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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/72116
Description
Title
Object Segregation in Infancy
Author(s)
Needham, Amy E.
Issue Date
1992
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Baillargeon, R.,
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Developmental
Abstract
Six experiments were conducted in order to investigate the development of object segregation in infancy. Infants aged 4 and 8 months were presented with display involving partly occluded and adjacent objects, and the experiments examined which sources of information infants could use to parse the displays. The results indicated that at four months of age, infants are able to make use of at least four sources of knowledge when locating object boundaries: knowledge about the spatial relations between objects, knowledge about the appearance of objects' surfaces, general knowledge about objects, and knowledge gained through previous experiences with objects. Further results indicated that when information about the spatial relations between the surfaces and the appearance of the surfaces yielded conflicting interpretations as to whether the surfaces belonged to the same unit or to different units, 4-month-old infants had an indeterminate percept of the surfaces. In contrast, 8-month-old infants had an unambiguous perception of the scene, driven by the appearance of the surfaces. Final results indicated that, just as 8-month-old infants appear to rank information about appearance above information about the spatial relations between the surfaces, they also seem to attach more importance to adjacent objects' physical properties than to their appearance.
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