Sensations: the information from the environment that is picked up by our sense organs
Perception: the process of interpreting and attaching meaning to sensory information
Mirror Neurons
Mirror neurons: neurons that fire both when an individual acts and when the individual observes the same action performed by another
Newborn babies are capable of imitating an adults' simple facial expressions. If you stick your tongue out at a baby they may stick their tongue back out at you. Yawns are contagious. When you see someone else yawn, think about yawning, or even hear the word "yawn" 40-60% of adults will yawn themselves.
The Five Senses
Vision- visual activity is the ability to see things in sharp detail; Newborns have much worse vision than adults do. Infants can see faces, and from birth they are attracted to looking at the faces of people around them, especially their mother. They tend to concentrate on areas of high contrast where darkest dark meets lightest light. On the human face that would be the eyes.
Hearing- hearing becomes functional while the fetus is still in the womb, and one sound fetuses hear loudly is their mother's voice; babies show a preference for their mother's voice within the first three days of life; Babies tend to need a certain level of noise in their first few months after birth in order to sleep.
Smell- Babies know their mother's smell from very early in their lives. Within the first 6 days of life, they will turn toward their mother's smell more often than toward another mother's scent. Babies are even soothed by the scent of clothes that their mother has been wearing.
Taste- Infants prefer sweet taste and react negatively to salty, sour, and bitter tastes. Mother's milk is sweet.
Touch- Touch is very soothing. Infant massage improves growth and effectively soothes babies of all ages.
Perception: the process of interpreting and attaching meaning to sensory information
Mirror Neurons
Mirror neurons: neurons that fire both when an individual acts and when the individual observes the same action performed by another
Newborn babies are capable of imitating an adults' simple facial expressions. If you stick your tongue out at a baby they may stick their tongue back out at you. Yawns are contagious. When you see someone else yawn, think about yawning, or even hear the word "yawn" 40-60% of adults will yawn themselves.
The Five Senses
Vision- visual activity is the ability to see things in sharp detail; Newborns have much worse vision than adults do. Infants can see faces, and from birth they are attracted to looking at the faces of people around them, especially their mother. They tend to concentrate on areas of high contrast where darkest dark meets lightest light. On the human face that would be the eyes.
Hearing- hearing becomes functional while the fetus is still in the womb, and one sound fetuses hear loudly is their mother's voice; babies show a preference for their mother's voice within the first three days of life; Babies tend to need a certain level of noise in their first few months after birth in order to sleep.
Smell- Babies know their mother's smell from very early in their lives. Within the first 6 days of life, they will turn toward their mother's smell more often than toward another mother's scent. Babies are even soothed by the scent of clothes that their mother has been wearing.
Taste- Infants prefer sweet taste and react negatively to salty, sour, and bitter tastes. Mother's milk is sweet.
Touch- Touch is very soothing. Infant massage improves growth and effectively soothes babies of all ages.