Developmental origin of the animate–inanimate distinction.

The authors examine recent theoretical perspectives of the development of the animate–inanimate distinction in infancy. From these theoretical views emerge 7 characteristic properties, each related to physical or psychological causality, that distinguish animates from inanimates. The literature is reviewed for evidence of infants' ability to perceive and understand each of these properties. Infants associate some animate properties with people by 6 months, but they do not associate the appropriate properties to the broad category of animates and inanimates until at least the middle of the 2nd year. The authors offer a theoretical proposal whereby infants acquire knowledge about the properties of different object kinds through a sensitive perceptual system and a domain general associative learning mechanism that extracts correlations among dynamic and static features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants' attention to object structure in early categorization.

Three experiments with object-manipulation tasks examined the effect of object structure on 14-, 18-, and 22-month-olds' categorization. In Experiment 1, categorization of animals and vehicles was tested when object structure was normal and when it was violated by moving parts (legs or wheels) into a novel configuration. In Experiment 2, categorization of animals, vehicles, and furniture was examined when object structure was modified in orientation (e.g., legs inverted) or in configuration (e.g., legs at tangential angles). In Experiment 3, infants' attention to texture in categorization was tested. The results of the studies showed that 14- to 22-month-olds attend to object parts and structural configuration to categorize and that they do not attend to object texture. There is a perceptual basis for early categorization at the superordinate-like level, and infants are constrained in the parts and object structures they recognize in this process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants' use of object parts in early categorization.

Two experiments involving object-manipulation tasks were performed to examine whether 1- to 2 year-olds form superordinate-like categories by attending to object parts. In Study 1, 14-, 18-, and 22-month-olds were tested with contrasts of animals, furniture, insects, and vehicles. Fourteen- and 18-month-olds behaved systematically toward categories with different parts (legs or wheels) but not toward categories with matching parts (legs or legs). In Study 2, infants were tested with novel animals and vehicles generated by removing or attaching legs or wheels. In the absence of part differences, all three age groups failed to form superordinate categories. The two younger groups chose to categorize by parts (i.e., legs or wheels) rather than by category membership (animal or vehicle). The results suggest a perceptual basis for categorization whereby infants form dynamic categories, on-line, that are based on the characteristics of the input. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New perspectives on the effects of action on perceptual and cognitive development.

This special section was motivated by a resurgence in the view that it is impossible to investigate perceptual and cognitive development without considering how it is affected by, and intertwined with, infants' and children's action in the world. This view has long been foundational to the field, yet contemporary investigations of the effects of acting on cognition and perception have been limited. The research showcased in this section indicates that this trend is changing as researchers consider anew the ways in which cognition derives structure from action. The work presented here illustrates the breadth of these potential effects across ages and domains of development, and it highlights the breadth of methods that can be recruited to investigate them. This new research focus provides insight for the mechanisms by which action affects perception and cognition and at the same time reveals that much remains to be learned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Producing and processing self-propelled motion in infancy.

Three experiments investigated 5- through 8-month-olds' ability to encode self-propelled and caused motion and examined whether processing of motion onset changes when crawling begins. Infants were habituated (Experiments 1 and 2) or familiarized (Experiment 3) with simple causal and noncausal launching events. They then viewed the caused-to-move and self-propelled objects from the events both stationary and side-by-side, and their preferential looking to the objects was assessed. Results revealed that 5- and 6-month-olds displayed a different pattern of looking than did 8-month-olds. More notably, noncrawling 7-month-olds and 7-month-olds with crawling experience also demonstrated such a differential pattern. These data suggest that processing of motion onset changes in concert with the commencement of self-locomotion. Findings are discussed in reference to the mechanisms underlying infants' ability to recognize self-propelled motion and the scope of the relationship between action production and action perception in infancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Make the first move: How infants learn about self-propelled objects.

In 3 experiments, the author investigated 16- to 20-month-old infants' attention to dynamic and static parts in learning about self-propelled objects. In Experiment 1, infants were habituated to simple noncausal events in which a geometric figure with a single moving part started to move without physical contact from an identical geometric figure that possessed a single static part. Infants were then tested with an event in which the parts of the objects were switched. In Experiments 2 and 3, infants were habituated and tested with identical events except that the part possessed by each object during habitation was switched relative to the first experiment. Results of the experiments revealed that 16-month-olds failed to encode the relation between an object's part and its onset of motion, 18-month-olds were unconstrained in the relations involving self-propulsion that they would encode, and 20-month-olds were constrained in the relations they would encode. The results are discussed with regard to the developmental trajectory of learning about motion properties and the mechanism involved in early concept acquisition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)