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Updated: May 14, 2026
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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
Published on: April 19, 2017
Parts function as perceptual organizational entities in infancy
Ashley Kangas1, Nicole Zieber, Angela Hayden
1Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|January 30, 2013
Summary
Infants perceive and organize visual elements based on object parts, similar to adults. This study shows that even young babies group elements within a part, demonstrating early part-based visual processing.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Adults organize visual information based on objects and their parts.
- Previous research shows infants group elements within object boundaries.
- It was unclear if infants also use part structure for organization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether infants use part structure to group visual elements.
- To determine if part-based processing emerges early in infancy.
Main Methods:
- Habituation paradigm with 5- and 6.5-month-old infants.
- Infants were habituated to two-part objects with element pairs.
- Tested novelty preference for element groupings crossing or sharing part boundaries.
Main Results:
- Infants treated element groupings that crossed part boundaries as novel.
- Groupings sharing a common part were not treated as novel.
- Control conditions without closed part boundaries showed no grouping evidence.
Conclusions:
- Infants demonstrate grouping and segregation of elements based on part structure.
- Part-based processing is an early developing aspect of visual perception.
- This research indicates parts function as organizational entities from early infancy.
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