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The nature of infant memory for hue
Author(s) -
Catherwood Di,
Crassini Boris,
Freiberg Kate
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1987.tb01074.x
Subject(s) - hue , psychology , categorical variable , categorization , recognition memory , cognitive psychology , pattern recognition (psychology) , audiology , artificial intelligence , mathematics , cognition , medicine , statistics , computer science , neuroscience
The question of whether infants remember hue categorically or in terms of precise hue identity was investigated with 32 infants (mean age 20·0 weeks). Eight infants participated in a pre‐test designed assess the discriminability of hues from the same category and a further 24 infants were assessed for recognition of these hues. These infants were familiarized to one hue and tested for recognition of this hue either immediately or following a five‐minute delay. Recognition was assessed by means of a series of paired comparisons: the original hue paired with itself (control), with a novel same‐category hue or with a novel new‐category hue. Additionally, ‘false’ or categorical recognition was tested by comparing the novel same‐category hue to the novel new‐category hue. On the immediate test, infants responded as if they had remembered the exact identity of the original hue—although there was also evidence of sensitivity to categorical relationships between hues. On the delayed test, however, infants appeared to remember only the category of the original hue. Control procedures adopted in the study made it unlikely that these results were confounded by such factors as differential hue preferences or hue brightness.