UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI.

COURSE: PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. ( CPY3116)

PRESENTATION: PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT( LECTURE 7)

PRESENTERS:

BENARD NORMAN OSODO, C3/1300/2023.( LEADER).

ORWA VALENCIA ADHIAMBO,C3/146758/2023.

NUR SALMA ABDI, C3/0522/2023.

LECTURER: BEATRICE APONDI.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.

a) Definitions and theoretical explanation.

b) Perceptual changes in perceptual development.
c) Depth perception.
d) Visual perception.
e) Object perception.
f) Factors affecting perceptual development.
Perceptual Development.

Perceptual development is a process where infants receive , interpret and understand

sensory input. Like adult infant encounter stimuli through five senses that is hearing, sight,
touch and taste. At once it was believed that infants experience limited perception. For
example many believed that infants were born without ability to see and hear. Whole infant
sight distance is limited. Infants are born with ability to see ,hear, smell, touch and taste.

In fact perceptual development is vibrant at the first years of development. The ability to
distinguish between different sounds is needed for language development. Perceptual
development is also connected to physical development since mobility is necessary to
explore and play with objects. From infancy until early childhood perceptual development
plays an important role as children explore, interpret and begin to understand their world.
According to Jean Piaget, Perceptual development involves the progressive refinement of
sensory abilities and the organization of sensory information into meaningful patterns and
representations. Piaget emphasized the role of cognitive processes such as assimilation and
accommodation in shaping perceptual development and highlighted the active role of
individual in constructing their understanding of the world.

Perceptual development in the psychology of human development also refers to the gradual
process through which individuals acquire the ability to interpret and make sense of
sensory information from their environment. It involves the refinement of sensory ability
such as vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell as well as the integration of these senses to
form a coherent perception.
Sensation.
Sensation is the input about the physical world obtained by our sensory receptors and sent
to the brain through the nervous system.What kind of information do we receive from the
environment?. Light-Vision, Sound- hearing, Chemical- test and smell. Pressure,
temperature, and pain- sense of touch. Orientation and balance -Kinetic senses. Our senses
can only respond to a limited range of environmental stimuli. For example we cannot hear
sounds of frequencies above 20000hz even though dogs can hear them. Sensory processes
are the initial stages of perception.
Transduction- is the process of converting energy of stimulus into neural activity. The
stimulus is recorded as neutral pattern.Transduction can be affected by our experiences
through adaptation; a constant level of stimulus results to a decrease response over time.
With continued exposure the neural response to the stimulus may change. Adaptation is
also perception not only sensory.

Perception.
Perception is a process of selecting and identifying information from environment. It is the
process of interpretation of information from the environment so that we get its meaning.
Sensation usually involves sensing of the existing stimulus while perception system is
determination of what the stimulus is.
Definitions and Theoretical Explanations

Empiricist.
According to empiricist perception is learned through exposure to environment and our
sensory experiences are crucial for forming actual presentation about the world. Empiricist
perception often highlight the importance of studying mechanism such as association,
reinforcement and observation, learning in the development perception skills.Famous
empiricist thinker in perceptual development include B.F Skinner who emphasized the role
reinforcement and environment in shaping behaviour including perceptual responses.

Nativity.
They argue that certain abilities are innate an develop independently of experience. The
believe that infants are born with capacity to perceive about the World in sophisticated
ways such as recognizing faces and understanding depth perception.

Gestalt Psychology.

It emphasizes that perception is more than just sum of its parts rather it involves organizing
sensory information into meaningful wholes.In perceptual development gestalt principle
tries to explain how infants and children make sense of their environment by grouping
elements based on their similarity, closure and proximity.
This perception highlights the active role of mind in organizing sensory input and shaping
perception.

Traditional approach.

It focuses on gradual refinement of sensory abilities through maturation and experience. It

views perceptual development as continuous process with infants initially perceiving about
the world relatively in simple ways and gradually more adapted and discriminating and
interpreting sensory information over time.
This approach often involve how infants perceptual abilities improve with ages such as
their abilities to discriminate between different visual patterns or localized sound.
Perceptual changes in perceptual development.

This development begins from infancy and continues throughout the childhood and
adolescent is influenced by both genetic factors and environmental experiences.
Perceptual development has a series of stage which are each characterized by distinct
changes in sensory abilities and perceptual abilities. Different theorist may propose
variations in the stages of perceptual development framework is based on the work of jean
Piaget. He outlines four major stages of cognitive development that encompasses
perceptual development as described below.

Sensorimotor Stage( Birth-2years)

During this stage infants explore the world primarily through their senses and actions.
Initially, their perceptual experiences are mostly reflexive but as they develop, they begin
to internationally interact with object in their environment. The key milestones on this of
this stage is the object permanence which occurs around 8 to 12 months of age. Object
permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they’re out of
sight thus laying the foundation for more complex cognitive and perceptual abilities.

Pre-operational stage( 2-7years)

In the pre-operational stage, children’s perceptual abilities continue to develop alongside
their expanding language and symbolic thinking skills. They become increasingly adopt at
using symbols to represent object and events in their minds enabling imaginative play and
communication. However they may still struggle with certain aspects of perceptual
reasoning such as understanding conversation tasks where they fact to recognize that the
quantity of a substance remains the same despite changes in its appearance.
Egocentric is a key characteristics of this stage as children may have difficulty in
understanding that others have different perceptive from their own.

Concrete operational stage.( 7- 11years).

During this stage, children’s perceptual abilities become more advanced and they
demonstrate greater understanding of logical and systematic thinking, especially in relation
to concrete objects and events. Children are able to understand conversation tasks and can
grasp concepts like reversibility where they understand that certain action can be undone of
reversed their perceptual reasoning becomes more flexible, allowing them to take a
multiple perspective and solve problems in a more systematic manner.

Formal Operational Stage( 11 years and Old)

In this stage, adolescents perceptual reach their peak as they develop the capacity for
abstract thinking and hypothetical reasoning they can contemplate hypothetical situations,
engage in deductive reasoning and think critically about complex concepts. Their
perceptual experiences become more nuanced, allowing for deeper interpretation and
analysis of sensory information. Not all individuals reach this stage, those who demonstrate
a heightened ability to understand and navigate the complexity of the world around them.

These stages of perceptual development represent a gradual progression from basic sensory
experiences to a more sophisticated cognitive process reflective on the intricate interplay
between biological maturation, environment influence and individual experiences therefore
it is important to note that Jean Piaget’s stages a general framework for understanding
perceptual development, individual differences and environmental influences play a
significant role in shaping the trajectory of perceptual development.
Depth Perception.

Depth perception refers to the ability to perceive the relative distance and spatial
relationships of objects in three dimensional world. It is a crucial aspect of visual
perception that allows us to accurate lately the depth and distance of objects, enabling
effective interaction with our environment.
Cues and Mechanisms that contribute to depth perception.
1. Binocular cues:
 Binocular disparity: The slightly different images received by the two eyes due to
horizontal separation which provides information about the relative distance of objects.

 Convergence: The inward rotation of the eyes to focus on a nearby object which
provides information about the distance of the object

2. Monocular cues:
 Relative size: The perceived size of an object relative to other known object, which
provides information about its distance.
 Occlusion: The partial blocking of one object by another which suggests that the
occluded object is farther away.
 Aerial Perspective: The hazy, less distinct appearance of distant objects due to
atmospheric condition, which suggests their distance.
 Motion Parallax: The apparent movement of objects at different distances as the
observer moves, which provides the information about their relative depth.
 Texture gradient: The gradual change in density and clarity of texture patterns which
suggests the distance of objects.
 Depth constancy: The ability to perceive the true size and distance of objects despite
changes in retinal image size, which is influenced by factors such as familiarity and
context
Visual Perception.

Visual perception refers to the process of interpreting and understanding the visual
information that we receive from the environment through our eyes and visual system. It is
a complex cognitive process that involves the integration of various sensory and cognitive
mechanisms,

Key aspects of visual Perception

1. Visual acuity: The sharpness and clarity of vision, which is influenced by factors such
as the eye optical properties and functioning of retina and visual pathways.
2. Color vision: the ability to perceive and distinguish different wavelengths of light
which is mediated by specialized photo receptors ( cones) in the retina
3. Depth Perception:The ability to perceive the relative distance and spatial relationship
of objects, which is achieved through integration of binocular and monocular cues.
4. Motion perception:
5. The ability to detect and interpret the movement of objects, which is crucial for tasks
such as tracking and navigation.
6. Object recognition:
7. The ability to identify and recognize objects, which involves the integration of visual
features, prior knowledge, and contextual information.
8. Visual attention:
9. The selective focus on certain visual information while ignoring others, which is
essential for efficient visual processing and decision-making.
10. Visual memory:
11. The ability to store and recall visual information, which allows us to maintain a
coherent and stable perception of the visual world.
12. Visual perception is a dynamic and interactive process that involves the interplay of
bottom-up (sensory-driven) and top-down (knowledge-driven) processes. It is
influenced by various factors, such as lighting conditions, object properties, and
individual differences in visual abilities.
13. Understanding visual perception is crucial in fields such as psychology, neuroscience,
computer vision, and human-computer interaction, as it provides insights into the
mechanisms underlying our visual experience.
Object Perception

Object perception refers to the process of recognizing and understanding the physical
properties, identity, and meaning of objects in our visual environment. It is a fundamental
aspect of visual perception that allows us to make sense of the world around us.
The key aspects of object perception include:
Object recognition:
The ability to identify and categorize objects based on their visual features, such as shape,
color, texture, and spatial relationships.
This involves the comparison of the current visual input with stored representations of
objects in memory.
Object constancy:
The ability to perceive an object as the same despite changes in its orientation, size, or
viewing angle.
This allows us to maintain a stable and consistent representation of objects in our
environment.
Object segmentation:
The process of separating an object from its background and other objects, which is crucial
for object recognition and scene understanding.
Object affordances:
The perceived functional properties of an object that suggest how it can be used or
interacted with.
This influences our understanding and interaction with objects in the environment.
Object-based attention:
The selective focus on specific objects or object features, which can influence our
perception and processing of visual information.
Object representation:
The mental models or schema s that we develop to represent the properties and
characteristics of different objects.
These representations are stored in memory and used to guide our interactions with the
environment.
Object perception is a complex process that involves the integration of bottom-up (sensory-
driven) and top-down (knowledge-driven) processes. It is influenced by factors such as
object properties, context, and prior experience.
Understanding object perception is crucial in various fields, including psychology,
neuroscience, computer vision, and human-computer interaction, as it provides insights
into how we perceive and interact with the objects in our environment.
Factors influencing perceptual development
Perceptual development refers to the process by which individuals acquire and refine their
ability to perceive and interpret sensory information from the environment. Several key
factors influence the development of perceptual abilities:
Maturation of the sensory systems:
The development and maturation of the visual, auditory, tactile, and other sensory systems
play a crucial role in perceptual development.
As these systems mature, they become more sensitive and efficient in detecting and
processing sensory information.
Experience and learning:
Exposure to a variety of sensory experiences and the opportunity to interact with the
environment are essential for perceptual development.
Through repeated interactions and learning, individuals develop more sophisticated
perceptual skills and the ability to interpret sensory information.
Cognitive development:
Perceptual development is closely linked to cognitive development, as higher-order
cognitive processes, such as attention, memory, and problem-solving, influence how
individuals perceive and make sense of their environment.
Neurological development:
The maturation and organization of the brain, particularly the visual and auditory cortices,
are critical for the development of perceptual abilities.
Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and change in response to experience, also
plays a role in perceptual development.
Social and cultural factors:
The social and cultural environment in which an individual grows up can shape their
perceptual development.
Exposure to different cultural practices, beliefs, and ways of perceiving the world can
influence an individual’s perceptual skills and interpretations.
Individual differences:
Factors such as genetics, temperament, and individual experiences can contribute to
variations in perceptual development among individuals.
Some individuals may have innate strengths or weaknesses in certain perceptual abilities.
Perceptual development is a dynamic and ongoing process that continues throughout an
individual’s lifespan.