Object recognition versus object discrimination: Comparison between human infants and infant monkeys.

Human infants (aged 12–32 mo old) and adults learned a delayed nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) task and single- and multiple-pair discrimination tasks using nonverbal procedures previously used with monkeys. Infants learned discriminations rapidly and at a young age (12 mo), but they required prolonged training and maturation before learning the DNMS task. Adults learned all tasks rapidly. After learning the DNMS task to criterion, memory performance declined systematically in an inverse relation to age. The dissociation in ability of infants on the DNMS vs discrimination tasks closely resembles the dissociation previously reported with infant monkeys (J. Bachevalier & M. Mishkin, 1984). Results from both infant humans and monkeys support a neurocognitive maturational model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)