Infants Abilities in Terms of Vision

Visual Development in Infants

Researchers have found that the initial assumption about infants and their visual prowess were in fact not true (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg, & Saffran, 2014). . Babies do, in fact, have better vision than at first supposed. Indeed, their vision is certainly not "barely functional" as at first supposed. It has been found that infants begin to explore the world around them visually as soon as within minutes after birth. While it is true that their visual clarity is not as clear as that of adults, research has shown that they gain increasing visual competency within the first month of life. To investigate this, a variety of techniques needed to be used, since babies are unable to understand or follow instructions when it comes to investigation methods. Robert Franz (1961) developed this technique in 1961 to study the visual attention of an infant. For this test, Franz displayed two visual stimuli side by side on a screen for the infant to see. The test then involves determining to which image the infant pays more attention. This then indicates that the infant can distinguish between the images and prefers one over the other. It was also found that infants prefer having an image to look at to being presented with a blank screen (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg, & Saffran, 2014).

Another method used to study an infant's development in terms of sensory and perceptual ability is the habituation method. In this method, infants are presented with repeated image until they indicate boredom, after which a new image is displayed. An increase in response by the infant then means that he or she is able to tell the difference between the old and new image. This is also a method by which an infant's contrast sensitivity can be measured; this sensitivity is low at birth because of the lack of maturity in their cones and the fact that light sensitive nerve cells are not at their full level of development (Banks & Dannemiller, 1987).

The poor contrast sensitivity infants have at birth also makes it difficult to focus on objects close to them. They display jerky eye movements and cannot focus for long on a single object, especially when close to them (Kellman & Arterberry, 2006). Despite initial limitations, research has found that infants prefer their mother's face over that of a stranger (Haith, Bergman, & Moore, 1977; Milewski, 1976). By two months of age infants are able to distinguish more details in faces and other patterns. (Maurer & Salapatek, 1976).

By 2-3 months, babies are able to begin stronger visual activity, where the eyes move "as a team" to provide visual input Bushnell (1985). At this stage, babies see well enough to see and follow moving objects and also to reach for objects that they can see. By 5 months, there is an increase of vision for exploratory purposes, and babies begin to make more physical hand contact with the objects around them. Some studies included different conditions when determining the ability of infants to reach for objects, for example full vision conditions as opposed to objects that glow in the dark (Pogetti, Souza, Tudella, Teixira, 2013).

Proprioceptive feedback provides the infant with the ability to control his or her arms while vision provides information regarding the spatial position of objects for which he or she reaches (Clifton et al., 1993; Robin et al., 1996; Babinsky et al., 2012).

Churchill (2000) notes that sensorimotor control is natural when it comes to spatially oriented actions. Increased movement and straightness when full vision conditions are available provides evidence that infants can use visual feedback to help them guide their limbs in the direction of objects to be touched (Pogetti, Souza, Tudella, Teixira, 2013).

As they grow, infants gain the use of additional information sources to segregate objects. Experience and knowledge about the world help them to complete more complex tasks when distinguishing between objects. This also helps them to understand the physical properties of an object (Needham & Baillargeon, 1997). Further studies have shown that infants are able to remember objects that they had seen and to recognize a change in pattern for repeated display items (Ross- Sheehy, 2010). For items that were cued, researchers found that infants looked longer for changing items rather than for cued non-changing items. This indicates the ability of the infant to distinguish between the changing and non-changing item (Sheehy, 2010).

Visual working Memory in infants was investigated by Anne Schutte and John Spencer (2009). They argue that differences in performance over time involve neural interaction changes in visual processing pathways as the brain grows. In addition to spotting small items and tracking moving objects, infants also become better at recognizing previously seen objects via visual working memory.

By as early as 8 months old, the baby can see almost as well as an adult in terms of clarity and depth perception. Experiments have shown that this stage of development allows babies to distinguish between objects that are closer and those that are further away by using assumptions based upon depth perception. When presented with a large and small object, for example, babies reach for the larger one first, assuming that it is closer (Cleaves & Peterson, 1978). This is the same way in which an adult uses depth perception to determine distance.