PSYC1001 Lecture 6: Developmental Psychology
12 Jun 2018
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METHODS IN STUDYING PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT
Imprinting process →baby goslings will imprint on whatever moving object they see within the first few
hours of their life →follow that object until they mature
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If goslings were not exposed to imprinting, the imprinting won't happen →just wander off
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Characterised by critical period →has to happen for the process to develop normally
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E.g. imprinting in birds
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Time during development when certain experiences are crucial for a particular feature of development to emerge
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Critical period
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Time during which experience is optimal for the development of a particular function, but is not critical
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Sensitive period
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What is the world like for an infant? How does perceptual experience shape the way the infant brain processes the
world? What if they are deprived of it?
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Babies can’t tell us what the world looks like
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Design ways to let them show us via their behaviour:
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Scan patterns of babies looking at a triangle vs their schematic face
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Plot where they are looking using eye tracking movements
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Babies are really sensitive to contrast →looking at edges, black and white of the periphery because their
acuity is not sensitive →distinguish backgrounds by looking at high contrast →everything looks fuzzy for
them
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Get attracted by a particular area and can't take it away
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By 2 months →learned that actually the most important data of the features are not the edges but the
central features to tell the recognition of their mother etc.
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VISUAL SCANNING AND FIXATION PATTERNS
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Babies interested in something →looking at it for a long time
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Less and less interested →looking away and then looking time or sucking rate decreases
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Test them with a boring image and/or a new interested image
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Show something new →response dishabituated
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→as a result, their sucking rate goes up again as well as their sucking time
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Thus telling us they can tell the difference between different and discriminate between two things
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Habituation is a data analysis statistics graph
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HABITUATION
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VISUAL EXPERIENCE IN INFANTS
E.g. Show babies two monkey images that are the same until you replace a new monkey picture →see if they can
recognise the two monkeys
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Can infer what babies prefer to look at →based on the looking time when comparing two objects together
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Like to look at faces the best →frequent stimulus →socially engaging stimulus →those faces feed me, play
with me, etc. thus “I must learn more about them”
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Prefer pattern over plain
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Prefer colours
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Babies:
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Visual preferences:
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E.g. Babies tell us their visual acuity through showing babies pairs of objects - one of them is grey square, same
Visual acuity:
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Methods in Studying Perceptual Development
Visual Experience in Infants
Effects of Atypical Visual Experience
3A - Developmental Psychology
Monday, March 12, 2018
9:00 PM
PSYCH 1001 Page 1
Document Summary
Time during development when certain experiences are crucial for a particular feature of development to emerge. Imprinting process baby goslings will imprint on whatever moving object they see within the first few hours of their life follow that object until they mature. If goslings were not exposed to imprinting, the imprinting won"t happen just wander off. Characterised by critical period has to happen for the process to develop normally. Time during which experience is optimal for the development of a particular function, but is not critical. Babies can"t tell us what the world looks like. Design ways to let them show us via their behaviour: Scan patterns of babies looking at a triangle vs their schematic face. Plot where they are looking using eye tracking movements. Babies are really sensitive to contrast looking at edges, black and white of the periphery because their acuity is not sensitive distinguish backgrounds by looking at high contrast everything looks fuzzy for them.
