The perception of solid form in early infancy.

M Cook; J Field; K Griffiths

Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 710195

The perception of solid form in early infancy.

M Cook·J Field·K Griffiths

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Day and McKenzie determined the rate of habituation of fixation of young infants to repeated visual presentations of a cube. They found the habituation rate to be the same when the stimulus orientation changed between presentations as when it was fixed, and they interpreted this as evidence of shape constancy. However, a failure to discriminate between cubes in different orientations is only evidence of shape constancy if the infant can at the same time discriminate the cube from other cubelike forms. The experiment described here contrasted the rate of habituation of fixation of 12-week-old infants to a homogenous stimulus series (a cube presented in different orientations) with the rates of habituation to various heterogeneous series, in each of which a cube was alternated with some other solid. It was found that, while the infant could distinguish a cube from a photograph of a cube and a concave solid (an L-form), there was no evidence of discrimination between the cube and either a wedge or a truncated pyramid. The results imply limits to the young infants capacity to resolve solid form.

Explore related subjects

Discrimination Learning Female Fixation, Ocular Form Perception Habituation, Psychophysiologic Humans Infant Male Journal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

M Cook, J Field, K Griffiths. 1978. The perception of solid form in early infancy.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/710195/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2006

A comparison of between- and within-subjects imitation designs.

Two experimental methods, which have dominated the study of declarative memory in preverbal children with imitation tasks, namely the deferred imitation and elicited imitation paradigm, differ in the amount of physical contact with test stimuli afforded infants prior to a test for long-term recall. The current study assessed effects of pre- and post-demonstration contact with test stimuli on deferred imitation of novel, single-step unrelated actions with multiple objects by 8(1/2)- and 10(1/2)-month-old infants (N=50). The rate of target action completion after a delay remained consistent at both ages across different conditions of prior contact with test stimuli. This study shows that a within-subjects baseline appraisal is valid within certain experimental parameters and offers a more economical alternative. The results show furthermore that different experimental designs utilized to assess deferred imitation are highly comparable for the first year despite differences in determining baseline.

Discrimination Learning↗

PubMed2006

Coordinate transformations in object recognition.

A basic problem of visual perception is how human beings recognize objects after spatial transformations. Three central classes of findings have to be accounted for: (a) Recognition performance varies systematically with orientation, size, and position; (b) recognition latencies are sequentially additive, suggesting analogue transformation processes; and (c) orientation and size congruency effects indicate that recognition involves the adjustment of a reference frame. All 3 classes of findings can be explained by a transformational framework of recognition: Recognition is achieved by an analogue transformation of a perceptual coordinate system that aligns memory and input representations. Coordinate transformations can be implemented neurocomputationally by gain (amplitude) modulation and may be regarded as a general processing principle of the visual cortex.

Discrimination Learning↗

PubMed2006

Classification and recognition in artificial grammar learning: Analysis of receiver operating characteristics.

In two experiments we investigated recognition and classification judgements using an artificial grammar learning paradigm. In Experiment 1, when only new test items had to be judged, analysis of z-transformed receiver operating characteristics (z-ROCs) revealed no differences between classification and recognition. In Experiment 2, where we included old test items, z-ROCs in the two tasks differed, suggesting that judgements relied on different types of information. The results are interpreted in terms of heuristics that people use when making classification and recognition judgements.

Discrimination Learning↗