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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Discrimination of possible and impossible objects in infancy.

Sarah M Shuwairi¹, Marc K Albert, Scott P Johnson

¹Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. sms425@nyu.edu

Psychological Science

|May 2, 2007

Summary

Four-month-old infants can detect impossible objects in 2D images, showing sensitivity to pictorial depth cues. This suggests early development of 3D structure perception from visual information.

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Last Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

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Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Visual Perception
Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

Adults utilize pictorial depth cues to interpret 3D object structures from 2D images.
The developmental trajectory and mechanisms of infant pictorial depth cue processing are not well understood and remain debated.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether 4-month-old infants can discriminate between 2D depictions of structurally possible and impossible objects.
To assess infant sensitivity to specific pictorial depth cues like junction structures and interposition.

Main Methods:

A visual habituation/novelty-preference procedure was employed.
Infants were presented with 2D images that varied in their structural possibility based on pictorial depth cues.

Main Results:

Four-month-old infants demonstrated the ability to discriminate between possible and impossible objects.
Results indicate sensitivity to junction structures and interposition cues crucial for pictorial depth perception.
Infants detected inconsistencies in depth cues that defined object impossibility.

Conclusions:

Young infants possess the capacity to process pictorial depth cues, enabling the perception of 3D structure from 2D images.
These findings offer critical insights into the early development of visual mechanisms for interpreting depicted spatial information.