About the Book
The developing infant can accomplish all important perceptual tasks that an adult can, albeit with less skill or precision. Through infant perception research, infant responses to experiences enable researchers to reveal perceptual competence, test hypotheses about processes, and infer neural mechanisms, and researchers are able to address age-old questions about perception and the origins of knowledge.In Development of Perception in
Infancy: The Cradle of Knowledge Revisited, Martha E. Arterberry and Philip J. Kellman study the methods and data of scientific research on infant perception, introducing and analyzing topics (such as space,
pattern, object, and motion perception) through philosophical, theoretical, and historical contexts. Infant perception research is placed in a philosophical context by addressing the abilities with which humans appear to be born, those that appear to emerge due to experience, and the interaction of the two. The theoretical perspective is informed by the ecological tradition, and from such a perspective the authors focus on the information available for perception, when it is used by the
developing infant, the fit between infant capabilities and environmental demands, and the role of perceptual learning. Since the original publication of this book in 1998 (MIT), Arterberry and Kellman address
in addition the mechanisms of change, placing the basic capacities of infants at different ages and exploring what it is that infants do with this information. Significantly, the authors feature the perceptual underpinnings of social and cognitive development, and consider two examples of atypical development - congenital cataracts and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Professionals and students alike will find this book a critical resource to understanding perception, cognitive development, social
development, infancy, and developmental cognitive neuroscience, as research on the origins of perception has changed forever our conceptions of how human mental life begins.
Table of Contents:
Forward
Preface
Chapter 1 Views of Perception and Perceptual Development
Chapter 2 Physiological and Sensory Foundations of Perceptual Development
Chapter 3 Space Perception
Chapter 4 Pattern Perception
Chapter 5 Object Perception
Chapter 6 Motion and Event Perception
Chapter 7 Auditory Perception
Chapter 8 Intermodal Perception
Chapter 9 Perception and Action
Chapter 10 Perceptual Foundations of Social Development
Chapter 11 Perceptual Foundations of Cognitive Development
Chapter 12 Themes and Applications
References
Index
About the Author :
Martha E. Arterberry is Professor of Psychology at Colby College, Maine. She received her BA from Pomona College and her PhD from the University of Minnesota. She previously was Professor of Psychology at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, and she is a collaborative investigator at the Child and Family Research Section of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Arterberry currently serves as a
consulting editor for Developmental Psychology, and she is a co-author of Development in Infancy: A Contemporary Introduction, Fifth Edition (2013). Her research interests in perceptual and cognitive development include the
study of depth perception, three-dimensional object perception, categorization, and memory.
Philip J. Kellman is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Cognitive Area in the Department of Psychology, and Adjunct Professor of Surgery, at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his BS from Georgetown University, and his MA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He has received numerous awards including the Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association, and the William Chase Memorial Award from Carnegie-Mellon
University, and he has been elected a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists and of the Association for Psychological Science. His research interests include object, space, and motion perception,
perceptual learning, and applications of perception and cognition to develop and optimize computer-based learning technology.
Review :
"Perceptual development not only forms the basis for how we acquire knowledge of the physical and social world, but studies of perceptual development served as the historical gateway for creating laboratory methods to assess the abilities of non-verbal human infants. Arterberry and Kellman have provided the definitive summary of this rich history and have updated their earlier edition in a masterful way to capture new methods, new findings, and new trends for
the future. All chapters include cutting-edge research from the past 15 years, most notably studies on the perceptual foundations of social development. If there was ever an improvement on a classic,
this is it. The writing is clear, the citations are comprehensive, and the treatment of major issues in the field--from sensation to cognition --is insightful and accessible to expert and novice alike."
--Richard N. Aslin, William R. Kenan Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
"In the history of science, 20 years may seem like a blink in time, but yet it is amazing how much we've learned about infants' perceptual development during the last two decades. This new edition is a very welcome update to a book that has already become a classic in the field. It is beautifully written, smart and scholarly in its breadth and interpretation of the research, and serves as foundational knowledge for those interested in developmental,
cognitive, and social psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience."
--Bennett I. Bertenthal, James H. Rudy Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University
"Anyone interested in perception in general or perceptual development in particular would treasure this book, including researchers, students, and the interested public. Numerous illustrations enhance a lively text, written in an engaging style. This outstanding revision provides an up-to-date account of what we have learned over the last four decades about infant perception."
--Rachel Keen, Professor Emerita of Psychology, University of Virginia
"To have this resource available, as a means of digesting where we have come, is significant. To have a resource that is so well able to allow the reader to understand what we know and what that means is, in my opinion, quite substantial." -- PsycCRITIQUES
