An age-related view of the role of object and spatial cognitive styles in distance estimation

Distance estimations require identifying characteristics of the object and its spatial surroundings. With the present study, we examined the relationship between visual object and spatial (cognitive) styles and distance estimations in children and adults. Participants were administered the Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (OSIQ) and two distance estimation tasks—one required estimating reach distance (reach task [RT]) from the self and the other required estimating distance between targets (perceptual task[PT]). Overall, our findings indicated that age was the best predictor of estimation for RT and PT tasks, and individuals were more accurate in the task requiring an egocentric frame of reference (RT) compared to tasks that require allocentric judgements (PT). In addition, children had higher ratings on cognitive styles in comparison to adults, but both object and spatial styles only related to RT accuracy in adults. Cognitive styles seem to be associated to distance estimation accuracy, but only when there is a clear preference.     

Gradations of emulation learning in infants' imitation of actions on objects

This study explored different gradations of emulation in the imitation of actions on objects by 17-month-olds. Experiment 1 established levels of behavioral reproduction following prerecorded video demonstrations similar to those levels following live demonstrations. In Experiment 2, two digitally modified videos, where object movements or body movements critical to producing the target action were highlighted in isolation, were developed. Infants produced the target action equally frequently by observing the object movement video and observing the unmodified video. In contrast, their performance was much less successful based on the body movement video. In Experiment 3, the performance obtained following the object movement video was similar to that following a further video that emphasized the object movements produced in unsuccessful attempts to produce the target action. These findings suggest that emulation in the form of object movement reenactment or affordance learning plays a role in the social learning of actions on objects during infancy.     

Use of phonetic specificity during the acquisition of new words: differences between consonants and vowels

The present study explores the issue of the use of phonetic specificity in the process of learning new words at 20 months of age. The procedure used follows Nazzi and Gopnik [Nazzi, T., & Gopnik, A. (2001). Linguistic and cognitive abilities in infancy: When does language become a tool for categorization? Cognition, 80, B11-B20]. Infants were first presented with triads of perceptually dissimilar objects, which were given made-up names, two of the objects receiving the same name. Then, word learning was evaluated through object selection/categorization. Tests involved phonetically different words (e.g. [pize] vs. [mora], Experiment 1), words differing minimally on their onset consonant (e.g. [pize] vs. [tize], Experiment 2a), and conditions which had never been tested before: non-initial consonantal contrasts (e.g. [pide] vs. [pige], Experiment 2b), and vocalic contrasts (e.g. [pize] vs. [pyze]; [pize] vs. [paze]; [pize] vs. [pizu], Experiments 3a-c). Results differed across conditions: words could be easily learnt in the phonetically different condition, and were learnt, though to a lesser degree, in both the initial and non-initial minimal consonant contrast; however, infants' global performance on all three vocalic contrasts was at chance level. The present results shed new light regarding the specificity of early words, and raise the possibility of different contributions for vowels and consonants in early word learning.     

A double-dissociation in infants' representations of object arrays

Previous studies show that infants can compute either the total continuous extent (e.g. Clearfield, M.W., & Mix, K.S. (1999). Number versus contour length in infants' discrimination of small visual sets. Psychological Science, 10(5), 408-411; Feigenson, L., & Carey, S. (2003). Tracking individuals via object-files: evidence from infants' manual search. Developmental Science, 6, 568-584) or the numerosity (Feigenson, L., & Carey, S. (2003). Tracking individuals via object-files: evidence from infants' manual search. Developmental Science, 6, 568-584) of small object arrays. The present experiments asked whether infants can compute both extent and number over a given array. Experiment 1 used a habituation procedure to show that 7-month-old infants can compute numerosity when the objects in the array contrast in color, pattern, and texture. Experiment 2 revealed that, with these heterogeneous arrays, infants no longer represent the array's total continuous extent. Since previous work shows that infants compute continuous extent but not numerosity when objects have identical rather than contrasting properties, these results form a double dissociation. Infants computed number but not extent over representations of contrasting objects, and computed extent but not number over representations of identical objects.     

Orientation-invariant object recognition: evidence from repetition blindness

The question of whether object recognition is orientation-invariant or orientation-dependent was investigated using a repetition blindness (RB) paradigm. In RB, the second occurrence of a repeated stimulus is less likely to be reported, compared to the occurrence of a different stimulus, if it occurs within a short time of the first presentation. This failure is usually interpreted as a difficulty in assigning two separate episodic tokens to the same visual type. Thus, RB can provide useful information about which representations are treated as the same by the visual system. Two experiments tested whether RB occurs for repeated objects that were either in identical orientations, or differed by 30, 60, 90, or 180 degrees . Significant RB was found for all orientation differences, consistent with the existence of orientation-invariant object representations. However, under some circumstances, RB was reduced or even eliminated when the repeated object was rotated by 180 degrees , suggesting easier individuation of the repeated objects in this case. A third experiment confirmed that the upside-down orientation is processed more easily than other rotated orientations. The results indicate that, although object identity can be determined independently of orientation, orientation plays an important role in establishing distinct episodic representations of a repeated object, thus enabling one to report them as separate events.     

Motion and edge sensitivity in perception of object unity

Although much evidence indicates that young infants perceive unitary objects by analyzing patterns of motion, infants' abilities to perceive object unity by analyzing Gestalt properties and by integrating distinct views of an object over time are in dispute. To address these controversies, four experiments investigated adults' and infants' perception of the unity of a center-occluded, moving rod with misaligned visible edges. Both alignment information and depth information affected adults' and infants' perception of object unity in similar ways, and infants perceived object unity by integrating information about object features over time. However, infants perceived a moving, misaligned, three-dimensional object as indeterminate in its connectedness, whereas adults perceived it as connected behind the occluder. These findings indicate that the effectiveness of common motion in specifying unified surfaces across an occluder is reduced by misalignment of edges. Alignment information enhances perception of object unity either by serving directly as information for unity or by optimizing the detectability of motion-carried information for unity. In addition, young infants are able to retain information about edge orientation over short intervals in determining connectedness via a process of spatiotemporal integration.     

Cognitive development in object manipulation by infant chimpanzees

This study focuses on the development of spontaneous object manipulation in three infant chimpanzees during their first 2 years of life. The three infants were raised by their biological mothers who lived among a group of chimpanzees. A human tester conducted a series of cognitive tests in a triadic situation where mothers collaborated with the researcher during the testing of the infants. Four tasks were presented, taken from normative studies of cognitive development of Japanese infants: inserting objects into corresponding holes in a box, seriating nesting cups, inserting variously shaped objects into corresponding holes in a template, and stacking up wooden blocks. The mothers had already acquired skills to perform these manipulation tasks. The infants were free to observe the mothers' manipulative behavior from immediately after birth. We focused on object–object combinations that were made spontaneously by the infant chimpanzees, without providing food reinforcement for any specific behavior that the infants performed. The three main findings can be summarized as follows. First, there was precocious appearance of object–object combination in infant chimpanzees: the age of onset (8–11 months) was comparable to that in humans (around 10 months old).Second, object–object combinations in chimpanzees remained at a low frequency between 11 and 16 months, then increased dramatically at the age of approximately 1.5 years. At the same time, the accuracy of these object–object combinations also increased. Third, chimpanzee infants showed inserting behavior frequently and from an early age but they did not exhibit stacking behavior during their first 2 years of life, in clear contrast to human data.     

道德概念垂直空间隐喻理解中的映射:双向性及不平衡性

通过4个实验考察道德概念垂直空间隐喻理解中的映射机制和特征。实验1采用空间Stroop范式,发现被试判断完道德词后,对判断随后呈现在屏幕上方或下方字母的反应时的差异不显著,没有发现词汇类型对空间位置的影响。实验2采用有意识迫选法,要求被试出声读出屏幕中央的道德词后,对屏幕上方或下方的希腊语非词进行二择一迫选,发现被试读出道德词后倾向于选择屏幕上方的非词,读出不道德词后倾向于选择屏幕下方的非词。实验3仍采用Stroop范式,发现被试做出空间"上"的判断后,对随后道德词的词义判断反应时显著快于不道德词,做出空间"下"的判断后,对不道德词的反应时显著快于道德词。实验4探讨空间位置是否会对判断人物的道德性产生影响,结果发现被试倾向于认为屏幕上方的人物是道德的,而屏幕下方的人物是不道德的。4个实验的结果表明,在道德概念垂直空间隐喻的理解中,映射的方式是灵活的、双向的,既可以由始源域向目标域映射,也可以由目标域向始源域映射,但两个方向上的映射力量是不平衡的。