Perceptual development

Question 1

what is the newborn reflexes?

Answer 1

involuntary, automatic response to a stimuli

Question 2

name the two newborn reflexes

Answer 2

• survival - adaptive value, satisfying needs e.g; breathing, sucking swallowing
• primitive - not as useful, disappears the first year e.g; babinski (stroke the foot an it curls), swimming, grasping

Question 3

how old is there a major change in brain activation, activity, and connectedness?

Answer 3

7 months - 2 years of age

Question 4

explain the preference technique (Fantz, 1956)

Answer 4

• baby is shown two picturesor two objects, and the researcher keeps track of how long the baby looks at each one
• the baby indicates that they see some difference between two and reveals something about the kinds of object that capture the baby’s attention
• critique: you don’t know if the baby is discriminating the item or just has a preference

Question 5

what is the habituation method?

Answer 5

• researchers first present a baby with a particular sight or sound over and over until they habituate
• then, researchers present another sight, sound or object that is slightly different from the original, and watch to see if the baby shows renewed interest (dishabituation)

Question 6

name and explain a study that looks at habituation (baillargeon and devos, 1991)

Answer 6

• 3 month old babies
• habituated on small or tall carrots passing behind the tall screen, this means they look less over time
• will they dishabitate and show surprise (look longer) at later shows?
• results: in testing, 3-month-olds look longest at the impossible event (last picture). does this show evidence of object permanence and infant knowledge of object states?

Question 7

explain high-amplitude sucking

Answer 7

• the rate of sucking on a pacifier controls the presentation of stimuli, shows preference and discrimination
• e.g. music; they look at what music babies would have a preference for; if they keep sucking it keeps sucking, if they stop sucking the music goes away - this shows preference and discrimination

Question 8

what are the principles of operant conditioning?

Answer 8

• operant conditioning refers to learning in which the probability of an individual performing a behaviour increases (or decreases) because of the consequences it produces
• a stimulus that increases the occurrence of a response is called a reinforcer
• e.g. the baby can be trained to turn towards an object/toy when they hear new sounds, using the toy as a reinforcer - then you can see if they discriminate novel sounds, by looking at whether they turn toward the toy. (werker et al study)

Question 9

how is a infants vision?

Answer 9

their vision is blurry, they can see clearer closer (the least mature senses of a baby)

Question 10

when can a infants see as well as adults?

Answer 10

by 2 years old

Question 10

what can infants detect with vision?

Answer 10

• detect changes in brightness
• detect colours although a newborn infant has only a limited ability
• discrimination is good by 2-3 months old

Question 11

when will infants perceive depth?

Answer 11

• 90% of infants at 6.5 months old (able to crawl) precieve depth
• showed in the study when their heart rate drops when seeing depth - they at least know something is different

Question 12

what can infants detect with an audition (sounds)?

Answer 12

• discriminates sounds based on loudness, duration, direction and frequency
• prefer mother’s voice to other women
• prefer sounds heard prenatally in third trimester
• can recognise sound patterns (including their own name) at 5 months
• at 6 months, sensitive to phonemes, even better than adults (even if sounds are not part of the adult’s spoken language) - this goes away around 1 years old

Question 13

what can infants detect with taste and smell?

Answer 13

• at 1 week they can discriminate mother by smell (because of breast milk)
• discriminate between pleasant and unpleasant orders (avoiding unpleasant orders)
• discriminate their own amniotic fluid (the fluid they had in in the womb)
• prefer sweet over sour, bitter, or salty

Question 14

explain steiner’s observations of newborns’s taste response

Answer 14

• newborn babies that had never been fed (no influence of milk)
• researchers gave the babies something to taste and see how they respond to see if the babies can discriminate taste
• reacted well to sweet and badly to sour and bitter
• result: they are able to discriminate the tastes (can see through their facial expression)

Question 15

what can infants detect with the sense touch?

Answer 15

• touch enhances development, allows exploration of the environment
• sensitive to touch, sensitive to temperature (thinner skim)
• sensitive to pain - even on 1 day
• may be best developed sense

Question 16

are faces special to newborns?

Answer 16

• many say that children don’t like faces more than other stimuli
• as babies get older: 2 months old/when children get older have a preference for attractive/real faces

Question 17

what is intermodal perception?

Answer 17

integration of information from two or more senses

Question 18

give examples of the senses integrated and when this ability is developed

Answer 18

• look in the direction of sounds
• match sounds, patterns and movement
• reach for objects that are seen
• expect to feel objects that were reached
• recognise a toy by touch that has previously been seen but not touched
• developed late in the first year of life