Dynamic mental representation in infancy
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 31, 2026

A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras
Published on: October 5, 2018
1Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. shespos@s.psych.uiuc.edu
Abstract:
Recent research indicates that 4- to 8-month-old infants can track and anticipate the final orientation of an object following different invisible spatial transformations (Rochat, P., Hespos, S.J. (1996). Cognitive Development, 11, 3-17). Six experiments were designed to specify further the nature and development of early expectation for a set of dynamic events. A violation of expectation method was used to assess infants' reactions to probable and improbable outcomes of an objects' orientation following an invisible transformation. The availability of orientation cues, the path of motion, and the amount of invisible spatial transformation was systematically varied. The studies indicate that infants as young as 4 months of age detect orientation-specific cues for objects undergoing invisible spatial transformations. Developmental differences in this ability between 4 and 6 months of age lend insight to the nature and limitations of this early representational ability. These findings provide evidence for dynamic mental representation in infancy.
More Related Videos
06:35Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
Published on: April 28, 2016
11:14A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
Published on: October 4, 2015
Related Concept Videos
Symbolic Understanding II: Displaced Reference
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development
Exploration...
Sensorimotor Stage II: Substages 4 to 6
Cognitive Neuroscience Approach
Preoperational Thought III: Identities and Categorization
Gestures During Infancy and Toddlerhood