Newborns are already tuned to the distal properties of the environment (e.g., they blink to looming displays, perceive oriented contours, and discriminate colors). The classic view that we begin life by perceiving elementary sensations (the proximal information impinging on the retina) and only later, by a protracted process of learning, construct internal representations of the external world (the distal information that we experience), has largely been shown to be incorrect. However, there is still much to be learned about how these basic abilities are converted into higher-level percepts and integrated with motor systems. Much has been discovered about the basic sensitivities of the visual system in young infants over the past 40 years. Although the range of visual inputs sufficient to enable ‘normal’ visual development is quite broad, visual deprivation (e.g., cataracts or strabismus) during a sensitive period can lead to permanent deficits in visual development. Experiential factors include periods of susceptibility to altered visual input. One result of such maturational factors is a reduction in the intrinsic neural noise that limits stimulus detection and discrimination. Another is the increasing selectivity of receptive fields in the visual cortex. Maturational factors include neural developments, such as the migration of photoreceptors (increasing the packing density of cones in the fovea). The development of mature visual perception during early infancy is influenced by both maturational and experiential mechanisms. Lathrop, in Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development, 2008 Developmental Mechanisms: Nature and Nurture
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