ABSTRACT
Not all that long ago it was thought that the infant was born and then started to experience the world and very gradually attain competence. Initially the human infant was believed to have little visual functioning and to be capable only of restricted differentiation of blurred forms within a very restricted visual range. Such visual discrimination as did exist was thought by many to be based on quantitative differences in contrast at ‘“preferred” spatial frequencies since research on contrast sensitivity functions appeared to demonstrate that the human infant has limited if any capability to differentiate visual stimuli on qualitative terms. The underlying theme is that the infant does not really exist, function or develop in perceptual/cognitive terms until she can herself be seen after being born, and even then, the baby is considered essentially incompetent, relatively passive and with restricted capacity to process information or learn.
