Perceptual Organization Based on Common Region in Infancy

We examined whether infants organize information according to the newly proposed principle of common region, which states that elements within a region are grouped together and separated from those of other regions. In Experiment 1, 6- to 7-month-olds exhibited sensitivity to regions by discriminating between the displacement of an element within a region versus across regions. In Experiments 2 (6- to 7-month-olds) and 3 (3- to 4-month-olds), infants who were habituated to 2 elements in each of 2 regions subsequently discriminated between a familiar and novel grouping in familiar and novel regions. Thus, infants as young as 3 to 4 months of age are not only sensitive to regions in visual images, but also use these regions to group elements in accord with the principle of common region. Because common region analysis is critical to such basic visual functions as figure-ground and object segregation, these results suggest that the organizational mechanism that underlies many vital visual functions is already operational by 3 to 4 months of age.