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Published on: May 15, 2019
Infants' responsiveness to pictorial depth cues in preferential-reaching studies: a meta-analysis
Michael Kavsek1, Carl E Granrud, Albert Yonas
1University of Bonn, Institute for Psychology, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111 Bonn, Germany. kavsek@uni-bonn.de
Insights
Five-month-old infants demonstrate responsiveness to pictorial depth cues, particularly under monocular vision. Combining data from multiple studies revealed this ability, even when individual experiments were inconclusive.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Perception
- Visual Development
Background:
- Previous research suggests infants perceive pictorial depth cues between 5-7 months.
- Recent studies indicate 5-month-olds may respond to these cues.
- Conflicting results necessitate further investigation into early depth perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To resolve contradictory findings regarding 5-month-olds' response to pictorial depth cues.
- To meta-analyze data from preferential-reaching studies involving 5-month-olds.
- To determine if combined data reveal a consistent response to pictorial depth.
Main Methods:
- Meta-analysis of 16 samples comprising 475 infants (5-5.5 months old).
- Inclusion of data from preferential-reaching studies.
- Statistical analysis of responses under monocular and binocular viewing conditions.
Main Results:
- Infants showed a significantly higher consistency in responding to pictorial depth cues under monocular (p<.001) versus binocular viewing.
- This finding remained significant (p<.001) even after excluding individually significant experiments.
- Combined analysis revealed a clear response to pictorial depth cues, despite individual study limitations.
Conclusions:
- Five-month-old infants do respond to pictorial depth cues.
- Monocular viewing enhances the detection of pictorial depth cues in infants.
- Meta-analysis is a powerful tool for revealing subtle effects in developmental research.
Abstract:
The findings of numerous preferential-reaching studies suggest that infants first respond to pictorial depth cues between 5 and 7 months of age. However, three recent preferential-reaching studies have found evidence of responsiveness to pictorial depth cues in 5-month-olds. We investigated these apparently contradictory results by conducting meta-analyses of the data from 5-month-olds who participated in preferential-reaching studies. The data from 16 samples, comprising 475 infants 5-5.5 months of age, were integrated. The results showed that the infants responded more consistently to depth relationships specified by pictorial cues under monocular than under binocular viewing conditions (p<.001), indicating that 5-month-old infants respond to pictorial depth cues. This effect remained significant (p<.001) when the individual experiments that had found significant results were omitted from the analysis. Although the majority of experiments were unable to find evidence of pictorial depth perception individually, this ability was clearly revealed when their results were combined.
