PSY1004 WEEK 8 Flashcards
name some difficulties of working with infants
physiological aspects (being awake and fed)
logistics (facilities, being unpredictable)
communication
undiagnosed LD
difficult to draw inferences
how can sucking be used to study infant cognitions (De Oliveira, Muhammed & Kim - 2000)
dummy with an electrical transducer to measure sucking rate. record baseline sucking rate and see if it changes in response to stimuli
explain how looking can be used to study infant cognition = Visual Paired Comparison task (VPC)
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
define habituation
a decrease in response to stimuli after repeated presentations
what is Fagin test of infant intelligence
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
define visual acuity
measure of fineness of detail that can be resolved
define visual accomodation
focusing eyes
how long does it take for basic perceptual aspects of the human visual system to develop
1 year
explain the development of vision at a gestation stage
neural parts of visual system develop. visual stimuli only able to be perceived after birth
explain development of vision in newborns
see lights, shapes and movement, no fixation, dim and fuzzy, visual range is 30cm
explain development of vision in infants 1-2months
able to fixate, distinguish high-contrast colouts such as black and white, yellow and blue (not red/orange)
explain development of vision in infants 4months
improved depth perception, better colour vision, can follow objects with eyes without turning head
explain development of vision in infants 8months
increased effective visual range, can recognise people across a room
explain development of vision in infants 1year
basic visual skills are broadly similar to adult levels
explain development of hearing in womb (at 26 weeks) especially changes in HR being used to measure
foetus shows HR changes as direct responses to auditory stimuli, full-term foetuses able to recognise mother’s voice
what did DeCasper & Spence (1986) study in pregnant women regarding development of cognition in relation to hearing - story preference
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
outline how we know infants show preference for face-like stimuli from birth (Fantz, Goren etc)
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
outline the mechanisms thought responsible for face preference (two-process account and non-facial specific preferences)
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
define perceptual narrowing
attune our visual perception to aspects of regular environments using experience
what is the other race effect in regard to infant perceptual narrowing
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
explain how infants can be shaped into retaining facial discrimination perception using a picture book
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)
can infants discriminate between mothers face
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
do infants have innate preferences for attractive faces
look longer due to facial feature arrangement
a prototypical face rated by adults as more attractive is looked at longer by infants (innate ability)
do infants possess shape perception?
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
define size constancy
understanding that an object remains same size despite its retinal image size changing as it moves closer to or away from us
define shape constancy
understanding that an object remains same shape even though its retinal image shape changes when it is viewed from different angles
how do we know that infants possess both size and shape constancy
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
define perception of object unity
understanding that an object is whole even if parts of it appear to be incomplete or hidden
when is perception of object unity developed and give one example of how we see this
aged 4. habituated to moving rod back/forth behind box, looks longer at split rod than complete meaning they can perceive object unity
define perception of object trajectories
understanding that an object can continue on its journey even if you cannot see its whole movement
explain perception of object trajectories at 6, 4 and 2 months
6 months: able to perceive trajectory continuity
4 months: can when with narrow occluder
2 months: perceive trajectory as discontinuous, even with narrow occluder
define perception of subjective contours
when only parts of object visible, remaining contours are filled in to allow shape perception
when is perception of subjective contours developed
3-7 months
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
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
explain motherese
infants show preference for infant-directed speech (high and wider pitch range)
exaggerates existing speech pattern to allow extraction of smaller language chunks
