A hierarchical progression in infants' ability to use surface features, such as color, as a basis for object individuation in the first year has been well established (Tremoulet, Leslie, & Hall, 2000; Wilcox, 1999). There is evidence, however, that infants' sensitivity to surface features can be increased through multisensory (i.e.,…

The ability to individuate objects is one of our most fundamental cognitive capacities. Recent research has revealed that when objects vary in color or luminance alone, infants fail to individuate those objects until 11.5 months. However, color and luminance frequently covary in the natural environment, thus providing a more salient and reliable…

Examined the development of pattern recognition in infant pigtailed macaques using the familiarization novelty technique. Results indicate that by at least 200 days postconception subjects show a consistently reliable visual response to novelty. (Author/RH)

Reports three experiments which investigated the discrimination of simple visual arrangements by three-month-old infants. An operant high-amplitude sucking technique was used in a stimulus familiarization-novelty paradigm. (JMB)

Three experiments examined whether the perception and retention of feature relations, thought to be critical for object recognition in adults, are evident in early infancy. Three month olds' 24-hour retention was disrupted when features of a 6-item mobile were recombined, indicating that they not only encode feature relations but also remember…

Infants were tested at 5, 8, and 13 months of age for numerosity perception. Subjects observed displayed figures on a screen moving at constant speed with irregular trajectories and occasional occlusions. Results demonstrated that discrimination of units, and not of characteristic patterns, underlies numerosity perception. (BC)

Four experiments examined how perception affects delayed recognition, visual pop out, and memory reactivation (priming) in six month olds. Infants discriminated cues differing in spatial arrangement or number of primitive perceptual units (textons) in a delayed recognition task and exhibited adultlike visual pop-out effects in a priming task. (MDM)

A sequential-touching task was used to investigate whether 14-month-old infants can rapidly change how they categorize a set of objects, recognizing new groupings of objects they had previously categorized in a different way. When presented with a collection of objects that could be categorized by shape (balls vs. blocks) or material (soft vs.…

Study looks at pigtailed macaque in the context of visual recognition problems adapted from a standardized test developed for use with human infants. Results demonstrate that the low-risk group easily differentiated novel from previously seen targets; the high-risk group gave no evidence of recognition. (Author/RWB)