PSY 302 - Chapter 5.docx - PSY 302 - Week 6 Wednesday ...

PSY 302 - Week 6
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
9:02 AM
Chapter 5
Seeing, Thinking, and Doing in Infancy
Study only the following 2 main sections:
 Perception

Learning
BABIES SLEEP, EAT CRY, SOIL DIAPERS, BUT THEY ALSO PERCEIVE NEW INFORMATION
Sensation
 The processing of basic information from the external world through the sense
organs (eyes, ears, skin, etc.)
Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information about objects,
events, and spatial layout of the world around us
VISION - WHEN BABIES ARE BORN THEIR VISION IS IMPAIRED BUT OVERTIME, W/
STIMULATION IT IMPROVES
 Scientists need to come up with ways to understand if babies can
understand/perceive information because they can't speak
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

If baby looks at one stimuli longer than the other it demonstrates that the infant
can discriminate between them
 Infants would rather look at something than nothing

In a study; infants were shown a plain surface and a striped surface- they
preferred stripes (looked at it longer)
 To determine which stimulus baby prefers

Especially if they're exposed to a stimulus before (habituation) they'll
react to the other one
Habituation: Decline in response to an object (another method used to study visual
attention)
Dishabituation: response increases (allows researcher to infer that infant can
discriminate between the old and new stimuli)

Visual acuity: Sharpness of visual discrimination


Simple versus complex patterns
 Newborns prefer to look at things (complex patterns over simple
stimuli)

Newborns don’t have sharp visual acuity bc they can't accommodate lens
bc muscles aren't strong enough

By the time they are 3 months, their visual acuity becomes similar
to that of an adult
o Contrast sensitivity: The ability to detect differences in light and dark
areas in a visual pattern

High-contrasting patterns versus low-contrasting patterns

Babies prefer to look at patterns bc they prefer to see contrast

Higher the contrast, the better they're able to see (using this,
optomologists try to figure out how visual aquity, by placing patterns side
by side and seeing if they're able to differentiate btw them) - ex; more
interested in thick stripes than a grey surface

Babies cant distingush btw grey and low contrast objects
o With the paddle study; infants preferred to the striped paddle over
the plain one, and the narrower the lines got, the less interested they
were in the patterns
o Infants have poor contrast sensitivity because their cones in the retina are
underdeveloped
o
Cones: Light-sensitive neurons that are highly concentrated in the fovea
(the central region of the retina)
 Infants have low acuity, as cones are not fully developed.