Developmental Psychology

Class. Yesterday, I told you that we were going to start looking at a field of psychology called developmental psychology. This branch of psychology looks at the many ways people's minds and bodies develop from before they're even born until they die. So we should just start at the beginning. I think. Let's start with infants. So, when a baby is born up until he or she starts talking, the baby is referred to as an infant. Infants can't do a lot of things that older children can do. Let's look at the physical side of things. Babies are born with really poor vision. Actually, they're legally blind when born. Infants can mostly make out large shapes and stuff, but they can't tell detail. Also, their sense of color isn't very good. For a long time, psychologists thought infants were colorblind right after birth. As it turns out, research has shown that most babies can, in fact, make out bright colors. For example, an infant can tell the difference between a bright red ball and a bright blue ball. But it would be much harder for an infant to tell the difference between a light blue ball and a dark blue ball. Anyway, as infants get older, their sense of sight improves. Some psychologists think that by the age of six months, an infant's vision will be almost the same as an adult's.