The memorability and discriminability of primitive perceptual units in infancy.
Three-month-olds were operantly trained to kick to move a block mobile that displayed a horizontal and a vertical line ("textons") arranged as L, T, or + on each side. Delayed recognition was tested either 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 days later with either the same or a different display. Infants failed to discriminate between Ls and Ts after delays longer than 1 hr but discriminated both from +s, which contains an additional texton (the line crossing), after delays as long as 7 days but not 9. Also, they remembered +s longer than Ls and Ts. These data indicate that the same primitive perceptual units that mediate adult texture segregation are differentially discriminated and differentially memorable in early infancy.
Adler
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SA
Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903.
Rovee-Collier
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C
D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*