(4) Perceptual & Sensorimotor Development

Question 1

What is Visual Acuity?

Answer 1

sharpness of vision; clarity that fine details can be detected

Question 2

What type of vision do new borns have?

Answer 2

20/400 vision

Question 3

What happens to visual acuity at 6 months?

Answer 3

acuity approximates normal adult vision

Question 4

What happens to visual acuity at 8 months?

Answer 4

more interest in distant objects, tiny objects

Question 5

What happens to visual acuity at 2-4 months?

Answer 5

see full colour spectrum

Question 6

What colours do new borns prefer?

Answer 6

grey

Question 7

What patterns do new borns prefer?

Answer 7

prefer patterns to plain stimuli

Question 8

What is pattern perception like at 2 months?

Answer 8

prefer more complex patterns to simpler ones

Question 9

What is sticky fixation?

Answer 9

difficulty disengaging visual attention away from one feature to focus on another, staring into space

Question 10

What is visual scanning like at 1 month?

Answer 10

Focuses on edges

Question 11

What is visual scanning like at 2 month?

Answer 11

Internal features, sticky fixation

Question 12

What is visual scanning like at 6 months?

Answer 12

adult like scanning

Question 13

What is the idea of Perceiving Parts vs Wholes (Cohen & Younger, 1983)?

Answer 13

-Not just edges and corners, but whole shape

Question 14

What is perceiving parts and wholes like at 4 months?

Answer 14

see subjective contours

Question 15

What is perceiving parts and wholes like at 12 months?

Answer 15

recognise incomplete line drawings (Rose et al, 1997)

Question 16

What does Johnson et al 1991 believe about the nature of face perception?

Answer 16

new borns track faces more than other stimuli

Question 17

What is argued about the nurture of face perception?

Answer 17

face tracking being inborn is bias as gives them much experience with faces

Question 18

What happens to face perception between 2-4 months?

Answer 18

prefer more complex facial stimuli; prefer mother’s face; discriminate individual faces, even strangers

Question 19

What happens to face perception between 5-12 months?

Answer 19

discriminate emotional expressions, positive to negative

Question 20

Why might face perception be bias?

Answer 20

Exposure to faces from birth, held close to face (can be bias)

Question 21

Are infants able to identify family members?

Answer 21

Able to recognise family members face – mothers face in a photograph

Question 22

What is Kinetic cues (1 months)?

Answer 22

• motion parallax- nearby objects appear to move faster than distant ones
• Sensitive to these first, blink when something comes close to their face

Question 23

What is Binocular cues (3-5 months)?

Answer 23

• disparity- brain perceives depth when combining slightly different angle from each eye
• Reaching for parents, toys, ability for reaching helps to teach them how far away something is

Question 24

What is Pictorial cues (5-7 months)?

Answer 24

• interposition – an object that overlaps another appears nearer (Granrud & Yonas 1984)
• Linear perspective: parallel lines appear to converge in distance (Arterberry et al 1991)
• Relation between depth perception development and motor development?

Question 25

What did Gibson and Walk (1960) conduct?

Answer 25

Compare depth perception in infants of different species, visual cliff

Question 26

What did Gibson and Walk (1960) find?

Answer 26

- more crawling experience – more avoidance of cliff - Need to learn from motor experience - Babies come aware of depth, won’t crawl over an edge - Not scared of heights, they learn from motor experience not to go over edges

Question 27

Is hearing or sight more mature at birth?

Answer 27

hearing

Question 28

What is Auditory threshold?

Answer 28

quietest sound can hear (Aslin et al 1998)

Question 29

How do new borns respond to sound?

Answer 29

Turn head towards sound

Question 30

How do 7 month olds respond to sound?

Answer 30

know when sounding object in dark is within reach

Question 31

How do 2 year olds respond to sound?

Answer 31

adult-like

Question 32

What did Trainor & Heinmiller, 1998 find?

Answer 32

New-born: prefer music to non-melodic sounds

Question 33

How do 4-6 month olds respond to music?

Answer 33

prefer more common chords

Question 34

How do 6 month olds respond to music?

Answer 34

distinguish Western vs non-Western music scales

Question 35

What is Infant-directed speech (motherese)?

Answer 35

speaking with a higher pitch

Question 36

What did DeCasper & Spence, 1986 find?

Answer 36

Familiar rhyme heard during last 6 weeks of pregnancy vs novel rhyme – tested baby listening to rhyme by their mother or stranger – prefer mother

Question 37

What is taste like for a new born?

Answer 37

detect 4 main tastes from 2 hrs old (and prefer sweet) – adaptive as breast milk is sweet

Question 38

What is taste like for a 4 month old?

Answer 38

prefer salty to plain – might be around the time they start being weaned

Question 39

What can bitter tastes suggest?

Answer 39

Bitter tastes can suggest that it’s poisonous

Question 40

What did Menella & Beauchamp, 1996 find?

Answer 40

Universal facial expression for pleasant (sweet) vs unpleasant (rotten/fishy) odours

Question 41

What type of odours do new borns like?

Answer 41

New-borns prefer familiar odours (amniotic fluid, breast milk, perfume)

Question 42

What areas are most sensitive to touch?

Answer 42

Face, hands and feet most sensitive

Question 43

How many pain receptors does a new born have?

Answer 43

Pain, same number of pain receptors as adults

Question 44

What is Object discrimination (Streri et al 2000) ?

Answer 44

capable of holding and feeling objects or keeping in contact

Question 45

What is a reflex?

Answer 45

involuntary response to external stimulation (McGraw 1940)

Question 46

What are essential reflexes?

Answer 46

rooting, sucking, swallowing and swimming

Question 47

What are non essential reflexes?

Answer 47

moro (startle), gripping (palmar grasp), stepping and Babinski

Question 48

What is SIDS/cot death?

Answer 48

Unexplained sudden death of infant less than 1 year, usually during sleep

Question 49

When is SIDS most common?

Answer 49

2-4 months

Question 50

What are common features of SIDS?

Answer 50

Low muscle tone, abnormal heart rate pattern, disturbances in their wake sleep pattern