Perceptual Development

Question 1

Empiricist

Answer 1

Children as white sheets (William Blake)

Question 2

Nativist

Answer 2

Babies born with many perceptual abilities (Gibson)

Question 3

How do we know what infants know?

Answer 3

Novelty preference (habitiual/preferential)

or operant conditioning (eye movement, physiological measures, neuroimaging)

Question 4

Improvement in vision

Answer 4

2 months: Focus and colour vision

6 months: acuity, scanning and tracking

7 months: Depth perception

9 months: almost normal

Question 5

Pattern perception

Answer 5

Small patterns will seem blurry (in the beginning babies scan whole head later on start with eyes)

12 months - can detect object even if it is partially missing

Question 6

Early face perception

Answer 6

primitive mechanism that draws attention to same member of species? (Morton & Johnson)

Preference for faces with direct eye gaze

Question 7

Depth perception

Answer 7

By 6 months especially good with faces

<1 months - sensitive to kentic cues
2-3 months - sensitive to binocular cues
5-12 months - sensitive to pictorial cues (and wariness of heights)

Question 8

Size consistency

Answer 8

The ability to perceive true size of object in spite of variations on retinal image

Question 9

Shape consistency

Answer 9

Ability to perceive true shape of an object despite variations in orientation on retinal image

Question 10

Critical periods

Answer 10

ranges of time where infants must be presented with appropriate stimuli (think blind kittens) - remain susceptible to the effects of visual deprivation until 7-8 years

infantile cataracts can cause it for babies