Experience & Visual Interpretation

Module 2.1b

What does research on restored vision, sensory restriction, & perceptual adaptation reveal about the effects of experience on perception?

Perceptual Interpretation

• To what extent do we learn to perceive?
• If our eyes were covered with blinders during our early years, would we enjoy normal perception if they were later removed?
• The adaptation goggles show us that our brain can adapt to changes that occur later in life – Perceptual Adaptation.

Sensory Deprivation & Restored Vision

• Early visual experience can have a profound effect on perception. Blakemore & Cooper’s restricted environment with kittens.
• Do the kittens ever fully regain normal sensitivity to horizontal or vertical lines? NO.
• The “Use it or lose it” phenomenon. There seems to be a critical period for visual development

From the time their eyes first opened, and until the age of 5 months, these kittens were removed from darkness each day to spend 5 hours alone in a black-and-white striped cylinder with a clear glass floor. A stiff collar prevented the kittens from seeing anything else, even their own bodies. Afterward, these kittens had difficulty perceiving horizontal forms, compared with other kittens exposed only to horizontal forms.

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See this video (start at 3:25-7:10) to see how a cat reacts after being in this environment.

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Sensory Deprivation & Restored Vision

• These experiments show that lacking stimulation, the cortical cells had not developed normal connections making them functionally blind to shape.
• A sensory restriction does no permanent damage if it occurs later in life.
• This suggests that visual experiences during infancy are a critical period for normal sensory and perceptual development.
• Experience guides the organization of the brain’s neural connections.
• If deafness or blindness is corrected as an infant, it awakens the pertinent brain area.
• Nurture sculpts what nature has endowed.

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