Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

376 CHAPTER 9 Lifespan DevelopmentThe Nearsighted Newborn Classic researchby psychologist Robert Fantzand his colleagues (1962) showedthat the newborn comes into theworld very near-sighted, havingapproximately 20/300 vision. Thenewborn’s ability to detect the contrastof object edges and boundariesis also poorly developed (Stephens &Banks, 1987). As the adjacent imageillustrates, even by age 3 months, theinfant’s world is still pretty fuzzy.the infant turns toward the source of the touch andopens his mouth. Touching the newborn’s lipsevokes the sucking reflex. If you put a finger on eachof the newborn’s palms, he will respond with thegrasping reflex—the baby will grip your fingers sotightly that he can be lifted upright. As motor areasof the infant’s brain develop over the first year of life,the rooting, sucking, and grasping reflexes are replacedby voluntary behaviors.The newborn’s senses—vision, hearing, smell, andtouch—are keenly attuned to people. In a classicstudy, Robert Fantz (1961) demonstrated that the imageof a human face holds the newborn’s gaze longerthan do other images. Other researchers have alsoconfirmed the newborn’s visual preference for the humanface (Farroni & others, 2006; Turati & others, 2002). Newborns only 10 minutesold will turn their heads to continue gazing at the image of a human face as itpasses in front of them, but they will not visually follow other images (Turati, 2004).And, newborns quickly learn to differentiate between their mothers andstrangers. Within just hours of their birth, newborns display a preference for theirmother’s voice and face over that of a stranger (Bushnell, 2001). For their part,mothers become keenly attuned to their infant’s appearance, smell, and even skintexture (Kaitz & others, 1992). Fathers, too, are able to identify their newbornfrom a photograph after just minutes of exposure (Bader & Phillips, 2002).Vision is the least developed sense at birth. A newborn infant is extremely nearsighted,meaning she can see close objects more clearly than distant objects. The optimalviewing distance for the newborn is about 6 to 12 inches, the perfect distancefor a nursing baby to focus easily on her mother’s face and make eye contact. Nevertheless,the infant’s view of the world is pretty fuzzy for the first several months,even for objects that are within close range.The interaction between adults and infants seems to compensate naturally for thenewborn’s poor vision. When adults interact with very young infants, they almostalways position themselves so that their face is about 8 to 12 inches away from thebaby’s face. Adults also have a strong natural tendency to exaggerate head movementsand facial expressions, such as smiles and frowns, again making it easier forthe baby to see them.Newborn Reflexes When this 2-week-oldbaby (left) is held upright with her feettouching a flat surface, she displays thestepping reflex, moving her legs as iftrying to walk. Another reflex that is presentat birth is the grasping reflex (right).The infant’s grip is so strong that he cansupport his own weight. Thought toenhance the newborn’s chances forsurvival, these reflexive responses drop outduring the first few months of life as thebaby develops voluntary control overmovements.Physical DevelopmentBy the time infants begin crawling, at around 7 to 8 months of age, their view ofthe world, including distant objects, will be as clear as that of their parents. Theincreasing maturation of the infant’s visual system reflects the development of her