Four-month-old infants' sensitivity to binocular and kinetic information for three-dimensional-object shape.
4-month-old infants were tested for sensitivity to kinetic and binocular information for 3-dimensional-object shape. The study included 2 tests: a test for sensitivity to binocular disparity and a shape perception test. The disparity sensitivity test used a preferential looking procedure developed by Held, Birch, and Gwiazda. On the basis of the results of this test, infants were assigned to disparity-sensitive and disparity-insensitive groups. In the shape perception test, a "transfer-across-depth-cues" method was employed. Infants were habituated to a rotating object whose shape was specified by kinetic information and were then presented with stationary stereograms specifying the same object and a novel-shaped object. The disparity-sensitive infants looked significantly longer at the novel object than at the familiar object, whereas the disparity-insensitive infants showed no difference in looking time to the novel and the familiar objects. The results indicate that disparity-sensitive 4-month-old infants can perceive 3-dimensional-object shape from kinetic and binocular depth information.
D001288:Attention; D002657:Child Development; D003463:Cues; D003867:Depth Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D014163:Transfer, Psychology