Discrimination of Possible and Impossible Objects in Infancy

Adults can use pictorial depth cues to infer three-dimensional structure in two-dimensional depictions of objects. The age at which infants respond to the same kinds of visual information has not been determined, and theories about the underlying developmental mechanisms remain controversial. In thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2007-04, Vol.18 (4), p.303-307
Main Authors: Shuwairi, Sarah M., Albert, Marc K., Johnson, Scott P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Babies
Child development
Child Development - physiology
Cubes
Cues
Depth Perception
Developmental psychology
Discrimination
Discrimination (Psychology)
Experimentation
Female
Form Perception
Geometric shapes
Habituation
Humans
Infancy
Infant
Infants
Information
Male
Mental objects
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Perception
Psychology
Research Reports
Shape perception
Sight
Visual Perception
Visual system
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Summary:Adults can use pictorial depth cues to infer three-dimensional structure in two-dimensional depictions of objects. The age at which infants respond to the same kinds of visual information has not been determined, and theories about the underlying developmental mechanisms remain controversial. In this study, we used a visual habituation/novelty-preference procedure to assess the ability of 4-month-old infants to discriminate between two-dimensional depictions of structurally possible and impossible objects. Results indicate that young infants are sensitive to junction structures and interposition cues associated with pictorial depth and can detect inconsistent relationships among these cues that render an object impossible. Our results provide important insights into the development of mechanisms for processing pictorial depth cues that allow adults to extract three-dimensional structure from pictures of objects.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01893.x