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Published on: February 8, 2019
Developmental changes in visual object recognition between 18 and 24 months of age
Alfredo F Pereira1, Linda B Smith
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. afpereir@indiana.edu
Developmental Science
|January 6, 2009
Summary
Children aged 18-24 months show rapid development in visual object recognition, particularly with abstract shape information linked to vocabulary growth. This indicates a shift from feature-based to holistic recognition during early language acquisition.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Infant visual recognition is crucial for learning and development.
- Understanding how children process object information evolves significantly between 18 and 24 months.
- Early object recognition abilities are hypothesized to rely on abstract shape representations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate developmental changes in children's visual object recognition between 18 and 24 months.
- To determine how different types of visual information (detailed, feature-reduced, abstract shape) affect recognition.
- To explore the relationship between object recognition development and vocabulary acquisition.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted with children aged 18 to 24 months.
- Children were presented with object stimuli varying in detail, features, and abstract shape information.
- Performance was assessed, and individual differences were correlated with productive vocabulary size.
Main Results:
- Significant developmental improvements were found specifically for abstract shape representations.
- Recognition of detailed or feature-reduced objects showed fewer developmental differences.
- Less advanced children relied on piecemeal feature recognition, while advanced children used holistic shape information.
- Developmental gains in abstract shape recognition strongly correlated with vocabulary size.
Conclusions:
- Children aged 18-24 months undergo rapid development in visual object recognition, particularly for abstract shape information.
- This developmental shift is closely tied to the acquisition of object names.
- Findings support theories linking abstract representations to mature object recognition and category learning.
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