Visual Perception in Infancy

This entry begins by reviewing aspects of low-level perception in infancy, specifically color and shape perception. Then evidence is presented that object persistence, rather than being conceptualized as an innate cognitive ability, is a high-level perceptual process that develops through experience. During early infancy, object persistence initially extends across short gaps in time or space, but by the middle of the first year it is more robust. It appears that young infants need more cues to specify an occlusion event and hence object persistence. Given problems arising from the fact that the main methods used in infant perception and cognition are based on looking duration at the object array, there is a need to adopt other methods, specifically eye tracking, electroencephalography, and social looking as useful supplements to conventional methods.