Infant Perceptual and Cognitive Development
TEX 2016 (Language Learning), SISSA, Trieste
Scott P. Johnson
Department of Psychology
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
UCLA
Los Angeles, California, USA
I am a developmental psychologist
why study infants?
setting the stage
the population
motorically, cognitively, & cortically challenged
their task
disambiguate the physical & social world
their tools
sensory systems
exploratory systems (oculomotor, manual, mobile...)
learning systems
biases in attention
curiosity
time to learn
by 7 months postconception, a functional auditory system
by 2 months postnatal, > 200 hours visual experience,
~2,500,000 eye movements
by 3 years postnatal, a lexicon, semantics, syntax,
pragmatics, gestures, expression...
the question
how do developing sensory, exploratory, & learning
systems lead to knowledge?
outline for the talk
infant testing methods
visual attention
pacifier sucking
conditioned head turn
violation of expectation
habituation
eye tracking
ERPs
fMRI & fNIRS
developmental processes & mechanisms
nature vs. nurture
learning indirectly I: attention
learning indirectly II: sitting
learning indirectly III: association
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
More learning tomorrow
outline for the talk
infant testing methods
visual attention
pacifier sucking
conditioned head turn
violation of expectation
habituation
eye tracking
ERPs
fMRI & fNIRS
developmental processes & mechanisms
nature vs. nurture
learning indirectly I: attention
learning indirectly II: sitting
learning indirectly III: association
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
More learning tomorrow
infant testing methods
testing infants presents interesting challenges
infant testing methods
The embryology of behavior (Gesell, 1945)
“ocular attitudes”
2-13 days
“mastery of tools”
birth-3 years
reciprocal eye/head/hand
control
13 days-24 weeks
infant testing methods
visual attention
Fantz (1966)
Fantz (1963)
Johnson et al. (1991)
Fantz (1965)
infant testing methods
pacifier sucking
infant testing methods
conditioned head turn
Werker (2003)
infant testing methods
violation of expectation
Wynn (1992)
infant testing methods
habituation
Habituation Trials
1) 47.6 seconds…
5) 13.9 seconds
6) 6.7 seconds
7) 3.6 seconds
Test Trials
1) Structured: 4.6 seconds
2) Random: 14.2 seconds
3) Structured: 4.4 seconds
4) Random…
Kirkham, Slemmer, & Johnson (2002)
infant testing methods
habituation
Kirkham, Slemmer, & Johnson (2002)
infant testing methods
eye tracking
ASL (model 504)
remote optics system
(1997)
SR Research (EyeLink 1000)
remote optics system
(1997)
Tobii (model 1750)
remote optics system
(2003)
infant testing methods
eye tracking
Frank, Vul, & Johnson (2009)
Johnson, Davidow, Hall-Haro, & Frank (2008)
infant testing methods
eye tracking
Frank, Vul, & Johnson (2009)
infant testing methods
eye tracking
Three more points:
• “It is no exaggeration to say that without looking time measures, we would know very
little about nearly any aspect of infant development” (Aslin, 2007, p. 48)
• What develops are the “control systems,” not the oculomotor musculature (e.g., a shift
from subcortical to cortical control; M. Johnson, 1990)
• If there is a shift from subcortical to cortical control, this would predict a shift in
behavior, from reflexive to volitional responding
attention to “shiny things” --> attention to “meaningful things”
low-level salience --> collections of features with semantic content
infant testing methods
event-related potentials (ERPs)
Mills et al. (2004)
infant testing methods
fMRI & fNIRS
Aslin, Shukla, & Emberson (2014)
outline for the talk
infant testing methods
visual attention
pacifier sucking
conditioned head turn
violation of expectation
habituation
eye tracking
ERPs
fMRI & fNIRS
developmental processes & mechanisms
nature vs. nurture
learning indirectly I: attention
learning indirectly II: sitting
learning indirectly III: association
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
More learning tomorrow
developmental processes & mechanisms
nature vs. nurture
Plato
Aristotle
René Descartes (1596-1650)
David Hume (1711-1776)
nature
nurture
nativism (rationalism)
empiricism
genetic
environmental
domain-specific
domain-general
symbols + rules
associations
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
Frank, Vul, & Johnson (2009)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
Frank, Vul, & Johnson (2009)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
Why?
• acuity
• intersensory synchrony
• cartoon stimulus
• faces as social information source
• mechanisms of attentional control
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
Why?
• acuity
• intersensory synchrony
• cartoon stimulus
• faces as social information source
• mechanisms of attentional control
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
Why?
• acuity
• intersensory synchrony
• cartoon stimulus
• faces as social information source
• mechanisms of attentional control
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
A new study in three parts:
• visual search (VS)
• Charlie Brown (CB)
• Sesame Street (SS)
orientation
Design:
• 17 3-mo, 14 6-mo, 14 9-mo
• 48 trials of VS, max 4 s each
• 4 min CB, 4 min SS
Measures:
• RT & accuracy for VS
• % face looking for CB & SS
• cross-task correlations
Questions:
• similar attention to faces in CB & SS?
• mediated by VS performance?
Frank, Amso, & Johnson (2014)
motion
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
A new study in three parts:
• visual search (VS)
• Charlie Brown (CB)
• Sesame Street (SS)
orientation
Design:
• 17 3-mo, 14 6-mo, 14 9-mo
• 48 trials of VS, max 4 s each
• 4 min CB, 4 min SS
Measures:
• RT & accuracy for VS
• % face looking for CB & SS
• cross-task correlations
Questions:
• similar attention to faces in CB & SS?
• mediated by VS performance?
Frank, Amso, & Johnson (2014)
motion
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
Visual Search Accuracy
Face Looking
Charlie Brown
Sesame Street
motion
p < .01
1
0.8
0.7
p < .05
0.6
Accuracy
Proportion looking
0.9
orientation
0.5
0.4
0.8
0.6
p < .05
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1
0
0
2
4
6
8
10
2
Age (months)
4
6
Age (months)
Frank, Amso, & Johnson (2014)
8
10
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly I: attention
1.0
Face Looking by Moving Search RT
0.8
search
accuracy
.27, p < .001
0.4
0.6
.060, p < .001
age (mos)
0.0
0.2
Proportion Looking
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
3 months
6 months
9 months
0.0
Proportion Looking
1.0
Face Looking by Moving Search Accuracy
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Accuracy
0.8
1.0
500
1000
1500
2000
Reaction Time (ms)
face looking
.019, p < .01
2500
.006, ns
looking at faces is mediated by selective attention
Frank, Amso, & Johnson (2014)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly II: sitting
following habituation:
6-month-olds prefer incomplete
(3D object completion)
4-month-olds: no preference
Soska & Johnson (2008)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly II: sitting
28 infants, 4.5 to 7.5 months (M age = 6 months)
habituation task
• replicate Soska & Johnson (2008)
motor skills assessment
• onset of sitting from parental report
• structured play session in the lab
Soska, Adolph, & Johnson (2010)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly II: sitting
structured play session
• infants sat (supported) on floor
• offered toys
• allowed 60 s to play
coded drops, rotations, fingering, transfers and looking at toys
Soska, Adolph, & Johnson (2010)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly II: sitting
multimodal experience:
manual examination + looking
Soska, Adolph, & Johnson (2010)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly II: sitting
regression on posthabituation preference for incomplete
(viz., our measure of 3D object completion)
3D object completion is mediated by self-sitting
Soska, Adolph, & Johnson (2010)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly III: association
Johnson, Amso, & Slemmer (2003)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly III: association
Ball begins to
emerge
Ball approaches
occluder
Ball is fully
occluded
Ball is again
fully visible
Johnson, Amso, & Slemmer (2003)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly III: association
Ball begins to
emerge
Ball approaches
occluder
Ball is fully
occluded
Ball is again
fully visible
Johnson, Amso, & Slemmer (2003)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly III: association
“Training”
first...
then...
4 trials, 30 s each
4 trials, 30 s each
Johnson, Amso, & Slemmer (2003)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly III: association
Ball begins to
emerge
Ball approaches
occluder
Ball is fully
occluded
Ball is again
fully visible
Johnson, Amso, & Slemmer (2003)
developmental processes & mechanisms
learning indirectly III: association
Ball begins to
emerge
Ball approaches
occluder
Ball is fully
occluded
Ball is again
fully visible
Johnson, Amso, & Slemmer (2003)
developmental processes & mechanisms
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
Kuhl (2004)
developmental processes & mechanisms
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
Kuhl (2004)
Werker (2003)
developmental processes & mechanisms
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
LeGrand et al. (2001)
developmental processes & mechanisms
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
LeGrand et al. (2001)
developmental processes & mechanisms
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
Sinha (2013)
developmental processes & mechanisms
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
Contrast sensitivity
Kalia et al. (2014)
developmental processes & mechanisms
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
controls: good
cataract patients: poor
controls: good
cataract patients: good
LeGrand et al. (2001)
outline for the talk
infant testing methods
visual attention
pacifier sucking
conditioned head turn
violation of expectation
habituation
eye tracking
ERPs
fMRI & fNIRS
developmental processes & mechanisms
nature vs. nurture
learning indirectly I: attention
learning indirectly II: sitting
learning indirectly III: association
perceptual narrowing/critical periods
More learning tomorrow