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Cohesion as a constraint on object persistence in infancy
Author(s) -
Cheries Erik W.,
Mitroff Stephen R.,
Wynn Karen,
Scholl Brian J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00687.x
Subject(s) - cohesion (chemistry) , psychology , cognitive psychology , cognition , perception , object (grammar) , object permanence , constraint (computer aided design) , persistence (discontinuity) , visual perception , cognitive science , cognitive development , developmental psychology , social psychology , communication , artificial intelligence , computer science , mathematics , chemistry , geometry , organic chemistry , geotechnical engineering , neuroscience , engineering
Abstract A critical challenge for visual perception is to represent objects as the same persisting individuals over time and motion. Across several areas of cognitive science, researchers have identified cohesion as among the most important theoretical principles of object persistence: An object must maintain a single bounded contour over time. Drawing inspiration from recent work in adult visual cognition, the present study tested the power of cohesion as a constraint as it operates early in development. In particular, we tested whether the most minimal cohesion violation – a single object splitting into two – would destroy infants’ ability to represent a quantity of objects over occlusion. In a forced‐choice crawling paradigm, 10‐ and 12‐month‐old infants witnessed crackers being sequentially placed into containers, and typically crawled toward the container with the greater cracker quantity. When one of the crackers was visibly split in half, however, infants failed to represent the relative quantities, despite controls for the overall quantities and the motions involved. This result helps to characterize the fidelity and specificity of cohesion as a fundamental principle of object persistence, suggesting that even the simplest possible cohesion violation can dramatically impair infants’ object representations and influence their overt behavior.