
when does smooth reaching emerge?
7 months
self-locomotion
the ability to move oneself around in the environment
Gibson + Walk
visual cliff experiment! babies must adapt to new stimuli after learning to walk
scale errors
attempt by young child to perform an action on a miniature replica that is too small for the action to be possible
habituation
decrease in reaction to already experienced stimuli
statistical learning
shown a pattern, look longer when it is disrupted, learn to expect patterns in the environment (language, etc.)
classical conditioning
association of a stimulus and a behavior
unconditioned stimulus
stimulus evokes reflective response (nipple in mouth)
unconditioned response
reflexive response elicited by UCS (sucking reflex)
conditioned stimulus
neutral stimulus repeatedly paired with UCS (breast/bottle)
conditioned response
originally reflexive response that comes to be elicited by CS (anticipatory sucking)
instrumental/operant conditioning
learning the relationship between one’s behavior and the consequences that result from it
positive reinforcement
reward that follows a behavior, increases likelihood that behavior will be repeated
Royee-Collier
infant mobile experiment, 4 month olds have memory up to 24 hours later
observational learning/imitation
replicate human’s intended actions as well as behavior
rational learning
using prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future
active learning
learning by engaging with the world, rather than passively learning about objects and events
