Skip to main content

Young infants readily use proximity to organize visual pattern information.

Author
Abstract
:

Four experiments relying on novelty and spontaneous preference procedures were performed to determine whether 3-4-month-old infants utilize the Gestalt principle of proximity to organize visual pattern information. In Experiment 1, infants familiarized with arrays of elements that could be organized into either columns or rows were tested for their preference between vertical and horizontal bars. The infants preferred the novel organization of bars. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the novelty preference could not be attributed to an a priori preference or an inability to discriminate between the elements comprising the patterns. Experiment 4 replicated the results of Experiment 1 in a bars --> elements version of the task, indicating that extended exposure is not necessary for infants to organize based on proximity. The results suggest that infants readily organize visual pattern information in accord with proximity. Implications of this finding for models of the ontogenesis and microgenesis of object perception in infants and adults are discussed.

Year of Publication
:
2008
Journal
:
Acta psychologica
Volume
:
127
Issue
:
2
Number of Pages
:
289-98
Date Published
:
2008 Feb
ISSN Number
:
0001-6918
URL
:
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0001-6918(07)00059-5
DOI
:
10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.06.002
Short Title
:
Young infants readily use proximity to organize visual pattern i
Download citation