Infant Visual Perception

THEORIES OF PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT 110 The Constructivist View 110 The Ecological View 112 The Contemporary Situation in Perceptual Theory 113 BASIC VISUAL SENSITIVITIES IN INFANCY 114 Visual Acuity 114 Contrast Sensitivity 116 Orientation Sensitivity 119 Pattern Discrimination 119 Color Vision 120 Motion Perception 124 SPACE PERCEPTION 126 Kinematic Information 127 Stereoscopic Depth Perception 129 Pictorial Depth Perception 131 OBJECT PERCEPTION 134 Multiple Tasks in Object Perception 134 Edge Detection and Edge Classification 135 Detection and Classification of Contour Junctions 136 Boundary Assignment 137 Perception of Object Unity 137 Perception of Three-Dimensional Form 142 Perception of Size 145 FACE PERCEPTION 146 Preference for Facelike Stimuli 146 Perceiving Information about People through Faces 148 Mechanisms of Face Perception 149 CONCLUSION 150 Levels of Analysis 150 Hardwiring versus Construction in Visual Development 151 Future Directions 152 REFERENCES 152