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My research is concerned with perceptual
learning during infancy and early childhood. I am particularly
interested in how multisensory experiences guide or promote
early perceptual learning.
My colleagues and I are investigating the
emergence of joint visual attention during infancy (9-18
months). The achievement of joint visual attention —the
coordination of an infant's and parent's gaze toward the same
object or event—is significant. It promotes communication and
learning and increases the likelihood that infants will engage
in joint visual attention. Opportunities to explore previously
unfamiliar objects also promotes subsequent joint visual
attention to those objects by older infants and their parents.
Another project concerns preschool children's
categorization of objects and object representations (i.e.,
drawings or photographs). We are investigating the role of
functional properties of objects and of exploratory activity in
how children classify objects. We are finding that when there is
perceptual information about objects' functions, obtained
through exploration, children spontaneously categorize objects
on the basis of those functions. Young children can also
systematically categorize objects (but not representations) in
multiple ways. Our goal is to understand the development of this
flexibility during the preschool years.
Recent publications
Flom, R. & Pick, A.D. (2005).
Experimenter affective expression and gaze following in
7-month-olds.
Infancy, 7, 207-218.
Flom, R., Deak, G.O., Phill, C.G., & Pick,
A.D. (2004). Effects of age, reminders, and task
difficulty on young children’s rule-switching flexibility.
Cognitive Development, 19, 385-400.
Flom, R., & Pick, A.D. (2003). Verbal
encouragement and joint attention in 18-month-old infants.
Infant Behavior and Development, 26, 121-134.
Deak, G.O., Ray, S.D., & Pick, A.D. (2002).
Matching and naming objects by shape or function: Age and
context effects in preschool children. Developmental
Psychology, 388, 503-518.
Gibson, E. J., & Pick, A. D. (2000). An
ecological approach to perceptual learning and development.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Revised October 2005 |
