Infants' Response to Pictures of Impossible Objects

Previous work has shown that 4‐month‐olds can discriminate between two‐dimensional (2D) depictions of structurally possible and impossible objects [S. M. Shuwairi (2009), Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 115; S. M. Shuwairi, M. K. Albert, & S. P. Johnson (2007), Psychological Scien...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infancy 2010-11, Vol.15 (6), p.636-649
Main Authors: Shuwairi, Sarah M., Tran, Annie, DeLoache, Judy S., Johnson, Scott P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
Child Development
Child Psychology
Developmental Stages
Eyes & eyesight
Infants
Nonverbal Communication
Photography
Pictorial Stimuli
Psychomotor Skills
Resistance (Psychology)
Responses
Visual Discrimination
Visual Perception
Young Children
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Summary:Previous work has shown that 4‐month‐olds can discriminate between two‐dimensional (2D) depictions of structurally possible and impossible objects [S. M. Shuwairi (2009), Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 115; S. M. Shuwairi, M. K. Albert, & S. P. Johnson (2007), Psychological Science, 18, 303]. Here, we asked whether evidence of discrimination of possible and impossible pictures would also be revealed in infants’ patterns of reaching and manual exploration. Nine‐month‐old infants were presented with realistic photograph displays of structurally possible and impossible cubes along with a series of perceptual controls, and engaged in more frequent manual exploration of pictures of impossible objects. In addition, the impossible cube display elicited significantly more social referencing and vocalizations than the possible cube and perceptual control displays. The increased manual gestures associated with the incoherent figure suggest that perceptual and manual action mechanisms are interrelated in early development. The infant’s visual system extracts structural information contained in 2D images in analyzing the projected 3D configuration, and this information serves to control both the oculomotor and manual action systems.
ISSN:1525-0008
1532-7078
DOI:10.1111/j.1532-7078.2009.00029.x