DOI: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP14.56
Authors: Ruud van der Weel, and Audrey van der Meer
Abstract:
If direct perception is the detection of higher-order variables that specify significant properties of the environment and constrain action, then evolutionary theory has to account for how species become sensitive to those invariants, and developmental learning theory must account for how an infant perceiver becomes more attentive to them. Michaels and Beek (1995) proposed three alternatives as to how the pick-up of higher-order perceptual variables may come about: (a) sensitivity Assuming that adult perceivers of some species are indeed sensitive to certain optical variables at birth, how could it be developed? Psychologists usually use this term to refer to the ability to detect certain energy types, so that one could not develop sensitivity; (b) attentiveness This implies that one could detect the higher-order variable all along but did not have perceptions or actions constrained by it; and (c) smart perceptual devices (Runeson, 1977) Devices that register higher-order variables can be developed. It does not seem likely that perceivers come equipped to register any and all levels of complex variables of stimulation, perform at random until they stumble onto the proper complex, and thereafter ‘directly perceive’. Rather, lower level, merely correlated variables might be exploited initially and perhaps guide the search for or come to be selected as integral parts of a higher-order informational complex, or both.
Keywords: Child development, Brain development, Cognitive development, Looming stimulus, EEG, Perceptual variables, Smart Perceptual Devices, Visual attention
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