Child Development - Lecture 1

what do babies prefer to look at?

stimuli that are more complex, colorful

natural familiarity

stimuli babies experience often in their lives

lab-induced familiarity

when you familiarize a baby to a new stimulus by exposing them to it for some time

visual acuity

sharpness of visual discrimination

visual acuity at birth

very poor

why is visual acuity at birth poor?

because of the immaturity of the cone cells in babies’ retinas

when does visual acuity reach adult-like levels?

8 months

what is color perception like at birth?

babies see in gray scale

when does color vision appear?

2 months

what is the first color to appear?

red

when does color perception reach adult-like levels?

5 months

what is visual scanning like at birth?

babies scan their visual environment and pause to look at things, but they have trouble tracking moving objects because their eye movements are jerky

when can babies track moving objects if they are moving slowly?

4 months

when does visual scanning reach adult-like levels?

8 months

what causes development of visual scanning?

brain maturation

do babies really have a preference for faces?

it may really be that they have a preference for bottom-heavy stimuli

when can babies differentiate between two faces?

9 months

other-race-effect

people find it easier to distinguish between faces of individuals of their own racial group than between faces from other racial groups

do 3-month-olds show the other-race-effect?

no

do 9-month-olds show the other-race-effect?

yes

is the other-race-effect innate?

no, if babies are equally exposed to faces of different races, they will not show the other-race-effect

do babies with ASD have the same levels of face perception?

no, babies with ASD struggle with face perception

do babies with ASD prefer faces?

no, they prefer geometric shapes