Infant Vision Lab
Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Phone: (781) 642-0259 Fax: (781) 642-0238
Email: infantvision@umassmed.edu

Photo of a baby participating in our experiment.

Infants come into the world with perceptual abilities that are at the same time very sophisticated and very immature. During infancy and childhood, processes of physical and neural maturation combine with visual experience to contribute to the development of visual perception.

At the Infant Vision Lab, we are exploring:

  • when and how the sharpness of vision develops
  • the development of object recognition during infancy
  • new tests to detect vision problems in infants and young children.

We are currently working with infants ages 1-12 months. The tests performed are simple and non-invasive, and parents remain with their baby throughout the session. A baby's vision is tested by means of a brainwave technique called Visual Evoked Potentials (VEPs). Each child wears small sensors held in place with a soft headband while s/he watches moving patterns on a video monitor.

A trip to the Infant Vision Lab is a great opportunity to learn more about infant development and to help us learn more about visual and perceptual development.

For more information on the studies at the Infant Vision Lab, contact us at (781) 642-0259 or email us at infantvision@umassmed.edu.

What Do You See?

  
optical illusion
Perceptually bistable image		 Many levels of processing are involved in seeing and understanding a visual scene. The observer must be able to coordinate the eyes to scan the scene, and must be sensitive to the simplest aspects of the image, such as edges and shading. Color, the relative position of different pattern elements, and depth information also define scenes. In addition, our cognition, attention and previous experiences will define how we interpret the visual world. For example, in the figure to the left, some people see the profile of an old man. Others see a man and woman meeting in an archway.

What Does Your Baby See?

Click here to learn more about Milestones in Visual Development

picture of baby participating in study

Additional Pages About More Infant Vision Topics: