Young infants' visual processing of internal and adjacent shapes

Abstract

Three experiments explored possible mechanisms mediating 1-month-old infants' differential discrimination of internal and external elements of compound visual patterns. Discrimination was inferred from recovery of operant sucking to the presentation of a novel pattern following decrement to a familar pattern. In Experiment 1, infants were familarized with a small geometric figure either centered within, or placed adjacent to, a larger figure. There was no evidence for discrimination of shape changes in small figures presented in either pattern. However, Experiment II showed discrimination of shape changes in small figures presented singly. Experiment III investigated discrimination of shape changes in small figures placed adjacent to either another small figure or a larger figure. Averaged data indicated no reliable discrimination in either group. But there was evidence for a group difference in the distribution of subjects' recovery scores, suggesting better discrimination of small figures when placed adjacent to another small figure. The pattern of results is interpreted in terms of an early attentional bias toward the larger components of compound patterns.