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Until the middle of the twentieth century, most researchers believed that infants possess only the most rudimentary ways of perceiving the world. Then, in the 1950s, innovative investigative strategies allowed researchers to better assess the complexity of infants' perceptual abilities.Studies on the visual perception of infants used gaze time as an indicator of interest or preference. In Study 1, 36 babies age 2 weeks to 4 months were shown 6 pictures of identical size simultaneously, such as pictures of a bull's-eye, a bird, three squares of different colors, and a human face. Researchers recorded the time the infants spent looking at each picture and calculated the mean gaze time for each picture. It was found that the babies gazed far longer at the human face than at any other picture.Studies on the auditory perception of infants also employed gaze time as an indicator of preference. In Study 2, researchers exposed infants age 1-4 months to four types of auditory stimuli. The first type was human speech consisting of a series of randomly selected short words, each stated in a neutral tone, followed by a second of silence. The other stimuli included environmental sounds (eg, forest noises); neutral, human, noncommunicative sounds (eg, sneezing, coughing, throat clearing); and monkey vocalizations. A red light was shown on a computer monitor to attract the babies' attention. Once their gaze was fixed on the monitor, they were shown a picture of a checkerboard along with the auditory stimulus for up to 40 seconds. The time the infants gazed at the monitor was recorded. Results indicated that babies preferred human speech to any other sound.
Adapted from S. Shultz and A. Vouloumanos ©2010 Taylor & Francis Group, and R. L. Fantz ©1961 Scientific American.
-Based on the results of these two studies, which conclusion is most supported?

Question

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Until the middle of the twentieth century, most researchers believed that infants possess only the most rudimentary ways of perceiving the world.  Then, in the 1950s, innovative investigative strategies allowed researchers to better assess the complexity of infants' perceptual abilities.Studies on the visual perception of infants used gaze time as an indicator of interest or preference.  In Study 1, 36 babies age 2 weeks to 4 months were shown 6 pictures of identical size simultaneously, such as pictures of a bull's-eye, a bird, three squares of different colors, and a human face.  Researchers recorded the time the infants spent looking at each picture and calculated the mean gaze time for each picture.  It was found that the babies gazed far longer at the human face than at any other picture.Studies on the auditory perception of infants also employed gaze time as an indicator of preference.  In Study 2, researchers exposed infants age 1-4 months to four types of auditory stimuli.  The first type was human speech consisting of a series of randomly selected short words, each stated in a neutral tone, followed by a second of silence.  The other stimuli included environmental sounds (eg, forest noises); neutral, human, noncommunicative sounds (eg, sneezing, coughing, throat clearing); and monkey vocalizations.  A red light was shown on a computer monitor to attract the babies' attention.  Once their gaze was fixed on the monitor, they were shown a picture of a checkerboard along with the auditory stimulus for up to 40 seconds.  The time the infants gazed at the monitor was recorded.  Results indicated that babies preferred human speech to any other sound.
Adapted from S. Shultz and A. Vouloumanos ©2010 Taylor & Francis Group, and R. L. Fantz ©1961 Scientific American.
-Based on the results of these two studies, which conclusion is most supported?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

11ecba2d_0d28_92af_a3bf_7dc5791bc168_MD0008_00 Adaptive value refers to the extent to which a trait or behavior helps an organism survive and reproduce. Traits and behaviors that are innate are genetically determined. For example, babies are born with many reflexes (eg, feeding reflexes like suckling and rooting) that are preprogrammed behaviors meant to help them survive. Behaviors that are learned result from observation and experience. They can change over time with practice or environmental demands. For example, feeding oneself with utensils (eg, spoon, chopsticks) is a learned behavior. Most human behaviors are complex, falling along the continuum from innate to learned. Babies prefer human faces (Study 1) and human speech (Study 2), suggesting that infants have evolved an innate preference for human faces and speech because recognition of these stimuli confers a survival advantage. Faces convey social cues (eg, emotion), and eye contact between infants and caregivers is critical for the pair-bonding process. Speech, particularly the voice of one's mother (which studies suggest newborns prefer), also conveys important social information, helps with pair-bonding, and begins priming the brain for language processing. (Choice B) Many perceptual abilities and preferences appear to be innate, but it is not possible to conclude from the presented studies that these abilities are also fixed (unchanging), as only infants were assessed. In order to conclude that certain perceptual abilities are fixed, data would need to show similar responses from infancy to adulthood. (Choice C) Neither study tested for perceptual maturity, and the results of the two studies were not compared. Furthermore, at birth, auditory perception is more developed than visual perception, which matures over the first two years of life. (Choice D) Bottom-up processing starts with the sensory input and builds up to a final perception in the brain. Top-down processing involves prior knowledge and expectations influencing perception. Infants rely more heavily on bottom-up processing because they are too young to have formed a significant amount of prior knowledge. Educational objective: The adaptive value of traits refers to the extent to which a trait or behavior aids survival and/or reproduction. Innate behaviors are genetically determined. Learned behaviors result from observation and experience. Most human behaviors are complex, falling along a continuum from innate to learned.

Passage Until the Middle of the Twentieth Century, Most Researchers Believed