Learning perceptual organization in infancy. 2005

Paul C Quinn, and Ramesh S Bhatt
Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. pquinn@udel.edu

It has been demonstrated that older infants (6- to 7-month-olds), but not younger infants (3- to 4-month-olds), use form similarity to organize stimuli consisting of X and O elements. We investigated whether utilization of form similarity is governed by maturation or experience by contrasting how infants perform when familiarized with a single exemplar versus multiple exemplars depicting a particular organization. In Experiment 1, 3- to 4-month-olds failed to organize alternating columns or rows of squares and diamonds or Hs and Is, respectively. In Experiment 2, same-aged infants familiarized with all three patterns (X-O, square-diamond, H-I) displayed evidence of organization. The results suggest that 3- to 4-month-olds can use form similarity to organize visual patterns in a concept-formation task. The findings imply that perceptual organization based on form similarity is learned through experience with multiple patterns depicting a common arrangement, rather than immediately apprehended in an individual pattern.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007223 Infant A child between 1 and 23 months of age. Infants
D007858 Learning Relatively permanent change in behavior that is the result of past experience or practice. The concept includes the acquisition of knowledge. Phenomenography
D008297 Male Males
D010465 Perception The process by which the nature and meaning of sensory stimuli are recognized and interpreted. Sensory Processing,Processing, Sensory
D003210 Concept Formation A cognitive process involving the formation of ideas generalized from the knowledge of qualities, aspects, and relations of objects. Concept Acquisition,Concept Learning,Conceptualization,Acquisition, Concept,Acquisitions, Concept,Concept Acquisitions,Formation, Concept,Learning, Concept
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man

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