LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENTLIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT
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Motor, Sensory, and Perceptual Development
Motor Development
Dynamic Systems View
Seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting
Motivation leads to new motor behavior; a convergence of
Nervous system development
Environmental support for the skill
Motor Development
Dynamic Systems View
Seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting
Motivation leads to new motor behavior; a convergence of
Nervous system development
Environmental support for the skill
Motor Development
Reflexes
Some disappear (e.g.: grasping), some last throughout life (e.g.: coughing)
Motor Development
Reflexes
Reaction when infant’s cheek is
stroked or side of mouth touched
Automatic sucking object
Grasping reflex
is to grasp tightly
Gross Motor Skills
Infancy
Motor Development
Motor Development
Fig. 5.3
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Gross Motor Skills
Movement smoother with age
Adulthood
Biological functions decline with age
Motor Development
Guidelines for Parents and Coaches of Children in Sports
Motor Development
Continue condemning
Expect instant learning
Make fun of child
Compare child to other
Make sports all work
Respect child’s participation
Be positive role model
Motor Development
Fig. 5.4
Fine Motor Skills
Infancy: Reaching and grasping
Experience affects perceptions and vision
Early Childhood: Pick up small objects
Some difficulty building towers
Motor Development
Fine Motor Skills
Childhood and adolescence
Steadier at age 7; more precise movements
By 10-12, can do quality crafts, master difficult
piece on musical instrument
Adulthood — speed may decline in middle and late adulthood, but most use compensation strategies
Older adults can still learn new motor tasks
Motor Development
Handedness
Right-handedness dominant in all cultures
Right hand preference in thumb-sucking begins in the womb
Head-turning preference in newborns
Motor Development
Handedness, the Brain, and Cognitive Abilities
95% of right-handed primarily process speech in left hemisphere
Left handed
Show more variation
What Are Sensation and Perception?
Sensation — occurs when information contacts sensory receptors
Perception — interpretation of sensation
Sensory and Perceptual Development
The Ecological View
People directly perceive information in the world around them
Perception brings people in contact with the environment to interact with it and adapt to it
All objects have affordances; opportunities for interaction offered by objects necessary to perform activities
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Studying Infant Perception
Visual preference method — to determine if infants can distinguish between various stimuli
Habituation and Dishabituation
Tracking — moving eyes and/or head to follow moving objects
Videotape equipment, high-speed computers
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Infants’ Visual Perception
20/600 at birth, near adult levels by 1 year
Sees some colors by 2 months, has preferences by 4 months
Prefer patterns at birth; face scanning improves by 2 months
Developed by 7-8 months
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Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy
Recognition that object remains the same even though the retinal image changes
Shape constancy
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Vision in Childhood
Preschoolers may be farsighted
Signs of vision problems
Rubbing eyes, blinking, squinting
Closing one eye, tilting head to see, thrusting
head forward to see
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Aging Vision In Adulthood
Loss of Accommodation — presbyopia
Decreased blood supply to eye — smaller visual field, increased blind spot
Slower dark adaptation, decline in motion sensitivity
Declining color vision: greens, blues, vi
Declining depth perception — problems with steps or curbs
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Glare Vision and Aging
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Diseases of the Eye
Cataracts — thickening eye lens that causes vision to become cloudy, opaque, distorted
Glaucoma — damage to optic nerve because of pressure created by buildup of fluid in eye
Macular degeneration — involves deterioration of retina
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Hearing
Childhood
Adolescence
Adulthood
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Hearing
Newborns
display auditory preferences
otitis media: middle ear infection
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Hearing
Adulthood
Males lose sensitivity to high-pitched sounds
sooner than females
Treatment includes hearing aids
Other Senses
Smell
Taste
Newborns feel pain; by 6 mos., can coordinate vision and touch
Can differentiate odors at birth; shows some preferences
May prefer sweet tastes before birth; likes salty at 4 months
Less sensitive to pain and touch in lower extremities
Loss of some sense of smell around age 60
Decline in taste of begins in 60s
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Intermodal Perception
Ability to relate and integrate information about two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing
Exists in newborns; sharpens with experience in first year
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Perceptual-Motor Coupling
Explores how people assemble motor behaviors for perceiving and acting
Controversial for some researchers
Sensory and Perceptual Development
The End