The influence of pets on infants' processing of cat and dog images.
We examined how experience at home with pets is related to infants' processing of animal stimuli in a standard laboratory procedure. We presented 6-month-old infants with photographs of cats or dogs and found that infants with pets at home (N=40) responded differently to the pictures than infants without pets (N=40). These results suggest that infants' experience in one context (at home) contributes to their processing of similar stimuli in a different context (the laboratory), and have implications for how infants' early experience shapes basic cognitive processing.
Hurley
Karinna B
KB
The University of California, Davis, CA 95618, USA.
Kovack-Lesh
Kristine A
KA
Oakes
Lisa M
LM
D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002657:Child Development; D003210:Concept Formation; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D057805:Pets; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods