Motion as an organizer of perception

Integrating information across modalities

n Most information comes to us in more than one modality at a time

n Seeing and hearing

n Seeing and touching

n Tasting and smelling

Inter and Cross Modal Perception

n How do we have common perceptions across modalities?

n For example, what is pointedness?

n Do we visually perceive hardness?

n What is synchrony?

Two primary views

n Perceptions are amodal at birth (T.G.R. Bower)

n A very young baby may not know whether he is hearing something or seeing something…Very rapidly babies develop the ability to register not only the place but the modality of a imput

n For example, sharpness is amodal

n Integrationist view: Infants learn to integrate information across modalities

Intermodal Perception

n Perception of Synchrony

Cross Modal Transfer

n Studies by Susan Rose

Studies by S. Rose with 6 mo olds
A. Meltzoff with 1 mo olds

S. Wagner: Metaphorical Knowledge?

S. Wagner: Metaphorical Knowledge?

Face Perception

n When do infants consider a face to be a “special” type of stimulus

n Initial studies looked at preferences for faces versus other forms such a bull’s eyes

n Faces were found to be a powerful stimulus suggesting we are born with an innate preference for them

n More current research has question this hypothesis and suggested that faces are attractive merely because of their visual properties

Face Perception

n Studies with “scrambled” faces

Face Perception

n Why is this important?

n The brain has area that seem to be specialized for face perception: Face Fusiform Area of the Gyrus

n Individuals with prosagpronosia

n What is the role of experience– autism?

Face Perception

n Mark Johnson has suggested there are two processes”

n Conspec: An innate subcortical system that attracts newborn infants to facial stimuli

n Conlearn: A knowledge of facial information that develops later in infancy and is dependent on experience

Infants Discrimination of Gender

We can discriminate gender using subtle facial features

What distinguishes gender

Forehead sizes

3 year-olds gender results
1. Do use hair cues
2. Typicality Matters
3. Are still far from adult abilities

Development of Expertise

n How are infants “learning” male and female faces?

Which of the following two faces looks more familiar to you?

Abstraction of Prototypes

Abstraction of Prototypes

n Both adults and 10 month old infants abstract prototypic representations.

Facial Recognition

n Prior research indicates babies recognize mothers within the first 2 months

n By 4 months of age, infants discriminate familiar people from strangers

n How do they do this?

If you didn’t know these people
Which face would be easier to remember?

Evidence of Adult Expertise

n Better recognition for distinctive faces

Evidence of Adult Expertise

n Advantage for same race faces

Evidence of Adult Expertise

n Caricature

Memory for Distinctive Faces in
9- to 10- Month Old Infants

Preliminary Results: Infant Memory

Preliminary Results: Preschool Distinctive Memory

Diagnostic Criteria

n Qualitative impairment in social interaction

n Qualitative impairment in communication

n Restricted repetitive & stereotypical patterns of behavior, interests, & activities

Early Emerging Features of Autism

n Atypical Eye Contact

n Lack of Joint Attention

n Delayed early communication behaviors

n Deficits in symbolic play

n Deficits in imitation abilities

n Lack of interest in other children

n Not responsive to name

Autism: Movie– The Rain Man

Autism: Movie– The Rain Man

Dr. Temple Grandin

Basic Premise of Developmental Approach

n The way individuals with autism come to learn about both the world and people is very different from individuals who do not have autism.

n These differences probably begin in infancy

n Support of this comes from recent studies indicating that there is an acceleration in brain growth during the first two years as evidenced by brain volume and head circumference measures.

Autistics Face Recognition

n Individuals with autism (even when they have normal IQ’s) are known to be poor at face recognition

n Why?

n They are not prosaprognosia

Autistic Recognition Results

An infant’s world

What about beauty?

Symmetry

Youth

Androgeny/Estrogen

Feminine / Masculine

Hip Waist Ration (.6 to .8)