W4 - PreLecture Flashcards
What did Von Hofsten & Fazel-Zandy (1984) find about infant perception?
4.5-month-old infants show some orientational adjustment of the hand to match a target.
What did Von Hofsten & Rönnqvist (1988) discover about grasping?
By 9 months, infants prepare grasp aperture to match object size before contact.
What are scale errors, according to DeLoache et al.?
Infants’ perceptual sensorimotor skills require refinement to adapt to changing body size and contexts.
What are the key philosophical positions in perceptual development?
- Empiricism vs. Rationalism → Empiricism vs. Nativism 2. Idealism vs. Realism → Developmental Integration vs. Differentiation
What is the difference between integration and differentiation?
Integration: Infants first perceive features separately and learn to link them. Differentiation: Infants initially perceive whole objects and then refine their perception.
What is Eleanor Gibson’s Differentiation Theory?
Perceptual development is a process of differentiation, focusing on amodal properties (features constant across sensory modalities).
How did William James describe newborn perception?
As “one great blooming, buzzing confusion.”
What is empiricism in perceptual development (John Locke)?
The idea that infants are Tabula Rasa (blank slates) and perception is acquired from experience.
What is nativism in perceptual development (Descartes, Spelke)?
The belief that perception and some knowledge are innate (a priori).
What did Spelke et al. (1992) find about infant cognition?
3- to 4-month-olds can represent and reason about objects before acquiring language or fine motor skills.
What was Jean Piaget’s view on perceptual development?
It involves qualitative shifts in perception and cognition.
What were Darwin’s “Baby Biographies” (1877)?
Early observational studies of infant behavior, but prone to observer bias and lack of generalizability.
What was Piaget’s Clinical Method?
Problem-solving tasks adapted to an infant’s abilities to study cognitive development.
What are key looking time techniques used in infant research?
Visual Preference & Preferential Tracking, Visual Habituation/Familiarization, Violation of Expectation, Eye-tracking and 4D Ultrasound for in utero visual preferences.
What are the limitations of looking time techniques?
Unclear what “longer looking” means. Noisy behavioral responses. May underestimate infants’ perceptual/cognitive abilities. Experimenter bias can influence results.
What does developmental cognitive neuroscience study in perceptual development?
Brain function changes related to perception using marker tasks (behavioral tests linked to specific brain regions).
What is EEG, and how is it used in infant research?
EEG measures event-related potentials (ERPs) and oscillations to study brain activity.
What are the strengths and limitations of EEG in infant research?
Strength: Excellent temporal resolution. Limitations: Difficult to collect data from infants (movement artifacts). Fewer trials and simpler designs required. High signal-to-noise ratio due to infants’ thinner skulls.
What is Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)?
A technique that measures blood oxygenation using infrared light.
Why is fNIRS useful in infant research?
Better spatial resolution than EEG. Less invasive and robust to movement.
What did Lloyd-Fox, Blasi & Elwell (2010) find about fNIRS?
It offers advantages over EEG for studying infant perception.
Why is brain imaging important for studying infants?
- Infants’ behavior is hard to interpret—imaging provides additional evidence. 2. Helps resolve debates on perceptual and cognitive abilities. 3. Brain development is where inheritance and environment interact.
