Visual development in ontogenesis: Some reevaluations

This chapter analyzes the development of infant visual perception, trying to integrate the findings of that research field with those of the developmental neurophysiology of visual perception in animals. The situation in infant visual perception research is typical for a developing scientific area. It has been established that the field of infant visual perception is devoted mostly to demonstrating the existence of global visual abilities in the infant. Very little is known about the fine structure of the visual routines in infant vision. There is also a great shortage of data concerning quantitative comparisons between infant and adult. However, in spite of these difficulties, the long-lived myth about the functional “blindness” of the infant is dying out. The infant acquires new visual abilities with each improvement in the ingenuity and methodology of the researchers.