Infant recognition of the invariant form of objects.

The developing ability to abstract and recognize the invariant form of an object was studied in 6- to 9-month-old infants. It was found that 9-month-olds were capable of recognizing the invariant form of objects. They demonstrated this ability by differentiating a variation of a familiarized object from a configurationally novel object after a period of familiarization involving other variations of the familiar object. The forms of some objects were more difficult to recognize than others, but recognition of the more difficult forms was enhanced by allowing simultaneous comparison of variations during familiarization. 6-month-olds, on the other hand, did not demonstrate recognition of the invariant form of the experimental objects.