Why Study Infants Three reasons for studying infancy Philosophical questions The opportunity for humans to study themselves Parental investment Applied concerns The study of preterm infants Infants of drug-using mothers

The Study of Infants Past, present, and future The philosophical debate – Nature versus Nurture The empiricist argument Knowledge comes through the senses John Locke and the tabula rasa William James and the infant’s world as a “booming, buzzing confusion”

The Study of Infants Past, present, and future The nativist argument Humans are endowed at birth with ideas or “categories of knowledge” Immanuel Kant and Rene Descartes

The Study of Infants Past, present, and future The main effects model Nativist View Nurturist View Environment Good Bad Constitution Environment Good Bad Constitution

The Study of Infants Past, present, and future The interactional model Environment Good Bad Medium Constitution

The Study of Infants Past, present, and future The transactional model Constitution C1 C2 C3 C4 . . . . . . . Cn Environment E1 E2 E3 E4 . . . . . . . En

Methods of Research in Infancy Getting and keeping subjects How do you find subjects Sources of recruitment Representativeness and sampling Subject attrition Why don’t researchers discuss sampling issues? Infant state The infant as a difficult experimental subject

Methods of Research in Infancy Response measures Visual fixation measures Sucking measures Physiological measures Age comparisons

Experimental techniques Spontaneous visual preference The procedure Limitations Habituation techniques Conditioning techniques Physiological measures Heart rate Brain activation measures

Aspects of perception Visual acuity

Aspects of perception Pattern preferences Facial configurations Complexity and symmetry