SENSATION

The Infant – Vision

• Basic visual capacities are present at birth
– Can detect changes in brightness and can track
a slow-moving object or picture
• Visual acuity – ability to perceive detail
– Optimal at about 8 inches from the face or if
objects are boldly patterned with sharp light-dark
contrasts
• Visual accommodation – ability to focus on objects
at different distances
– Takes 6 months to 1 year before can see as well
as an adult
• Color vision present at birth
– Color vision mature at 2 to 3 months
 The Infant – Hearing
• Basic capacities are present at birth
– Can hear better than they can see
– Can localize sounds
– Can be startled by loud noises
– Can turn toward soft sounds
– Prefer relatively complex auditory stimuli
– Can discriminate among sounds that differ
in loudness, duration, direction, and
frequency/pitch
 The Infant – Hearing
• Infants become increasingly sensitive to
sound differences that are significant in their
own language and become increasingly
insensitive to sounds not made in their native
language
– Early auditory experiences shape the
formation of synapses in the auditory areas
of the brains and create optimal sensitivity
to the sounds in the native language
• Newborns attend to female voices and can
recognize their mothers’ voices, even in utero
 The Infant – Taste and Smell
• Newborns can distinguish sweet, bitter, and sour
tastes
– Prefer sweet
– Facial expressions reflect taste sensations
• Olfaction – sensory receptors for smell – work
well at birth
– Will turn head away from unpleasant smells
– All babies prefer the smell of human milk over
formula, even if previously consumed formula
– At 1 to 2 weeks, breast-fed babies can
recognize the smell of their mother’s breasts
or underarms
 The Adolescent – Taste and Smell
• Changes in taste during adolescence
– Slight decline in preference for sweets and
an increased sensitivity to sour tastes
– Adolescents are more likely to have an
acquired taste for previously disliked or
avoided foods
• Sense of smell in adolescence
– Women generally demonstrate greater
sensitivity than men to a variety of odors
(including body odor)