RESUMEN
Experiments investigated whether infants infer that a hidden, freely moving object will move continuously and smoothly. Infants aged 6 and 10 months, like the 4-month-old infants in previous experiments, inferred that the object's path would be connected and unobstructed, in accord with the principle of continuity. In contrast, 4- and 6-month-old infants did not appear to infer that the object's path would be smooth, in accord with the principle of inertia. At 8 and 10 months, knowledge of inertia appeared to be emerging but remained weaker than knowledge of continuity. These findings are consistent with the view that common sense knowledge of physical objects develops by enrichment around constant core principles.
Asunto(s)
Percepción de Movimiento , Cognición , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Masculino , Estimulación LuminosaRESUMEN
We investigated whether adults and infants aged 3, 5, and 9 months perceive the unity and boundaries of visible objects in accord with the Gestalt relations of color and texture similarity, good continuation, or good form. Adults and infants were presented with simple but unfamiliar displays in which all three Gestalt relations specified either one object or two objects-perception of the objects was assessed by a verbal rating method in the adults and by a preferential looking method in the infants. The Gestalt relations appeared to influence the adults' perceptions strongly. However, the relations appeared to have no effect on the perceptions of 3-month-old infants and weak effects on the perceptions of 5-month-old and 9-month-old infants. The findings support the suggestion that developmental changes in object perception occur slowly. These changes, and the organizational phenomena to which Gestalt psychology called attention, may depend in part on the child's developing ability to recognize objects of particular kinds.
Asunto(s)
Atención , Aprendizaje Discriminativo , Teoría Gestáltica , Reconocimiento Visual de Modelos , Adolescente , Adulto , Factores de Edad , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Masculino , Recuerdo Mental , Ilusiones Ópticas , Orientación , Percepción de Cercanía , PsicofísicaRESUMEN
Experiments with young infants provide evidence for early-developing capacities to represent physical objects and to reason about object motion. Early physical reasoning accords with 2 constraints at the center of mature physical conceptions: continuity and solidity. It fails to accord with 2 constraints that may be peripheral to mature conceptions: gravity and inertia. These experiments suggest that cognition develops concurrently with perception and action and that development leads to the enrichment of conceptions around an unchanging core. The experiments challenge claims that cognition develops on a foundation of perceptual or motor experience, that initial conceptions are inappropriate to the world, and that initial conceptions are abandoned or radically changed with the growth of knowledge.