Perceptual Development

Perceptual Development
One way of investigating perceptual development in terms of nature or nurture is to look at the perceptual abilities of people living in different environments to see how their environmental (cultural) experiences might alter the development of their perceptual abilities. If such abilities are innate, we should expect people living in different environments to develop in the same way.
Although this information is important to the understanding of the topic it is not worthy of any marks and so you should only use the information to create an introductory sentence.

Depth Perception across Cultures

Hudson (1960):

Hudson (1960)
Method: Sample: Experiment Bantu, Indian and European Cultures

Procedure: The children were shown various drawings each with an elephant, an antelope and spear. Results: At the beginning of their primary education ALL children had difficulty using these depth cues BUT by the end of primary education nearly all the European children could interpret the depth cues accurately. The Bantu though still saw the pictures as two-dimensional.

Conclusion: SO not only important in showing how depth perception develops over time but also highlights cross-cultural differences too. As they did not perceive depth in the same way it must be learned ability rather than an innate one (Nurture).
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Evaluation (AO2)
However, it was thought that this inability was more to do with the fact that there were no depth cues such as motion parallax or texture gradient. The pictures were thought to be more epitomic than eidolic and thus included no information regarding depth. The study by Jahoda & McGurk (1974) is more eidolic (uses texture gradients) and this explains why there were more 3D responders than in Hudsons study.

Support? (AO2)
Jahoda & McGurk (1974):
Using Children from Scotland and Ghana they found that when these depth cues were included in the pictures perception improved across the board. Further, older children were able to perceive depth better than the younger ones showing support for development over time. BUT although cultural differences existed, results did not support the view that Ghanaian children were more deficient in perceiving pictorial depth. Conclusion: Any differences could have been due to lack of familiarity with the conventions of Western Art as opposed to any difficulty in perceiving depth showing that experience matters (Gregory/nurture). However, this may be to less of an extent than was originally thought 6 .

Further support (AO2)

Hagen & Jones (1978):
Certain cues such as texture gradient seem more important to people from non-western cultures and that these people can quickly learn to interpret pictorial cues when exposed to formal western education (nurture). They concluded that the closer to real life the pictures were the more easily understood they became.
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However (AO2)
The pictures were more epitomic in nature and so provided no information regarding depth (e.g. motion parallax or texture gradient).

Size Constancy in Cross-Cultural Research

Segall (1963):

Debate
Freewill or Biological Determinism? Myopia = shortsightedness!

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SO: Nature or Nurture?

One of the issues here is being able to determine what counts as nature and what counts as nurture. The visual system of an infant has yet to fully mature and such physical or innate abilities need to develop with age. Thus, we cannot claim that any abilities which appear after birth are due to experience (nurture) they might be, but they might also be the result of a maturing visual system (nature). In addition, abilities that appear at birth could be the result of sensory learning in the womb (nurture not nature)!

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Methodological Issues
It is difficult to draw conclusion about perception from studies using infants. They cannot speak or understand instructions and may become bored or fatigued quite easily. Such issues have led to researchers coming up with ingenious methods for testing perceptual abilities and as such can only make assumptions about the outcome.

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Exam Question

Discuss the development of perceptual abilities. Include examples from infant and cross-cultural studies in your answer (8 marks + 16 marks)

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Markscheme
Clear understanding of the implications of these findings in terms of perceptual development.

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