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Development of Visual Capabilities

  • Chapter
Visual Development

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Vision Research ((PIVR))

Abstract

Infants can presumably see at birth. They can imitate mouth opening, as opposed to tongue protrusion, within a few hours of birth (Salapatek and Cohen, 1987). While they may not discriminate their mother’s face reliably from a stranger’s, unless voice is present, they do look at their mother for longer than the stranger. They may not look their mother in the eye until 2 months of age, but this is because they are inspecting external features of the face, such as the chin and hairline, rather than internal features, such as the eyes. All of this shows a substantial amount of visual perception at birth, and some control of eye movements. What develops after birth is a refinement of these properties.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, UK

    Nigel W. Daw

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  1. Nigel W. Daw
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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Daw, N.W. (1995). Development of Visual Capabilities. In: Visual Development. Perspectives in Vision Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6940-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6940-1_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-6942-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-6940-1

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