PSY1004 WEEK 8

Question 1

name some difficulties of working with infants

Answer 1

physiological aspects (being awake and fed)
logistics (facilities, being unpredictable)
communication
undiagnosed LD
difficult to draw inferences

Question 2

how can sucking be used to study infant cognitions (De Oliveira, Muhammed & Kim - 2000)

Answer 2

dummy with an electrical transducer to measure sucking rate. record baseline sucking rate and see if it changes in response to stimuli

Question 3

explain how looking can be used to study infant cognition = Visual Paired Comparison task (VPC)

Answer 3

show picture until habituation and then show 2 pictures at once, see which they look at longer to gain inference into whether they can perceive difference or remember first pictured

Question 4

define habituation

Answer 4

a decrease in response to stimuli after repeated presentations

Question 5

what is Fagin test of infant intelligence

Answer 5

4/5 month infant sitting on caregivers lap infront of screen and show 2 photos of infants (one they know and one they don’t). time how long they look at photo

Question 6

define visual acuity

Answer 6

measure of fineness of detail that can be resolved

Question 7

define visual accomodation

Answer 7

focusing eyes

Question 8

how long does it take for basic perceptual aspects of the human visual system to develop

Answer 8

1 year

Question 9

explain the development of vision at a gestation stage

Answer 9

neural parts of visual system develop. visual stimuli only able to be perceived after birth

Question 10

explain development of vision in newborns

Answer 10

see lights, shapes and movement, no fixation, dim and fuzzy, visual range is 30cm

Question 11

explain development of vision in infants 1-2months

Answer 11

able to fixate, distinguish high-contrast colouts such as black and white, yellow and blue (not red/orange)

Question 12

explain development of vision in infants 4months

Answer 12

improved depth perception, better colour vision, can follow objects with eyes without turning head

Question 13

explain development of vision in infants 8months

Answer 13

increased effective visual range, can recognise people across a room

Question 14

explain development of vision in infants 1year

Answer 14

basic visual skills are broadly similar to adult levels

Question 15

explain development of hearing in womb (at 26 weeks) especially changes in HR being used to measure

Answer 15

foetus shows HR changes as direct responses to auditory stimuli, full-term foetuses able to recognise mother’s voice

Question 16

what did DeCasper & Spence (1986) study in pregnant women regarding development of cognition in relation to hearing - story preference

Answer 16

read story everyday for final 6 weeks of pregnancy, then played newborn familiar and unfamiliar story. infants preferred familiar even when read by a stranger and babies not exposed to stories in womb didn’t show preference
indicates foetus can encode speech to notice rhythm and intonation differences

Question 17

outline how we know infants show preference for face-like stimuli from birth (Fantz, Goren etc)

Answer 17

Fantz = infants show small but consistent preference for face-like configuration and same pattern seen with moving objects (looking for longer)
visual recognition thought to form basis for later mental representations

Question 18

outline the mechanisms thought responsible for face preference (two-process account and non-facial specific preferences)

Answer 18

two-process account: innate preference due to subcortical mechanisms leading to newborn paying more attention to same specie-faces. after 2nd month of life this is replaced by experimental mechanism involving multiple cortical areas to allow for cortical specialisation

other theory shows infants prefer stimuli with more elements in upper than lower facial halves

Question 19

define perceptual narrowing

Answer 19

attune our visual perception to aspects of regular environments using experience

Question 20

what is the other race effect in regard to infant perceptual narrowing

Answer 20

more easily recognise faces of race one is most familiar with. infants gradually lose ability to distinguish/discriminate between kinds of faces
is possible to retain ability through shaping experiences like picture books

Question 21

explain how infants can be shaped into retaining facial discrimination perception using a picture book

Answer 21

caucasian babies shown only caucasian pictures lost ability to recognise Chinese faces but those also shown Chinese faces could still recognise
(measured through looking preferences)
book training can be used with other species
infants also show a preference for female faces (develops at 3 months, not birth)

Question 22

can infants discriminate between mothers face

Answer 22

able to do this after few hours, however many difficult variable such as mothers smell and facial expressions
presenting video of mothers face rules out these variables

Question 23

do infants have innate preferences for attractive faces

Answer 23

look longer due to facial feature arrangement
a prototypical face rated by adults as more attractive is looked at longer by infants (innate ability)

Question 24

do infants possess shape perception?

Answer 24

look longer at non-habituated shapes suggesting discrimination. however unsure if this is due to discrimination between shape forms or due to presence of features eg: corners is missing

Question 25

define size constancy

Answer 25

understanding that an object remains same size despite its retinal image size changing as it moves closer to or away from us

Question 26

define shape constancy

Answer 26

understanding that an object remains same shape even though its retinal image shape changes when it is viewed from different angles

Question 27

how do we know that infants possess both size and shape constancy

Answer 27

look longer at objects of different size than same object further away, suggesting they respond to change in true size but not to changing retinal size

Question 28

define perception of object unity

Answer 28

understanding that an object is whole even if parts of it appear to be incomplete or hidden

Question 29

when is perception of object unity developed and give one example of how we see this

Answer 29

aged 4. habituated to moving rod back/forth behind box, looks longer at split rod than complete meaning they can perceive object unity

Question 30

define perception of object trajectories

Answer 30

understanding that an object can continue on its journey even if you cannot see its whole movement

Question 31

explain perception of object trajectories at 6, 4 and 2 months

Answer 31

6 months: able to perceive trajectory continuity
4 months: can when with narrow occluder
2 months: perceive trajectory as discontinuous, even with narrow occluder

Question 32

define perception of subjective contours

Answer 32

when only parts of object visible, remaining contours are filled in to allow shape perception

Question 33

when is perception of subjective contours developed

Answer 33

3-7 months

Question 34

speech perception is thought to become more specialised with age. explain how infants lose the ability to distinguish between phonemes that don’t occur in their native languages

Answer 34

in Russian there is a phoneme sounding “shh” and “sssssh”. in English this doesn’t exist so doesn’t change meaning of word
if you switched eg R and L in English, would change meaning of word “Right, Light”
gradually develop ability to process info quickly for most common info in our environments meaning we lose unnecessary info

Question 35

explain motherese

Answer 35

infants show preference for infant-directed speech (high and wider pitch range)
exaggerates existing speech pattern to allow extraction of smaller language chunks