The emergence of kind-based object individuation in infancy

Four experiments investigated whether 12-month-old infants use perceptual property information in a complex object individuation task, using the violation-of-expectancy looking time method (Xu, 2002; Xu & Carey, 1996). Infants were shown two objects with different properties emerge and return behind an occluder, one at a time. The occluder was then removed, revealing either two objects (expected outcome, if property differences support individuation) or one object (unexpected outcome). In Experiments 1-3, infants failed to use color, size, or a combination of color, size, and pattern differences to establish a representation of two distinct objects behind an occluder. In Experiment 4, infants succeeded in using cross-basic-level-kind shape differences to establish a representation of two objects but failed to do so using within-basic-level-kind shape differences. Control conditions found that the methods were sensitive. Infants succeeded when provided unambiguous spatiotemporal information for two objects, and they encoded the property differences during these experiments. These findings suggest that by 12 months, different properties play different roles in a complex object individuation task. Certain salient shape differences enter into the computation of numerical distinctness of objects before other property differences such as color or size. Since shape differences are often correlated with object kind differences, these results converge with others in the literature that suggest that by the end of the first year of life, infants' representational systems begin to distinguish kinds and properties.     

Langage et individuation

Sans résumé     

Thinking individuation forward

This paper extends Jung's theory of individuation as faithfully elaborated by Joseph L. Henderson in his authoritative book Thresholds of Initiation. It addresses analyses that continue over very many years with analysands said to be individuated and proposes psychodynamics that explain and support such work that is otherwise beyond formal theoretical justification. In so doing, the paper addresses both Jung's and Henderson's refusal to explore the relevance of metaphysics for psychology and offers both a theoretical corrective for this shortcoming and a clinical illustration in support of an expanded point of view. In the course of the paper, personal material from interviews with Dr. Henderson, aged 101, serve as a substrate, both to support the above considerations and to shed new light on the development of his thought that led to Thresholds of Initiation.     

The final challenge: ageing, dying, individuation

This paper is about the psychotherapy of a woman who passed from what Waddell (1998) would term 'older age' to 'later life', by which latter I mean the inevitable decline into dying and death. However unwelcome these developments may be to the individual, they are none the less activities of the soma, and therefore activities of the self-deintegrates. Much of the work of the psychotherapy centred around the task of enabling the patient to relate to and accept the bodily and emotional correlates of this process, which she tended to want to disown and deny by means of a split between mind and body along the lines of a long-standing internal depressive relationship. Permitting her contact with herself allowed her a much greater sense of internal company and peace, and arguably facilitated an easier process of dying, involving a self reconciled with itself rather than one at odds. Technically, the approach involved a greater concentration on the intrapsychic relationship rather than on the relationship between patient and analyst, and this is briefly discussed in terms of the work of Armando Ferrari who had himself died, shortly before the paper was first presented, and to whom therefore it is in part a homage.     

Deflecting negative self-relevant stereotype activation: The effects of individuation

Under stereotype threat, when an individual risks confirming a negative self-relevant stereotype, activation of the stereotype can inhibit performance on a subsequent, related task. Although a significant amount of research has been devoted to examining the effects of stereotype activation on performance, relatively little is known about successful methods of intervention. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that individuation prior to performance would eliminate impairment due to stereotype activation. In both studies, Caucasian female participants in either a gender-prime or no-prime condition were administered a mathematics test. Gender primed, individuated participants outperformed gender primed, non-individuated participants and performed as well as unprimed, non-individuated (i.e., control) participants, supporting individuation as a protective measure against the detrimental effects of negative stereotype activation.     

Infant individuation and identification of objects

Recent studies of the infant's object concept have focused on the role of property information in individuation. We draw a distinction between individuation and identification. By individuation, we mean the setting up of an object representation (OR). By identification, we mean using the information stored in an OR to decide which, if any, previously individuated object is presently encountered. We investigate this distinction in experiments with 12-month-old infants. We find that for infants of this age, a shape difference between two objects has a large effect on both individuation and identification. However, a color difference between two objects has a large effect on individuation, but little or no effect on identification. This suggests that, somewhat surprisingly, information used to establish an OR may not always be incorporated into that representation.