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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 6, 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

Parts, cavities, and object representation in infancy.

Angela Hayden¹, Ramesh S Bhatt, Ashley Kangas

¹Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington,KY 40506-0044, USA. rbhatt@email.uky.edu

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance

|November 25, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Infants prioritize object parts over cavities, indicating early development of part-based visual processing. This research explores infant object perception and shape recognition.

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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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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Part representation is crucial for object recognition and visual cognition.
Understanding the developmental trajectory of part representation is limited.
Infant visual systems may prioritize parts over other object features.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the developmental emergence of part representation in infants.
To determine if infant visual systems prioritize part shapes over cavity shapes.
To explore the salience of part versus cavity shapes in early visual processing.

Main Methods:

Habituation paradigm with 5-month-old infants.
Stimuli included both part and cavity shapes.
Novelty preference test to assess visual attention and salience.

Main Results:

Infants showed a preference for cavity shapes over part shapes.
This preference indicates that part shapes were more salient during habituation.
Differential processing of part and cavity contours was observed.

Conclusions:

Basic aspects of part-based object processing are present early in life.
Infant visual processing prioritizes parts over cavities.
Findings align with adult perception research on figure-ground segregation.