Early infant vision shaped by high-contrast visual inputs
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 11, 2024
Visual experiences in early infancy play a critical role in the development of human vision, offering a unique visual ‘diet’ that differs significantly from that of older children and adults. This was demonstrated in a recent study titled “An edge-simplicity bias in the visual input to young infants,” published in Science Advances by researchers from Indiana University (IU).
“The starting assumption for everybody who thinks about the role of experience in visual development has always been that at the scale of everyday experience, visual input is pretty much the same for everyone. Yet, this study says, no, visual input changes with development. It’s not the same for everybody. The daily life input for very young infants appears to be unique to that age,” said Linda Smith, the study’s lead researcher and a professor at IU’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
The study utilized head-mounted cameras on infants to capture the types of visual inputs they encounter in daily life, revealing a preference for simple, high-contrast images such as stripes and checkerboard patterns. “To see what young babies see and look at,” says Erin Anderson, a former postdoctoral researcher in Smith’s lab, she and her colleagues put head-cameras on infants to wear in the home during daily life activities.
The research team analyzed 70 hours of video from infants and their caregivers, noting a stark difference in the complexity of visual scenes between the two groups. “You have to think why they are where they are. There is probably some natural knowledge implicit on the part of parents to leave infants where they like to look at things. Mom’s not gonna bother you if you’re not fussing,” Smith noted.
This approach also has implications for artificial intelligence, suggesting that AI systems might benefit from a similar phased training strategy. “Starting with simpler visual inputs could enhance the effectiveness of AI in recognizing and processing images,” Smith added.
The study’s broader relevance extends to understanding visual development differences globally. A comparative analysis in Chennai, India, showed that while environmental contexts vary, the basic visual preferences of infants are consistent.
Smith’s team’s findings also contribute to evolutionary discussions about the pace of human development compared to other species. “Our slow developmental stages may be optimally designed to enhance our sensory systems, preparing us for complex cognitive tasks later in life,” she proposed.
As the field of vision science advances, these insights open new questions about the intersection of human and machine learning and the fundamental processes that shape how we see the world.
Research Report:An edge-simplicity bias in the visual input to young infants
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