Interactions between stimuli from different sensory modalities and their integration are central to daily life, contributing to improved perception. Being born prematurely and the subsequent hospitalization can have an impact not only on sensory processes, but also on the manner in which information from different senses is combined--i.e.,…

Perception is not an independent, in-the-moment event. Instead, perceiving involves integrating prior expectations with current observations. How does this ability develop from infancy through adulthood? We examined how prior visual experience shapes visual perception in infants, children, and adults. Using an identical task across age groups, we…

The expertise of adults in face perception is facilitated by their ability to rapidly detect that a stimulus is a face. In two experiments, we examined the role of early visual input in the development of face detection by testing patients who had been treated as infants for bilateral congenital cataract. Experiment 1 indicated that, at age 9 to…

Almost all locomotor animals are sensitive to optical expansion (visual looming) and for most animals this sensitivity is evident very early in their development. In humans there is evidence that responses to looming stimuli begin in the first 6 weeks of life, but here we demonstrate that as children become independent their perceptual acuity…

With increasing numbers of preterm infants surviving, the impact of preterm birth on later cognitive development presents a major interest. This study investigates the impact of preterm birth on later dorsal- and ventral-stream functioning. An atypical pattern of performance was found for preterm children relative to full-term controls, but in the…

Aim: To relate visual field function to brain morphology in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Visual field function was assessed using the confrontation technique and Goldmann perimetry in 29 children (15 males, 14 females; age range 7-17y, median age 11y) with unilateral CP classified at Gross Motor Function Classification…

Historically, it was believed the perceptual mechanisms involved in individuating faces developed only very slowly over the course of childhood, and that adult levels of expertise were not reached until well into adolescence. Over the last 10 years, there has been some erosion of this view by demonstrations that all adult-like behavioural…

Young children born very prematurely show elevated thresholds for global motion and global form [Atkinson, J. & Braddick, O. (2007). "Visual and visuocognitive development in children born very prematurely." "Progress in Brain Research, 164." 123-149; MacKay, T. L., Jakobson, L. S., Ellemberg, D., Lewis, T. L., Maurer, D., & Casiro, O. (2005).…

A study involving 90 children (50 preterm and 40 full-term) found continuity in visual recognition memory from early infancy (7 months) to later childhood (11 years), even when other measures of memory at 11 years were controlled. Implications for the study of other types of infant memory are discussed. (SLD)

Examines children's ability to use their knowledge to guide their behavior in a dimensional change, color-shaped card sort. Subjects were asked to sort cards according to different guidelines. Four experiments were carried out which show a disassociation between knowledge and its use. Findings indicate that knowing rules is sometimes insufficient…

Motor behavior, motor performance, and motor learning are discussed at length within the context of infant and child development. Individual chapters focus on the following: the sensory-motor behavior of infants; analysis of selected perceptual-motor programs; beginnings of movement in infants; gross motor attributes in early childhood; visual…

Human cognition is founded, in part, on four systems for representing objects, actions, number, and space. It may be based, as well, on a fifth system for representing social partners. Each system has deep roots in human phylogeny and ontogeny, and it guides and shapes the mental lives of adults. Converging research on human infants, non-human…

Recent work on the development of the perceptual information-seeking function of the hand in relation to its motor-executive function is reviewed. (PCB)

Thirty students (ages 3-20) with profound mental retardation and 30 healthy, full-term infants (5-8 months) were shown 12 patterned stimuli, three times each. Both groups looked significantly longer at face patterns than other patterns. However, the students with mental retardation looked longer at black and white patterns than colored patterns,…

Reviews five books: (1) "Modularity and Constraints in Language and Cognition" (Gunnar and Maratsos); (2) "Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science" (Karmiloff-Smith"; (3) "The Self-System: Developmental Changes between and within Self-Concepts" (Oosterwegel and Oppenheimer); (4)…