Development of differential sensitivity for shape changes resulting from linear and nonlinear planar transformations

A shape bias for extending names to objects that look visually similar has been commonly accepted but it is hard to define which kind of shape dissimilarities are diagnostic for the identity of an object. Here, we present a transformational approach to describe shape differences that can incorporate many significant shape features. We introduce two kinds of transformations: one kind concerns linear transformations of the image plane (affine transformations), generally limiting shape variations within the borders of basic-level categories; the other kind concerns nonlinear continuous transformations of the image plane (topological transformations), allowing all kinds of shape variation crossing and not crossing the borders of basic-level categories. We administered stimulus pairs differing in these shape transformations to children of 3 years to 7 years old in a delayed match-to-sample task. With increasing age, especially between 5 years and 6 years, children became more sensitive to the topological deformations that are relevant for between-category distinctions, indicating that acquired categorical knowledge in early years induces perceptual learning of the relevant generic shape differences between categories.