Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that organizational principles become functional over different time courses of development: Lightness similarity is available at 3 months of age, but form similarity is not readily in evidence until 6 months of age. We investigated whether organization would transfer across principles and whether perceptual scaffolding can occur from an already functional principle to a not-yet-operational principle. Six- to 7-month-old infants (Experiment 1) and 3- to 4-month-old infants (Experiment 2) who were familiarized with arrays of elements organized by lightness similarity displayed a subsequent visual preference for a novel organization defined by form similarity. Results with the older infants demonstrate transfer in perceptual grouping: The organization defined by one grouping principle can direct a visual preference for a novel organization defined by a different grouping principle. Findings with the younger infants suggest that learning based on an already functional organizational process enables an organizational process that is not yet functional through perceptual scaffolding.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bhatt

R.S.

Hayden

Quinn

P.C.

(2007). Perceptual organization based on common region in infancy. Infancy, 12, 147–168.

Fagan

J.F.

(1970). Memory in the infant. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 9, 217–226.

Feigenson

Halberda

(2008). Conceptual knowledge increases infants' memory capacity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105, 9926–9930.

Goldstone

R.L.

(1998). Perceptual learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 585–612.

Goldstone

R.L.

Barsalou

(1998). Reuniting perception and conception. Cognition, 65, 231–262.

Hebb

D.O.

(1949). The organization of behavior. New York: Wiley.

Johnson

S.P.

Shuwairi

S.M.

(2009). Learning and memory facilitate predictive tracking in 4-month-old infants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 122–130.

Koffka

(1935). Principles of Gestalt psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

Kohler

(1929). Gestalt psychology. New York: Horace Liveright.

10.

Lany

Gomez

R.L.

(2008). Twelve-month-old infants benefit from prior experience in statistical learning. Psychological Science, 19, 1247–1252.

11.

Needham

Dueker

G.L.

Lockhead

(2005). Infants' formation and use of categories to segregate objects. Cognition, 94, 215–240.

12.

Palmer

S.E.

(1992). Common region: A new principle of perceptual grouping. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 436–447.

13.

Quinn

P.C.

Bhatt

R.S.

(2005). Learning perceptual organization in infancy. Psychological Science, 16, 515–519.

14.

Quinn

P.C.

Bhatt

R.S.

(2006). Are some Gestalt principles deployed more readily than others during early development? The case of lightness versus form similarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32, 1221–1230.

15.

Quinn

P.C.

Bhatt

R.S.

Brush

Grimes

Sharpnack

(2002). Development of form similarity as a Gestalt grouping principle in infancy. Psychological Science, 13, 320–328.

16.

Quinn

P.C.

Bhatt

R.S.

Hayden

(2008a). What goes with what? Development of perceptual grouping in infancy. In

Ross

B.H.

(Ed.), Psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 49, pp. 105–146). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.

17.

Quinn

P.C.

Bhatt

R.S.

Hayden

(2008b). Young infants readily use proximity to organize visual pattern information. Acta Psychologica, 127, 289–298.

18.

Quinn

P.C.

Burke

Rush

(1993). Part-whole perception in early infancy: Evidence for perceptual grouping produced by lightness similarity. Infant Behavior & Development, 16, 19–42.

19.

Spelke

E.S.

(1982). Perceptual knowledge of objects in infancy. In

Mehler

Garrett

Walker

(Eds.), Perspectives on mental representation (pp. 409–430). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

20.

Spelke

E.S.

(2000). Core knowledge. American Psychologist, 10, 1233–1243.

21.

Spencer

J.P.

Thomas

McClelland

J.L.

(Eds.). (in press). Toward a unified theory of development: Connectionism and dynamic systems theory re-considered. New York: Oxford University Press.

22.

Vishton

P.M.

Ware

E.A.

Badger

A.N.

(2005). Different Gestalt processing for different actions? Comparing object-directed reaching and looking time measures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 90, 89–113.

23.

Vygotsky

L.S.

(1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

24.

Wilcox

Chapa

(2004). Priming infants to use color and pattern information in an individuation task. Cognition, 90, 265–302.

Transfer and Scaffolding of Perceptual Grouping Occurs Across Organizing Principles in 3- to 7-Month-Old Infants

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References