psychology
Maria Castro 
siegler5e_ch052019.pptx5
Seeing, Thinking, and Doing in Infancy
Presentation Slides
Chapter
Perception
Motor Development
Learning
Cognition
Outline of Chapter
2
Sensation
The processing of basic information from the world through the sense organs (eyes, ears, skin, etc.)
Perception
The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information about objects, events, and the world around us
Perception
Preferential technique: A method for studying visual attention in infants
Involves showing infants two patterns or two objects at a time
Preference of one object over another measured; assessed through looking time
Habituation: a decline in response to an object over time
Vision
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Visual Acuity: sharpness of visual discrimination; clearness of vision
Simple versus complex patterns
Contrast sensitivity: The ability to detect differences in light and dark areas in a visual pattern
High-contrasting patterns versus low-contrasting patterns
Cones: Light-sensitive neurons that are highly concentrated in the fovea (the center of the retina)
Infants have low acuity, as cones are not fully developed.
Vision (cont.d)
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Color Perception: some appears by 2 months of age.
Infants prefer unique hues over hue combinations.
There is evidence of color categories in infants’ brains.
Color categorization is present before language acquisition.
Vision (cont.d)
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Visual Scanning: The lines superimposed on these face pictures show age differences in where two babies fixated on the images.
(a) A 1-month-old looked primarily at the outer contour of the face and head, with a few fixations of the eyes.
(b) A 2-month-old fixated primarily on the internal features of the face, especially the eyes and mouth.
Vision (cont.d)
Visual Scanning
The lines superimposed on these face pictures show age differences in where two babies fixated on the images.
(a) A 1-month-old looked primarily at the outer contour of the face and head, with a few fixations of the eyes.
(b) A 2-month-old fixated primarily on the internal features of the face, especially the eyes and mouth.
(Information from Maurer and Salapatek, 1976)
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Perceptual constancy: The perception of objects as being of constant size, shape, color, etc.,in spite of physical differences in the retinal image of the object
Children have size constancy.
Experience is not necessary for it.
Object segregation: The identification of separate objects in a visual array
Experience with specific objects helps infants understand their physical properties.
Culture also plays a role.
Vision (cont.d)
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Binocular Disparity
The difference between the retinal image of an object in each eye that results in two slightly different signals being sent to the brain
Optical Expansion
When the visual image of an object increases in size as the object comes toward us, occluding more and more in the background
Depth Perception
Monocular Depth (or pictorial cues)
The perceptual cues of depth (such as relative size and interposition) that can be perceived by one eye alone
Stereopsis
The process by which the visual cortex combines the differing neural signals caused by binocular disparity
Depth Perception (cont.d)
Hearing is the most advanced of the newborn senses.
A newborn’s hearing can be checked with advanced equipment, but screening is needed for hearing loss that may occur later.
As a check, does a child react to loud sounds, imitate sounds—as in peekaboo—or begin to respond to his or her name?
Auditory Localization
Perception of the location in space of a sound source. This improves as the infant grows.
Auditory Perception
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Music Perception
Infants prefer infant-directed singing over adult-directed singing.
Infants prefer infant-directed singing over adult-directed speech.
Infant music perception is adult-like.
Infants prefer consonant music as opposed to dissonant music.
Perceptual narrowing: Developmental changes in which experience fine-tunes the perceptual system
Auditory Perception (cont.d)
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Sensitivity to taste develops prenatally.
Newborns prefer sweet flavors (over sour flavors).
Newborns prefer the smell of breast milk.
Infants can recognize the smell of their mothers from the smell of other women using breast-milk pads (prefer their mother’s smell).
Taste and Smell
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Infants learn about their environments through touch.
Oral exploration is dominant in infants.
Around the age of 4 months, infants rub, finger, probe, and bang objects.
Their actions become specific to the properties of the objects.
They develop mental maps of their own bodies.
Touch
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Information from different sense modalities is initially perceived as separate.
It unifies gradually.
Infants can make connections between what they have seen and felt (touched).
Intermodal Perception
The combining of information from two or more sensory systems
Intermodal Perception
Reflexes
Innate fixed patterns of action that occur in response to particular stimulation
Motor Development: Reflexes
Common Neonatal Reflexes
Grasping
Rooting
Sucking
Tonic neck reflex
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| Gross Motor Skill | When 50% of All Babies Master the Skill (months) | When 95% of All Babies Master the Skill (months) |
| Sit, head steady | 3 | 4 |
| Sit, unsupported | 6 | 7 |
| Pull to stand (holding on) | 9 | 10 |
| Stand alone | 12 | 14 |
| Walk well | 13 | 15 |
| Walk backward | 15 | 17 |
| Run | 18 | 20 |
| Jump up | 26 | 29 |
Gross motor skills: Physical abilities involving large body movements
How do infants use gross motor skills?
Motor Development: Gross Motor Skills
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Motor Milestones
The major milestones of motor development in infancy
The average age and range of ages for achievement of each milestone are shown. Note that these age norms are based on research with healthy, well-nourished North American infants.
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Early pioneers: argued that infants’ motor development is governed by brain maturation.
Current theorists: believe that motor development results from a confluence of
Neural mechanisms
Increases in infants’ strength
Posture control
Balance
Perceptual skills
Changes in body proportions
Motivation
Modern Views of Motor Development
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Motor development affects infants’ experience of the world.
Reaching
Pre-reaching movements: Clumsy swiping movements by young infants toward the general vicinity of objects they see
At about 7 months, reaching becomes stable when infants sit independently.
It results in visual development and motor development.
Reaching behavior enhances several aspects of infants’ understanding of the world around them.
Self-locomotion: The ability to move oneself around in the environment
The Expanding World of the Infant
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Scale Errors
Attempts by young children to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the large discrepancy in the relative sizes of the child and the object
The Expanding World of the Infant (cont.d)
Scale errors
These three children are making scale errors, treating a miniature object as if it were a much larger one. The girl on the left has just fallen off the toy she was trying to go down; the boy in the middle is persistently trying to get into a very small car; and the boy on the right is attempting to sit in a miniature chair. (From DeLoache et al., 2004)
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Infants gain knowledge of the world through learning.
Different forms of learning appear at different ages.
Learning is related to cognitive abilities.
Infants find some things easier to learn than others.
Learning
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Habituation: A simple form of learning that involves a decrease in response to a repeated or continued stimulation
Occurrence of habituation indicates that learning has taken place.
Infants raised in bilingual homes tend to show habituation faster.
Habituation
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Differentiation: A key process in perceptual learning
Children extract from the constantly changing stimulation and events in the environment the relation between the elements that are constant—invariable or stable.
Affordances: The possibilities for action offered, or afforded, by objects and situations
Perceptual Learning
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Statistical learning: A type of learning involving picking up information from the environment and detecting statistically predictable patterns
When regularity and predictability of objects, events, and other stimuli is violated, infants take notice.
Statistical Learning
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Unconditional stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that evokes a reflexive response (not learned)
Unconditional response (UCR): A reflexive response that is elicited by the UCS (not learned)
Conditioned stimulus (CS): The stimulus that is repeatedly paired with the UCS (previously was neutral)
Conditioned response (CR): The originally reflexive response that comes to be elicited by the CS (through association)
Classical Conditioning: a form of learning that consists of associating an initial stimulus with a stimulus that always evokes a particular reflexive response
Classical Conditioning
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Instrumental (or Operant) Conditioning
Learning the relation between one’s own behavior and the consequences that result from it (reinforcement or punishment)
Positive Reinforcement
A reward that reliably follows a behavior and increases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated
Instrumental Conditioning
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Observational Learning/Imitation
Learning through observation of other people’s behavior
Mirror neuron system: A brain area that is a potential locus for imitation
Rational Learning
The ability to use prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future
Active Learning
Learning by acting on the world, rather than passively observing objects and events
Observational Learning/Imitation Rational Learning, Active Learning
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There is debate as to the contributions of nature and nurture.
But do children actually think?
Children are capable of learning in a variety of ways.
Cognition
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Object knowledge in infants is explored using a procedure called violation-of-expectancy:
Infants are shown an event that should evoke surprise or interest.
The event violates something the infants know or assume to be true.
In experimental situations, infants as young as 3 ½ months looked longer at impossible events than at possible events.
Object Knowledge
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Social Knowledge
Infants understand that the behavior of others is purposive and goal-directed.
Physical Knowledge
Infants’ knowledge about the physical world is not limited to what they know and are learning about objects.
Even in the first year, infants can understand that objects do not float in midair.
Physical Knowledge and Social Knowledge
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