Perceptual Development In Children

First published in 1987. This book is not intended to be either a comprehensive reference work or a systematic handbook on perception in infancy. Nor is it another published report of a recently held conference. It is a collection of state-of-the-art essays on perception during the first year or so of infant development. Rather than first choosing the topics and then finding experts to write about them the editors first chose the experts and invited them to write about those topics in which we know them to be interested and closely involved. The outcome of this approach is a collection of chapters in which the authors at the same time critically review earlier contributions to the topic, report their own work, identify numerous unresolved problems and key issues, and point out directions for future inquiry. Naturally the emphasis placed on these facets varies markedly with both topic and author. The result is a collection of commentaries that we believe to be comprehensive, informative, interesting, and provocative.

The aim of this book is both to reflect current knowledge of perceptual development and to point to some of the many questions that remain unanswered. The study of perceptual development is now a sophisticated science. The majority of the chapters tell a fascinating detective story: the way in which infants perceive and understand the world as they develop. Each of the major sections is prefaced by introductory comments, and the book will be useful for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers, and other professionals who have an interest in early perceptual development and in infancy in general.

Each year, the Institute of Child Development brings together a group of distinguished investigators who share a common desire to understand the nature of development. The chapters in this volume are based on papers presented at the 20th of this continuing series, the Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology. The meetings were held October 31 through November 2, 1985, at the University of Minnesota.

The developing infant can accomplish all important perceptual tasks that an adult can, albeit with less skill or precision. Through infant perception research, infant responses to experiences enable researchers to reveal perceptual competence, test hypotheses about processes, and infer neural mechanisms, and researchers are able to address age-old questions about perception and the origins of knowledge. In Development of Perception in Infancy: The Cradle of Knowledge Revisited, Martha E. Arterberry and Philip J. Kellman study the methods and data of scientific research on infant perception, introducing and analyzing topics (such as space, pattern, object, and motion perception) through philosophical, theoretical, and historical contexts. Infant perception research is placed in a philosophical context by addressing the abilities with which humans appear to be born, those that appear to emerge due to experience, and the interaction of the two. The theoretical perspective is informed by the ecological tradition, and from such a perspective the authors focus on the information available for perception, when it is used by the developing infant, the fit between infant capabilities and environmental demands, and the role of perceptual learning. Since the original publication of this book in 1998 (MIT), Arterberry and Kellman address in addition the mechanisms of change, placing the basic capacities of infants at different ages and exploring what it is that infants do with this information. Significantly, the authors feature the perceptual underpinnings of social and cognitive development, and consider two examples of atypical development - congenital cataracts and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Professionals and students alike will find this book a critical resource to understanding perception, cognitive development, social development, infancy, and developmental cognitive neuroscience, as research on the origins of perception has changed forever our conceptions of how human mental life begins.

Originally published in 1974: ‘This book sets forth a theory of cognitive development based on simple but powerful processes of inference. The theory is applied with great ingenuity and freshness to complex phenomena found during intellectual development. Dr Bryant has written an important and original book.’ (J.S. Bruner) ‘In this elegant, timely and brief volume, Dr Bryant produces strong experimental evidence which not only challenges Piaget’s ideas, but even more importantly synthesizes the old and new findings into a newer theory of perceptual development. The importance of this book lies both in its demonstration of elegant experimental techniques in working with young children, and in the optimism it will eventually bring to all concerned with their education. Realizing that children can make deductive inferences at an early age, educators will have to rethink some of their approaches to the teaching of young children. The studies related to the understanding of number have crucial implications for the future teaching of mathematics. This book will cause many people to take fresh thoughts on the subjects here dealt with, and so it can be strongly recommended for all students of child development.’ (William Yule, British Journal of Psychiatry)

This book address fundamental questions of human development, revisiting old questions and applying original empirical findings.