Perceptual organization based on illusory regions in infancy

Angela Hayden, Ramesh S. Bhatt, Paul C. Quinn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Prior research indicates that, like adults, infants use enclosed regions to group elements. It is not clear whether infants or adults can use regions that have to be inferred from illusory contours to group elements. We examined whether 3- to 4-month-olds use illusory regions to group elements and generalize this organization to novel regions. Infants habituated to pairs of shapes in illusory vertical or horizontal regions subsequently discriminated, in novel regions, pairs of elements that had previously shared a region from pairs of elements that had been in different regions. A control group of infants, who had experienced the same stimuli except for the presence of illusory regions, failed to discriminate between within-region and between-region pairs of stimuli. These results reveal that (1) illusory regions can be used to group elements, (2) perceptual organization is sufficiently developed early in life for 3- to 4-month-olds to group on the basis of ecologically relevant illusory contours, and (3) such grouping in infancy generalizes to novel regions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)443-447
Number of pages5
JournalPsychonomic Bulletin and Review
Volume15
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2008

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Perceptual organization based on illusory regions in infancy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this