Perception, Action, & Learning in Infancy Flashcards
WEIRD
Psychology is western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
Sensation
detection and processing of basic information from the external world by receptors in the sense organs and brain
Perception
organizing and interpreting sensory information about the objects, events, and spatial layout of the world
Preferential Looking Technique
Two different visual stimuli displayed side by side
If infant looks longer at one stimulus, can infer that:
-Baby can discriminate between the two stimuli
-Infant prefers one over the other
Eye trackers used
Habituation
Repeatedly presenting an infant with a particular stimulus until the infant habituates (response declines)
Present novel stimulus
If infant dishabituated (response increases) in response to novel stimulus, can infer that baby can discriminate between the old and new stimuli
Reveals that learning has taken place
Speed of habituation related to general cognitive ability, efficiency of info processing
Visual Acuity
How sharply or clearly infants can see
Show varying patterns to see which infants prefer
E.g. infants prefer to look at patterns with high visual contrast
Contrast Sensitivity
detect a pattern only when it is composed of highly contrasting elements
Infants have poor contrast sensitivity at first
Cone Cells
light sensitive neuron highly concentrated in fovea
Involved in seeing fine detail and colour
Infants have immature cones, little evidence of colour perception
Colour Vision At 2 Months
can tell difference between white and colour
Prefer colours that are unique hues over colours that combine hues
Infants brains represent colour categories prior to learning labels for colours
Have colour vision identical to adults
Colour Vision at 5 Months
Evidence of categorical discrimination
Brain responds differently to shifts between categories (green to blue)
Not within category (two shades of blue)
Visual Scanning
Newborns start scanning the environment right away
Especially attracted to moving stimuli
Have trouble tracking moving stimuli because eye movements are jerky
One way to have control over what they observe
Visual Scanning at 1 Month
Attending to edges and contours of faces
Because of poor contrast sensitivity
Prefer looking at black circle with white center
Visual Scanning at 2 Months
Attending to finer details of face
More complex scanning
Prefer to look at circle with smiley face in the middle
Visual Scanning at 4 Months
Can track slow moving objects smoothly
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements
Viewers gaze shifts at the same speed and angle as a moving object to keep it in view
Function of maturation and neurological development
Preterm infants develop this skill later than full term infants
Infant Face Perception
From birth children are drawn to facelike shapes as long as shown right side up
Newborns see faces most often, but decreases over time
Sensitive to configuration of features
Children prefer upright faces, and top heavy faces
Newborns recognize and prefer caregivers’ faces
Develop preference for faces depicting gender of caregiver they see most
Face Perception 3 Months
Vision no longer guided by looking for the ‘top heavy’ image
Perceptual Narrowing For Face Perception
Infants become face specialists
Better at discriminating among kinds of faces frequently seen in their environment
Adults, 9M, and 6M can discriminate between two human faces
Only 6M can discriminate between two monkey faces
Other Race Effect (ORE)
Easier to distinguish between faces of individuals from our own racial group than from other racial groups
Emerges in infancy
Newborns show no preference
3M infants prefer faces from their own race
9M more difficulty discriminating between other race faces
Facial scanning of biracial infants are better
Face Perception & Autism
Infant preferences for non faces (in particular geometric shapes)
Look at faces in videos of naturalistic interactions ½ as often as typical toddlers
Infants with less interest in faces may have fewer opportunities to learn about the type of info carried by faces (e.g. speech sounds and social cues)
Face Perception 4 Months
Focus particularly on eyes of talking face
After begin babbling focus on speaker’s mouth
Bilingual infants show preference for mouth of speaker sooner than monolinguals (and pay more attention to mouth)