Chapter 6
Things to think about before reading this Chapter
- What three reasons motivate studies of perceptual development according to Bornstein, Arterberry, and Mash? Throughout this chapter, note theory and research that address these motivations.
- Summarize the evidence presented by Bornstein, Arterberry, and Mash that supports their claim that “perception is a lifelong developmental process” (p. 304).
- Which of the outcomes depicted in Figure 6.1 describe the shape of development for the various perceptual abilities Bornstein, Arterberry, and Mash discuss in this chapter?
- What is inference, and what role does it play in the investigation of perceptual development?
- How does the study of infant perceptual development reveal “substantial, if incomplete, competency relatively early in life” (p. 324)?
- In what ways does the study of perceptual development in childhood reveal its critical connections with both cognitive and language development?
- Note evidence presented by Bornstein, Arterberry, and Mash that supports the idea that both culture and individual experience influence perceptual development over the life-span.
Chapter Outline
Perceptual Development
Introduction
Perspectives on Perceptual Development
Philosophical Origins
Status and Origins of Development
Development
Methodology in Perceptual Development
The Neurosciences Path
- Central Nervous System
- Autonomic Nervous System
The Behavioral Path
- Naturally Occurring Behaviors—Looking Patterns and Actions
- Preference
- Conditioned Head Turn
- Habituation–Recovery
Summary
Perceptual Development in Infancy, Childhood, Adulthood, and Old Age
Prolegomena
Anatomical Beginnings
The Five Senses in Early Life: Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, and Sight
- Touch
- Taste
- Smell
- Hearing
- Sight
- Summary
Perception in Childhood
Perceptual Stability and Change in Adulthood
Perception in Old Age
The Life Span Approach to Perception
The Roles of Biology and Experience in Perceptual Development
Individual Experience: Binocular Disparity Sensitivity, Configural Processing, and Categorization
Cultural Experience: Audition and Speech Perception
- Audition and Aging
- Infant Speech Perception
Summary
Conclusions
Suggested Readings
Bornstein, M. H. (2010). The handbook of cultural developmental science. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
Fantz, R. L. (1958). Pattern vision in young infants. Psychological Record, 8, 43–47.
Gibson, E. J. (1969). Principles of perceptual learning and development. New York: Appleton, Century, Crofts.
Johnson, S. P. & Hannon, E. E. (2015). Perceptual development. In L. S. Liben & U. Müller (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 2. Cognitive processes. (7th ed., pp. 63–112). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Kellman, P. J., & Arterberry, M. E. (2006). Perceptual development. In W. Damon, D. Kuhn, & R. Siegler (Eds.), The handbook of child psychology: Cognition, perception, and language (6th ed., pp. 109–160). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Rakison, D. H., & Oakes, L. (Eds.). (2003). Early category and concept development. New York: Oxford University Press.
Saffran, J. R., Werker, J. F., & Werner, L. A. (2006). The infant’s auditory world: Hearing, speech, and the beginnings of language. In D. Kuhn & R. S. Siegler (Eds.), W. Damon (Series Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 2. Cognition, perception, and language (6th ed., pp. 58–108). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Glossary
Absolute threshold: Psychophysical term denoting the level at which a stimulus is detected by an observer.
Attunement: The sharpening of perception through relevant experience.
Autonomic nervous system: The part of the peripheral nervous system, functioning largely below the level of consciousness, that controls visceral functions like heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, salivation, and sexual arousal.
Categorization: Grouping of objects that are discriminable based on a shared set of features or properties.
Central nervous system: The part of the nervous system that consists of the brain and the spinal cord and has a fundamental role in the control of behavior.
Congenital: Of or pertaining to a condition present at birth, whether inherited or caused by the environment, especially the uterine environment.
Constructivist theories: Theories of perception that assert that perceptual development is founded in the interplay of action and experience in the world.
Continuity: Consistency in group-based, normative perceptual abilities between time points.
Difference threshold: Psychophysical term denoting the level at which an observer detects a difference between perceptible stimuli.
Direct perception theories: Theories of perception that maintain that the meanings of events in the world are automatically perceived (or afforded) in relations among higher-order variables.
Electroencephalogram (EEG): Electrical activity at the scalp that is a byproduct of underlying neuronal activity.
Empiricist: Philosophical assertion that all perceptual knowledge derives from the senses and grows by way of experience.
Epistemology: The branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.
Event-related potential (ERP): Electrical activity at the scalp that is a product of underlying neuronal activity produced by a time-locked stimulus.
Facilitation: The promotion of perception through relevant experience.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): A functional neuroimaging technique that measures brain activity through hemodynamic responses associated with neuron behavior because cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled.
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS): A functional neuroimaging technique that measures brain activity through hemodynamic responses associated with neuron behavior because hemoglobin in the blood absorbs light of different wavelengths.
Habituation: A behavioral technique that assesses autonomic or behavioral decrements to repeated stimulation, as in infant looking, as indicative of the development of infant familiarity with a stimulus.
Induction: The origination of perception through relevant experience.
Inference: The degree to which an observer’s psychological experience of a sensory event is interpreted from direct behavioral and physiological measurements.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG): A functional neuroimaging technique to map brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain.
Maintenance: The persistence of perception through relevant experience
Nativist: Philosophical assertion that some kinds of knowledge do not rely on experience and thus that human beings enter the world with a sensory apparatus equipped (at the very least) to order and organize their percepts.
Ontogenesis: The development or developmental history of an individual organism.
Oxytocin: A chemical hormone released into the blood stream that plays a role in regulating social behavior.
Perception: The interpretation and organization of sensory information representing and reflecting characteristics of a physical event or stimulus.
Preference: Behavior directed at one stimulus over another in a choice situation, irrespective of the spatial location of the two stimuli used by researchers.
Sensory receptors: Sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli in the internal or external environment of an organism and initiate information transduction by creating action potentials in the same cell or in an adjacent one.
Stability: Consistency in individual-order perceptual abilities between time points.
Synapse: The connection across neurons.