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Perceptual Development - Coggle Diagram
Perceptual Development
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Physiognomic Perception
Historical origins of the differentiation principle and affordances
- Heinz Werner (1890-1964)
- Published the first edition of his book Comparative Psychology of Mental Development (1926)
- Modern thinker whose theoretical views were much ahead of his time, possibly to the extent that his message is yet to be heard.
- Whenever development occurs, it proceeds from a state of relative lack of differentiation to a state of increasing differentiation and hierarchical integration.
Direct perception of objects’ function: historical origins
- Werner was among the first Gestalt psychologists to raise the possibility that certain aspects of object’s function could be perceived directly > “physiognomic character” of perception
- Perception of physical structure (flat, horizontal, height, etc) > physiognomic character (suitable for..)
Two modes of perception
Geometrical-technical mode of perception: perceiving objects in terms of their objective, measurable qualities
Physiognomic perception: perceiving and reacting to stimuli according to their dynamic, emotional, and expressive qualities.
- Impression formation: people use information from physical features and nonverbal behaviours to form impressions of individuals
- Facial features can be altered in ways that make a face look more trustworthy. A face that resembles a happy expression is likely to be seen as trustworthy, while one resembling an angry expression is more likely to be seen as untrustworthy.
- Some impressions are dependent on structural features > competence judgements based on facial structure show wider faces to be more competent
Werner believed that intersensory experiences exist prior to the differentiation of the senses into separate modalities.
- Various sensory systems influence one another through general body feeling.
Similarities to synesthesia?
- Physical stimulus (inducer) associated with concurrent experiences that add more to the stimulus.
- Defined as an “involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association” > syn- together, aisthesis- perception.
- About 4-5% (2005)
- Equal in men and women
- More likely to be left-handed
- Inherited > seems to be a dominant trait, possibly on the x-chromosome
- Neurologically normal
- More common in children than adults
- Five main diagnostic features: involuntary, sensations projected onto enviroment, sensations remain the same with time and situation, memorable, and emotional.
- More than 50 separate forms of synesthesia have been theorised/reported > virtually any combination is possible.
Multisensory interactions in infants and children
- Objects and events in the environment contain information detected by multiple senses and the issue of how inputs from different sensory modalities cooperate in the control of behaviour is of great theoretical and applied importance.
- Multisensory integration: The successful combination of information from different sensory modalities is necessary for meaningful perceptual experiences.
- Newborns can integrate sight and proprioception > “imitation at birth” > newborns can make their own facial expressions match those of another person.
- Infants can integrate sight and sound > they will look at video input that is more consistent with the sounds they are hearing > looking at a male talking when hearing a male voice, compared to looking at a woman.
Neonatal synaesthesia hypothesis
- Cross-modal effects in infants and children could be understood in terms of synaesthesia.
- Neuronal hyper-connectivity > cross-talk hypothesis > synaesthesia results from an abnormally high number of connections between certain areas in the cortex