Frames of reference for anticipatory action in 4-month-old infants

The spatial representations of 4-month-old infants were examined in two experiments using a modified version of the visual expectation paradigm (VExP). The experiments were designed in order to determine what spatial frames of reference were available to infants for making anticipatory saccades. In Experiment 1, we found that infants most often used a retinocentric frame of reference that did not take into account their current eye position in making an anticipatory saccade. However, Experiment 2 revealed that under certain conditions infants are more likely to make anticipatory saccades consistent with a body- or object-centred frame of reference. The main difference between the two experiments was the degree to which the featural properties of the stimuli varied. The results shed light on the development of spatial representations for action in infancy.     

Binocular vision and spatial perception in 4- and 5-month-old infants

Four experiments investigated the relation between the development of binocular vision and infant spatial perception. Experiments 1 and 2 compared monocular and binocular depth perception in 4- and 5-month-old infants. Infants in both age groups reached more consistently for the nearer of two objects under binocular viewing conditions than under monocular viewing conditions. Experiments 3 and 4 investigated whether the superiority of binocular depth perception in 4-month-olds is related to the development of sensitivity to binocular disparity. Under binocular viewing conditions in Experiment 3, infants identified as disparity-sensitive reached more consistently for the nearer object than did infants identified as disparity-insensitive. The two groups' performances did not differ under monocular viewing conditions. These results suggest that, binocularly, the disparity-sensitive infants perceived the objects' distances more accurately than did the disparity-insensitive infants. In Experiment 4, infants were habituated to an object, then presented with the same object and a novel object that differed only in size. Disparity-sensitive infants showed size constancy by recovering from habituation when viewing the novel object. Disparity-insensitive infants did not show clear evidence of size constancy. These findings suggest that the development of sensitivity to binocular disparity is accompanied by a substantial increase in the accuracy of infant spatial perception.     

Tracking and anticipation of invisible spatial transformations by 4- to 8-month-old infants

The ability of 4- to 8-month-old infants to track and anticipate the final orientation of an object following different invisible spatial transformations was tested. A violation-of-expectation method was used to assess infants' reaction to possible and impossible outcomes of an object's orientation after it translated or rotated behind an occluder. Results of a first experiment show that at all ages infants tend to look significantly longer at an impossible orientation outcome following invisible transformations. These results suggest that from 4 months of age, infants have the ability to detect orientation-specific information about an object undergoing linear or curvilinear invisible spatial transformations. A second experiment controlling for perceptual cues that infants might have used in the first experiment to track the object orientation replicates the results with a new sample of 4- and 6-month-old infants. Finally, a control experiment involving no motion yielded negative results, providing further support that infants as young as 4 months old use motion information to mentally track invisible spatial transformations. The results obtained in the rotation condition of both experiments are tentatively interpreted as providing first evidence of some rudiments of mental rotation in infancy.     

Perceptual transparency in 3- to 4-month-old infants

We examined perceptual transparency in infants. In a previous study, Johnson and Aslin (2000 Developmental Psychology 36 808 - 816) found that 4-month-olds could perceive transparency in a moving chromatic display, but not in an achromatic display. In this study, we further examined perceptual transparency in infants using a static achromatic display. Considering the development of figural organisation and contrast sensitivity, we assumed that 3- to 4-month-olds would perceive transparency even in a static achromatic display. We created a transparency and a non-transparent display composed of a partially overlapping circle and square, by switching the colours. Infants aged 3 to 4 months (n = 24) were familiarised with the transparency display (experiment 1) or with the non-transparent display (experiment 2). Then, they were confronted with a uniform colour and a two-colour figure. Infants showed novelty preference for the two-colour figure after they had been familiarised with the transparency display (experiment 1), but not after they had been familiarised with the non-transparent display (experiment 2). These results suggest that 3- to 4-month-old infants can perceive transparency in a static achromatic display.     

Recognition of color-form compounds by 4-month-old infants

In two studies, a paired-comparison procedure was used to investigate whether 4-month-old infants can perceive and remember correlations of color and form. In Study 1, infants were shown simultaneous presentations of two different colored shapes until two criteria for familiarization had been met. They were then offered a simultaneous choice between a colored form that they had already seen and one that was a new combination of a familiar color and a familiar shape. The infants looked significantly longer at the new combination than at the familiar combination on the test trial. In Study 2, the same procedure was used, except that the familiarization criteria were less stringent and additional analyses of the infants' test trial behavior were conducted. Infants again exhibited a significant preference for the new combination, both when looking time accumulated during the entire test-trial was analyzed and when looking just up to the “first look away” was considered. These findings that 4-months-olds can perceive and remember compounds of visual attributes conflict with the results of several studies in which the habituation and test stimuli were presented sequentially rather than simultaneously. Differences in the nature of the information processing that may be evoked by the two methods are discussed.     

Objective spatial coding by 6.5-month-old infants in a visual dishabituation task

Forty 6.5-month-old infants were tested in a visual dishabituation variation of Bremner and Bryant’s reaching task used to evaluate the spatial representations of infants. In the visual dishabituation version of this task, infants were habituated to a display in which an object held a constant position at a corner of the table. Following habituation, the object was either moved to the opposite table-corner or nothing on the table was changed. Also, the infant either remained in her starting position or she moved to the opposite side of the table. The results show that, following habituation to an object, infants dishabituated to a change in the actual location of an object and not to a change in the egocentric relationship between the infant and the object. We conclude that even in a landmark-free environment (1) 6.5-month-old infants are capable of representing space allocentrically, and (2) they have the ability to update their location during passive movement.     

Predictive tracking over occlusions by 4-month-old infants

Two experiments investigated how 16-20-week-old infants visually tracked an object that oscillated on a horizontal trajectory with a centrally placed occluder. To determine the principles underlying infants' tendency to shift gaze to the exiting side before the object arrives, occluder width, oscillation frequency, and motion amplitude were manipulated resulting in occlusion durations between 0.20 and 1.66 s. Through these manipulations, we were able to distinguish between several possible modes of behavior underlying 'predictive' actions at occluders. Four such modes were tested. First, if passage-of-time determines when saccades are made, the tendency to shift gaze over the occluder is expected to be a function of time since disappearance. Second, if visual salience of the exiting occluder edge determines when saccades are made, occluder width would determine the pre-reappearance gaze shifts but not oscillation frequency, amplitude, or velocity. Third, if memory of the duration of the previous occlusion determines when the subjects shift gaze over the occluder, it is expected that the gaze will shift after the same latency at the next occlusion irrespective of whether occlusion duration is changed or not. Finally, if infants base their pre-reappearance gaze shifts on their ability to represent object motion (cognitive mode), it is expected that the latency of the gaze shifts over the occluder is scaled to occlusion duration. Eye and head movements as well as object motion were measured at 240 Hz. In 49% of the passages, the infants shifted gaze to the opposite side of the occluder before the object arrived there. The tendency to make such gaze shifts could not be explained by the passage of time since disappearance. Neither could it be fully explained in terms of visual information present during occlusion, i.e. occluder width. On the contrary, it was found that the latency of the pre-reappearance gaze shifts was determined by the time of object reappearance and that it was a function of all three factors manipulated. The results suggest that object velocity is represented during occlusion and that infants track the object behind the occluder in their 'mind's eye'.     

A test of color constancy in 4-month-old human infants

Forty-five 4-month-old infants were tested for color constancy using a familiarization, paired-comparison paradigm. Infants were familiarized and tested with colored stimuli under two conditions: (1) no change in the illuminant between familiarization and test and (2) a change in the illuminant between familiarization and test. Infants correctly recognized the familiarization color when tested with no change in the illuminant. Infants tested with a change in the illuminant correctly recognized the familiar color under some conditions yet failed to do so under others. Several explanations are considered for these results and it is concluded that color constancy operates immaturely at 4 months of age.     

Connectivity perception of partly occluded gratings in 4-month-old infants

Four groups of eight 4-month-old infants were each habituated to one of four displays consisting of a grating of either low (0.4 cycle deg(-1) or high (1.2 cycles deg(-1) spatial frequency, whose central portion was covered up with a horizontal occluder which was either narrow (1.33 deg) or broad (4.17 deg). Posthabituation displays consisted of a complete grating of the same frequency as the habituated grating, along with a separate grating whose central portion was replaced with a black gap of the same height as the occluder in the habituation displays. All the infants, except those who were habituated to the high frequency with the broad occluder, looked longer at the separate grating than the complete grating display during posthabituation trials. Previously, we found that infants under 1 month of age perceive the grating continuation only when the occluder height is less than about 0.5 cycle of the grating; our present results show that this figure increases to about 1.6 cycles of the grating frequency in the case of 4-month-old infants. These findings indicate that those developmental changes depend on both the sufficiency of visual information available and the efficiency of the perceptual ability of infants for grasping spatial relationships.     

The perception of moving subjective contours by 4-month-old infants

We investigated whether 4-month-old infants are capable of perceiving illusory contours produced by the Kanizsa-square display, first introduced by Prazdny (1983, Perception & Psychophysics 34 403-404), which tests whether a viewer perceives the illusory contour in the absence of brightness contrast (illusory brightness). Because the illusory square appears to move across the computer screen and infants are attracted to motion, this display holds their interest. In experiment 1, 4-month-old infants were tested for their ability to distinguish between a continuously moving illusory square and a continuously moving control display in which the pacman elements were rotated so that the perception of subjective contours did not occur. Data analysis revealed a significant preference for the subjective contour display. In experiment 2, habituation-dishabituation was used with 4-month-old infants. They were tested for their ability to discriminate between the illusory Kanizsa square that continuously moved back and forth and an illusory square which changed positions randomly. Although the infants did not show differences in dishabituation as a function of the habituation display, they looked significantly longer at the continuously moving display.     

Object-centered attention in 8-month-old infants

We examined the extent to which visual orienting in 8-month-old infants shows evidence of being guided by object-based representations. Infants’ preferences to look at conspicuous targets presented on one of two stationary objects were measured following an event (cue) which directed their covert attention to one of the objects. The results indicate that by 8 months of age a cue presented on one part of an object directs attention to the whole object (object-centered attention). This then affects responses to targets that appear elsewhere on the cued object.     

Volume completion in 4.5-month-old infants

In this study, we examined 4.5-month-old infants' visual completion of self-occluding three-dimensional objects. A previous study on this topic reported that 6-month-old, but not 4-month-old infants extrapolate a convex, symmetric prism from a limited view of its surfaces (Soska & Johnson, 2008). As of yet, studies on the development of amodal completion of three-dimensional, self-occluding objects are scarce. Given 4-month-old infants' abilities to derive three-dimensional shape from a variety of visual cues, three-dimensional amodal completion may well depend on the perceptual strength of three-dimensionality in the stimulus displays. The first experiments (1A and 1B) tested this hypothesis by means of a habituation paradigm and showed that 4.5-month-old infants are indeed able to amodally complete the back of a self-occluding object when sufficient three-dimensional cues are available. Further support for volume completion in 4.5-month-old infants was found in a second experiment, again using a habituation paradigm, that measured perceived connectedness between two visually separated, self-occluding, three-dimensional objects.     

Social referencing in 10-month-old infants

In Experiment 1, forty 10-month-old infants participated together with an experimenter and a parent in a social referencing encounter. The experimenter or the parent presented an ambiguous toy. Neither of the adults provided information about the toy in order to examine infant spontaneous looking behaviour. The infants looked more at both adults when the experimenter presented the toy. In Experiment 2, forty-four 10-month-old infants participated. The experimenter or the parent provided positive information about an ambiguous toy. The infants played more with the toy when the experimenter provided information than when the parent did. The results are discussed in terms of seeking information from knowledgeable others in ambiguous situations.     

Increasing magnitude counts more: asymmetrical processing of ordinality in 4-month-old infants

While infants' ability to discriminate quantities has been extensively studied, showing that this competence is present even in neonates, the ability to compute ordinal relations between magnitudes has received much less attention. Here we show that the ability to represent ordinal information embedded in size-based sequences is apparent at 4months of age, provided that magnitude changes involve increasing relations. Infants in Experiments 1A and 1B discriminated changes in ordinal relations after habituation to ascending sequences, but did not show evidence of discrimination after habituation to descending sequences. In Experiment 2 we replicated this asymmetry in magnitude discrimination even when additional cues known to boost ordinal competence were provided. The presence of an asymmetry between ascending vs. descending order during infancy suggests a developmental continuity in the underlying code used to represent magnitude, whereby the reported addition advantage in children and adults' arithmetic performance emerges.     

Large number discrimination in 6-month-old infants

Two experiments with the Stroop paradigm were conducted to investigate the role of phonological codes in access to the meaning of Chinese characters. Subjects named the ink color of viewed characters or color patches. Key items were color characters, their homophones with the same tone, homophones with different tones, and semantic associates. Apart from finding the usual Stroop interference effect, homophones produced significant interference in the incongruent condition, provided that they had the same tone as the color characters. The interference effect from homophones, however, was significantly smaller than that from color characters. Semantic associates generated an interference effect in the incongruent condition, an effect of the same magnitude as the effect from the same-tone homophones. Finally, in the congruent conditions, all the key items yielded facilitations compared to neutral controls, though the facilitation from color characters was larger than the facilitations from other types of characters. These findings suggest that phonological codes in Chinese are activated obligatorily and provide early sources of constraint in access to meaning.     

Illusory contour figures are perceived as occluding contours by 4-month-old infants

Although 4-month-olds perceive continuity of an object's trajectory through occlusion, little is known about the information specifying an occluding surface at this age. We investigated this in 3 experiments involving 84 participants. Testing the claim that 5-month-olds are unable to perceive the Kanizsa figure as an occluding surface (Csibra, 2001), we demonstrated that 4-month-olds perceived trajectory continuity behind this figure providing its horizontal extent was small. We demonstrated that the presence of visible occluding edges or occlusion of background was insufficient to specify an occluding surface but that their combination was sufficient. Thus, beyond object deletion and accretion, both visible occluding edges and occlusion of background are necessary for perception of occluding surfaces at this age.