Saliency and context play a role in infants' texture segmentation.
We investigated whether young infants orient reliably towards more salient vs. less salient objects in a visual scene. Subjects were tested with stimuli presented on textured fields, one side showing a target stimulus (a 'more salient' or 'less salient' texture patch) and the other a background stimulus. Infants typically preferred the more salient, but not the less salient target. Their behaviour depended on the configuration of the background stimulus. In contrast, 3-4 year-old children always showed a preference for the target stimulus, regardless of the configuration of the background. We conclude that both saliency of a target stimulus and its context play a role in early texture segmentation.
Sireteanu
Ruxandra
R
Department of Biological Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. sireteanu@mpih-frankfurt.mpg.de
Encke
Irmgard
I
Bachert
Iris
I
D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics