| Abstract: | Successful navigation in the world requires differentiating an obstacle in one's path from an aperture through which one could pass. An approaching obstacle is specified by texture expansion within the obstacle's contour and the deletion of background texture outside the object. In contrast, an approaching aperture contains texture expansion within the aperture's frame and accretion of background texture within the aperture's contour. This study investigated 3- to 5-month-old infants' discrimination of obstacles from apertures, examining eyeblink responses to the movement of both kinds of objects against backgrounds varying in salience. Obstacles produced stronger looming reactions than apertures, and the salience of the background influenced responses to apertures but not obstacles. These findings imply that infants differentiate obstacles from apertures based on their relative patterns of accretion versus deletion of background texture, and suggest that infants recognize the functional consequences of contact with these objects. |
