Introduction

The visual system of the human, like other altricial species, undergoes an extensive period of postnatal development. Development is both quantitative (e.g., visual performance improves substantially with age) and qualitative (e.g., the visual system of the neonate displays a number of attributes that are absent in the adult). This chapter selectively reviews major aspects of quantitative and qualitative change. The emphasis is on functions that are thought to be the province of the early stages of the visual pathway, where the neural image is formed and primitive features of visual objects are first extracted. Large areas of activity in the field of infant visual development, such as object permanence, attention, and the recognition of objects and faces, are not covered. As with most reviews of human visual development, this review starts with a consideration of methodological issues unique to the field.