University of Peshawar
Department of Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Group topic: Sensory and perceptual development
My topic: Visual perception
Presented by: Hira Qayyum
Roll no: 1
Submitted to: Mam Nadia Ibrahim
3rd Semester Morning
Visual perception
• What do new-borns see? How does visual perception develop in infancy?
Visual acuity and human faces
• William James called new-born's perceptual world a “blooming, buzzing
confusion “. But it was believed that even the new-born perceives a world
with some order.
• Just how well can infants see?
• Nerves, muscles and lens of the eyes are still developing at birth.
• The newborn vision is estimated to be 20/240 on the well-known Snellen
chart used for eye examinations.
Human Faces
Infants show an interest in human faces soon after birth. They spend more
time looking at their mother’s face.
The following figure shows what a picture of face looks like to an infant at
different ages.
As infants develop, they change the way they gather information from the
visual world, including human faces.
Patterns
• Young infants can perceive certain
patterns.
• Robert Frantz revealed that even 2 to 3
week old infants prefer to look at
patterned displays rather than non-
patterned displays.
Color Vision
The infant’s color vision also improves with time.
By 8 weeks, infants can discriminate some colors.
By 4 months of age, they have color preferences. For example; preferring
saturated colors such as royal blue over pale blue.
Experience is also important for vision to develop normally.
Perceptual Constancy
In perceptual constancy, sensory stimulation is changing but perception of
the physical world remains constant. It allows the infants to perceive their
world as stable.
Types of perceptual constancy:
• Size constancy
• Shape constancy
Size constancy
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same even
though the retinal image of the object changes as we move toward or
away from the object.
The size of an object on the retina is not sufficient to tell us its actual size.
Researches have found that babies as young as 3 months of age show size
constancy. And it continues to develop until 10 or 11 years of age.
Shape constancy
Shape constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same shape
even though its orientation to us changes.
Researches have found that babies as young as 3 months of age have
shape constancy but not for irregularly shaped objects.
Visual perception problems
Children with serious head injury.
Being born premature and being very small at birth.
Growth
As your infant grows, you will see their perceptual development increase
as they become more aware of their surroundings.
Staying on topic maybe more difficult for older adults than it is for
younger people because older adults begin to experience a decline in
inhibition.
Decline in inhibition also can affect visual perception.
Decline
There are number of perceptual abilities that diminish with age.
Aging causes significant changes in visual perception.