Infants' sensitivity to uniform motion

Uniform motion across the retina is a powerful cue to the perception of self-motion. In spite of its importance for adaptive functioning, little is known about the early development of uniform motion sensitivity. Six-, 12-, and 18-week-old infants viewed random-dot kinematograms depicting leftward o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vision research (Oxford) 1996-06, Vol.36 (11), p.1633-1640
Main Authors: Banton, Tom, Bertenthal, Bennett I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aging - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child development
Development
Developmental psychology
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Eye Movements - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Infant
Infant vision
Motion Perception - physiology
Nystagmus, Optokinetic - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Relative motion
Sensory Thresholds - physiology
Time Factors
Uniform motion
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Summary:Uniform motion across the retina is a powerful cue to the perception of self-motion. In spite of its importance for adaptive functioning, little is known about the early development of uniform motion sensitivity. Six-, 12-, and 18-week-old infants viewed random-dot kinematograms depicting leftward or rightward uniform motion. The display induced optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), which a trained observer used to judge the direction of target motion. Both speed of motion and directional coherence were varied to obtain independent motion detection thresholds. Infants of all three ages could detect uniform motion, and their detection thresholds were constant during this period of development. This is in contrast to the clear improvements in relative motion sensitivity noted previously between 6 and 18 weeks of age with a preferential looking (PL) paradigm. The developmental differences between these studies may result from: (1) separate mechanisms for detecting uniform (absolute) and differential (relative) motion; or (2) separate mechanisms underlying OKN and PL response measures.
ISSN:0042-6989
1878-5646
DOI:10.1016/0042-6989(95)00216-2