Perception, Action, & Learning in Infancy Flashcards

Question

Common Movement

Answer 1

Segments move together in same direction with same speed Leads to the assumption that the objects are one This ability emerges at 2M

Answer 2

Infants still reach for objects in the dark (shows understanding that objects still exist when they can’t see them) If shown an attractive toy and the turn the lights off, infants reach to where they last saw the toy

Answer 3

Hear sound of large familiar object reach out with both hands in the dark Hear sound of small familiar object reach out with only one hand Demonstrates they can think about the size of an invisible object

Answer 4

If infants observe event that is inconsistent with what they know, they will be surprised or interested Unexpected events should evoke a greater response Screen shown either stopping when blocked by a box or passing through the box 3½M looked longer on impossible trials

Answer 5

Infants show early sensitivity to variety of depth and distance cues Need to interpret a 2D retinal image as a 3D representation of the world

Answer 6

Visual image of an object increases in size as it comes toward us, occluding more and more of the background 1M: infants blink defensively at expanding image that appears to be an object heading toward them Preterm infants show delayed pattern of blinks to incoming objects Brain maturation crucial for this milestone

Answer 7

Eyes never send exactly the same signal to the brain Closer objects have greater disparity Stereopsis: visual cortex computes degree of disparity between the eyes neural signals and produces the perception of depth Emerges around 4M, complete within a few weeks Experience expectant (don't develop if deprived of input)

Answer 8

Two eyes do not line up in the same direction If not treated, at risk for pervasive challenges with binocular vision

Answer 9

ues which require only one eye Pictorial cues: another word for it, because can be used to portray depth in pictures 6 or 7 months Use relative size, interposition, texture gradient Grasp at 2D images less than 3D By 19M no longer manually investigate pictures

Answer 10

Perception of the spatial location of a sound source When newborns hear a sound they turn toward it But they are worse at determining the location than infants/toddlers Binaural disparity harder because head is smaller so difference in sound arrival time is smaller

Answer 11

Music perception in infants is surprisingly adultlike Most caregivers around the world sing to their infants Infants prefer infant directed singing over adult directed and more than infant directed speech Preference for consonant intervals over dissonant ones -Seen in children of deaf parents or in households without music exposure Only infants notice both the changes within the key of a melody and outside of the key of the melody (perceptual narrowing) Infants do better at detecting changes to complex rhythms

Answer 12

Early exposure to bitter flavours before 6M increases later likelihood of preference for those flavours Timing of exposure also changes the effects on children’s preferences Food neophobia: children avoid unfamiliar food Differences in reactions to smells can explain food neophobia Degree of reactivity to food odours and not tastes predicted degree of food neophobia

Answer 13

Infants learn about their environment through active touch From 4M infants gain better control over hand and arm movements Manual exploration increases and takes precedence over oral exploration E.g. bang, rub, probe objects Actions become more specific to properties of the object

Answer 14

Combining of information from two or more sensory systems into one cohesive perceptual experience Infants integrate info from different senses

Answer 15

Can integrate visual and auditory information Infants attend to the video with the wooden soundmaker when hear wood Infants attend to video of adult speaking when hear peek a boo Babies orient attention to ball that matches whistle speed

Answer 16

Present sound of someone saying Da and showed footage of someone saying Ba Babies habituated to the Ba sound even though they were hearing Da

Answer 17

Tightly organized patterns of action Some have clear adaptive value and others have no known adaptive significance

Answer 18

Once infants can reach and grasp objects they don’t have to wait for the world to come to them Reaching takes a long time to develop Pre-reaching movements: clumsy swiping in general vicinity of objects 3-4 months they begin successfully reaching for objects (poor control, often fail) -giving velcro toy mitts increases interest in objects due to easier reaching/grabbing 7 months: smooth reaching and stable sitting

Answer 19

Moving around in the environment on their own Infants remarkably good at findings ways to get around prior to being able to walk

Answer 20

8 months: children capable of self locomotion 11-12 months: begin walking independently, keep feet wide apart, flex at hip and knee to lower center of gravity

Answer 21

Try to do something with a miniature replica object that is far too small for the action to be possible E.g. sit in small dollhouse sized chair or get into small toy car

Answer 22

Detecting and learning from statistical patterns in one’s environment Newborns track statistical regularities in domains of music, action, speech Seeing a novel pairing caused longer looking times -2 months look more at novel shapes Infants listening to long sequence of syllables -Variable syllable pairings were listened to for longer Mechanism available at birth or even before Critical for language learning

Answer 23

Pavlov Infant sucking motions begin as soon as a bottle is present Unconditioned stimulus (nipple in infant’s mouth) Unconditioned response (sucking reflex) Conditioned stimulus (breast or bottle) Conditioned stimulus occurs repeatedly just before the unconditioned stimulus, eventually the behaviour becomes a conditioned response

Answer 24

Learning relationship between a behaviour and its consequences Positive reinforcement: reward that reliably follows a behaviour and increases likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated Tie ribbon to infant leg and attach other end to mobile 3 months: remember the kicking response for ~1 week 6 months: ~2 weeks Younger than 6 months only remember when test mobile is identical to training mobile Older infants remember it even with novel mobiles

Answer 25

Observing other people’s behaviours is a huge source of learning for infants Imitation is a form of observational learning From 6-9 months after 24hr delay 14M imitate after week long delay In second half of first year infants begin to imitate complex actions (e.g. copy experimenter does something weird with an object and infant later copies)

Answer 26

integrating the learner’s prior beliefs and biases with what actually occurs in the environment Ability to use prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future

Answer 27

Show different outcomes and measure looking times Unexpected outcomes = longer looking times Evidence the child has a prior belief that didn’t pan out E.g. Infants looking at experimenter drawing balls from 70 red and 5 white bin (8 months) Look longer at display with 4 white balls (unexpected outcome) Made statistical inference that guided predictions of the event

Answer 28

infants learn by acting on the world (piaget) Infants learn more about an object when they have chosen themselves to explore it Active engagement therefore facilitates learning

Answer 29

Most adults report little or no memory of experiences during infancy and early childhood Memory systems must be present in order for learning to occur Infants shown crackers being put into buckets crawl towards buckets with more crackers