Aspects of Motion Perception in Infancy

It is proposed that visual perception in the first months of life is characterized by a high sensitivity for visual events , i.e., for temporally varying stimulation or visual motion. Empirical evidence that supports such a view is described. (1) Infants' sensitivity for very slow motion (motion threshold) develops gradually over the first few months of life, while their sensitivity for very rapid motion (threshold for stimulus fusion) is already high at one month. (2) Three-month-old infants use kinetic optical information to organize visual input into coherent structures. This is illustrated by two different experiments.

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