2: The development of perception in infancy

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2 The development of perception in infancy

• Outline
• Why study perception in infancy?
• Theories of perceptual development
• Research
• what can infants perceive
• how do infants interpret their perceptions
• cultural differences in perception
• Learning outcomes

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Why study perception in infancy?

• Underlies other developments
• illuminates the nature-nurture debate
• provides a BASELINE for development
• 2 issues
• what can infants perceive?
• How do infants interpret what they perceive?

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Theories of perceptual development

• Piagetian theory
• no understanding of perception without experience
• infants make sense of sensory information through
  interaction with environment
• Ecological theory
• Eleanor and James Gibson
• direct perception - AFFORDANCES - environment
  provides information
• perceptual learning
• process of increased efficiency
• process of distinguishing finer discrimination

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Texture Gradient
From Schiff, 1986
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Theories of perceptual development

• Nativism
• Spelke
• innate core principles
• e.g. impenetrability, object identity,
  spatiotemporal continuity
• Constructivism?
• Baillargeon
• innate mechanisms learning
• preliminary concepts -gt adultlike concepts

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Visual perception

• Newborns
• Can discriminate between stripes and a uniform
  surface
• Fixed focal length 21cm

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• From Fogel, 1991

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Visual perception

• ability to track the path of moving objects
• Aslin, 1981
• scanning
• Fogel Melson, 1988
• Auditory perception
• loudness
• Schulman-Galambos Galambos, 1979
• pitch
• recognition of mothers voice
• non-nutritive sucking experiments
• deCasper Fifer, 1980

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From Fogel, 1991
Scanning
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Non-nutritive sucking technique
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Touch, Smell Taste

• Tactile perception
• Rochat, 1987
• Olfactory perception
• Lipsitt et al, 1963
• Taste perception
• Crook, 1978, Desor et al, 1973
• Inter-modal perception
• sight and sound
• Bahrick, 1983
• Morrongiello, Fenwick Chance, 1998
• Touch and sight
• Meltzoff Borton, 1979

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Rosenstein Oster (1988)
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From Butterworth Harris (2002)
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How do infants interpret what they perceive?

• Face perception
• Sherrod, 1979
• Kuchuk et al, 1986
• Fisher et al, 1981
• Depth Perception
• Looming
• Bower, Broughton Moore, 1970
• Yonas, 1981
• Nanez, 1988
• Stereopsis

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(No Transcript)
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From Butterworth Harris (2002)
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The Visual Cliff(from Bee Boyd, 2004 )
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How do infants interpret what they perceive?

• Object perception
• Piaget vs Gibson
• Loads of experiments by Baillargeon
• Perception of moving objects
• Gibson et al, 1979
• Baillargeon, 1987 the drawbridge expt.

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Baillargeons Drawbridge Experiment (from
Bukatko Daehler, 2001)
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How do infants interpret what they perceive?

• Categorical perception
• Phonemes and voicing (or voice onset time)
• ba and pa
• Aslin, 1987 Kuhl, 1987
• Kuhl Miller, 1978
• Werker Lalonde, 1988
• Werker Desjardins, 1995
• Imitation
• Meltzoff Moore, 1977

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Voice Onset Time
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Infants imitation of facial expressions
(Meltzoff Moore, 1977 )
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Cultural differences in perceptual development?

• Carpenteredness (Segall, Campbell Herskovits,
  1966)
• Muller-Lyer illusion

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Learning outcomes

• Understand what perception is and why we study
  its development
• Understand and be able to evaluate theories of
  perception
• Know and be able to evaluate current research on
  perceptual development and the implications this
  research has for theories of perception

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Reading

• Essential Reading (on Digital Resources)
• Baillargeon, R. (2000). How do infants learn
  about the physical world? In D. Muir A. Slater.
  Infant development the essential readings.
  Oxford Blackwell.
• Keenan, T. (2002). An introduction to child
  development. London Sage. Ch 5. pp.94-117
• Spelke, E.S (1994) Initial knowledge 6
  suggestions. Cognition, 50, pp.431 445
• Further Reading
• See pdf handout

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Questions to ask.

• To what extent is each of the perceptual
  modalities innate?
• Are some perceptual abilities delayed because
  they have to be learned or for other reasons?
• What does the research told us about infants
  knowledge?
• What do the different theories say about the
  development of perception?