PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Habituation, Monocular Deprivation, Visual Acuity
PSYC1001
12TH MARCH 2018
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
× Early experience and later experience- introducing the methodology that is used to study
perceptual development, exploring how visual experience shapes how infants see the
world, and understanding the effects of atypical visual experience on perceptual
development (using examples of critical vs. sensitive periods of development)
× How important is early experience? For example, the ‘Wild Boy of Aveyron’- is it possible
for a child who was raised by wolves to learn language? Would such a child learn to function
in the social world of humans (critical vs. sensitive periods)?
× Critical period- a period of time during development when certain experiences are crucial
for a particular feature of development to emerge
- For example, when baby goslings hatch, they imprint onto whatever moving
object they see within the first few hours of their lives- ideally, the mother, but it
doesn’t have to be- and will follow that object until they are mature
- Research shows that if these goslings are not exposed to a moving object within
the first few hours of life, this imprinting process does not happen, and just
wander off (higher vulnerability and risk of death)
- Therefore, this imprinting process is characterised by a critical period
× Sensitive period- a period of time during which experience is optimal for the development
of a particular function, but it is not critical ® many more examples of sensitive periods in
human development
× What is the world like to an infant? How does perceptual experience shape the way the
infant brain processes the world? What are the consequences of perceptual deprivation?
- Researchers have to design ways to let infants show us how they perceive the
world (through their behaviour), as they cannot communicate it effectively
otherwise (i.e. they can’t ‘tell’ us) ® e.g. through visual scanning and fixation
patterns, habituation, visual preferences
1. Visual scanning- [What do infants look at? What does that tell us about what
they “see”?] The visual system for infants in the first few months of life is
very sensitive to contrast, so they always look for edges (areas of high
Document Summary
Critical period- a period of time during development when certain experiences are crucial for a particular feature of development to emerge. Research shows that if these goslings are not exposed to a moving object within the first few hours of life, this imprinting process does not happen, and just wander off (higher vulnerability and risk of death) Therefore, this imprinting process is characterised by a critical period. Sensitive period- a period of time during which experience is optimal for the development of a particular function, but it is not critical many more examples of sensitive periods in human development. What does that tell us about what they see ?] What does that tell us about what they see?] The baby typically looks at the stripes first, due to their preference for contrast. The stripes are made narrower and narrower and this test repeated, until there is perceptually.
