Development of three-dimensional form perception.

Abstract

In three experiments with infants and one with adults we explored the generality, limitations, and informational bases of early form perception. In the infant studies we used a habituation-of-looking-time procedure and the method of Kellman (1984), in which responses to three-dimensional (3-D) form were isolated by habituating 16-week-old subjects to a single object in two different axes of rotation in depth, and testing afterward for dishabituation to the same object and to a different object in a novel axis of rotation. In Experiment 1, continuous optical transformations given by moving 16-week-old observers around a stationary 3-D object specified 3-D form to infants. In Experiment 2 we found no evidence of 3-D form perception from multiple, stationary, binocular views of objects by 16- and 24-week-olds. Experiment 3A indicated that perspective transformations of the bounding contours of an object, apart from surface information, can specify form at 16 weeks. Experiment 3B provided a methodological check, showing that adult subjects could neither perceive 3-D forms from the static views of the objects in Experiment 3A nor match views of either object across different rotations by proximal stimulus similarities. The results identify continuous perspective transformations, given by object or observer movement, as the informational bases of early 3-D form perception. Detecting form in stationary views appears to be a later developmental acquisition.

Three-month-olds’ sensitivity to orientation cues in the three-dimensional depth plane

“…The general conclusion from this research has been that whereas infants derive 3-D information from motion-based cues early in life, the ability to derive 3-D information from pictorial cues does not emerge until later in life, that is, between 5 and 7 months of age (e.g., Arterberry, Bensen, & Yonas, 1991;Granrud & Yonas, 1984;Granrud, Yonas, & Opland, 1985;Kavnek, 2004;Kellman & Short, 1987;Yonas, ElieV, & Arterberry, 2002;Yonas, Granrud, Arterberry, & Hanson, 1986).…”

Perception of three-dimensional shape specified by optic flow by 8-week-old infants

“…In several studies in which 4-month-old infants viewed rotating solid objects, rotatCopyright 2000 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 550 ing wire figures, or kinetic random dot displays that simulated an oscillating object, infants provided evidence of perceiving the three-dimensional shapes of the objects. Infants looked significantly longer to a novel object than to a familiar object following habituation (Arterberry, 1992;Arterberry & Yonas, 1988;Kellman, 1984;Kellman & Short, 1987). Furthermore, young infants perceive the location of a moving surface in depth.…”

Direct perception of global invariants is not a fruitful notion

“…Similarly, Kellman and Short (1987) investigated the role of body motion in the development of perception of threedimensional form. Babies who were moved (oscillated briefly in a semicircle in front of the objects that they were fixating) could more easily differentiate form than babies who were stationary.…”