ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOTION PERCEPTION IN HUMAN INFANTS

1. Motion perception is one of the most prominent tasks of the visual system. However, comparatively sparse data are available about motion specific behavioural responses of human infants. 2. We studied in a preferential looking paradigm how infants between the age of 2 and 6 months respond to simple and complex motion stimuli. 3. Surprisingly, these experiments gave no clear indication of direction specific motion responses during the first 6 months of life. 4. Moving random dots were preferred to a static random-dot pattern, but not to dynamic noise of the same temporal structure as the motion stimulus. Therefore it is not appropriate to draw conclusions from such data on the mechanisms underlying the development of motion perception.