Wilcox Teresa, Chapa Catherine
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, 4235 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Cognition. 2004 Jan;90(3):265-302. doi: 10.1016/s0010-0277(03)00147-1.
Wilcox (Cognition 72 (1999) 125) reported that infants are more sensitive to form than surface features when individuating objects in occlusion events: it is not until 7.5 months that infants spontaneously use pattern information, and 11.5 months that they spontaneously use color information, as the basis for object individuation. The present research assessed the extent to which infants' sensitivity to surface features could be increased under more supportive conditions. More specifically, we examined whether younger infants could be primed to draw on color and pattern features in an individuation task if they were first shown the functional value of attending to color and pattern information (i.e. the color or the pattern of an object predicted the function it would engage in). Five experiments were conducted with infants 4.5 to 9.5 months of age. The main findings were that 9.5- and 7.5-month-olds could be primed to use color information, and 5.5- and 4.5-month-olds could be primed to attend to pattern information, after viewing the function events. The results are discussed in terms of the kinds of experiences that can lead to increased sensitivity to surface features and the mechanisms that support feature priming in young infants.
威尔科克斯（《认知》第72卷（1999年）第125页）报告称，在遮挡事件中对物体进行个体化时，婴儿对形状比对表面特征更敏感：直到7.5个月大时婴儿才会自发地使用图案信息，而到11.5个月大时他们才会自发地使用颜色信息作为物体个体化的依据。本研究评估了在更有利的条件下婴儿对表面特征的敏感度能提高到何种程度。更具体地说，我们研究了如果首先向较小的婴儿展示关注颜色和图案信息的功能价值（即物体的颜色或图案预示着它将参与的功能），他们是否能在个体化任务中被引导利用颜色和图案特征。对4.5至9.5个月大的婴儿进行了五项实验。主要发现是，在观看功能事件后，9.5个月和7.5个月大的婴儿能够被引导使用颜色信息，5.5个月和4.5个月大的婴儿能够被引导关注图案信息。将根据能够提高对表面特征敏感度的经验类型以及支持幼儿特征引导的机制来讨论这些结果。
