Development of the perception of object containment in 9‐ to 16‐month‐olds

Abstract

In the present study, 9-, 12-and 16-month-old infants were familiarized to a block that was repeatedly lowered into a container and lifted from that container again. In the subsequent test phase, the block passed through the container opening either without making contact with the container rim or colliding with the rim in three places but 'magically' passing through. In Experiment 1 an opaque black screen was positioned just below the blocks' starting position. In Experiment 2 the screen was put at the height of the container rim and thus occluded the critical arrival phase of the trajectory. Results showed that looking times depended on what infants perceived as happening at the height of the rim and not on what they could have perceived before the block reached the opening, such as the absolute size of the objects. In contrast, older infants looked longer at an obstructed passage of the block into the container, irrespective of the position of the screen.An important task for the visual system of the developing infant is to disentangle the existence and continuity of solid objects from the myriad of changes in luminance and colour that fill the optic array. A related task concerns the discovery and differentiation of the many spatial and temporal relations that objects are embedded in. Objects do not fill surroundings in isolation but are always inside, in front of, behind or on top of other objects and surfaces. Moreover, as entities of surfaces move as a whole without losing integrity, they may change relations with and affect the state of other objects. In such cases, spatiotemporal relations become functional. Discovery of these functional relations is an important achievement for the infant. It enables the child to anticipate the outcome of events and goal directed actions (Hauf, Elsner, & Aschersleben, 2004). In combination with developing manipulative skills, it also enables infants to learn to control daily events and actions. Control arises when the child begins to take advantage of the many functional relations in which objects can be embedded.

The significance of event information for 6- to 16-month-old infants' perception of containment.

“…For instance, toy boxes with differently shaped openings to push through differently shaped objects show a similar display (e.g., cross-shaped objects that fit in cross-shaped openings). Second, and more importantly, this conclusion does not agree with the results of Dejonckheere et al (2006) when a screen obstructed infants' vision of the block inside the rim in the container as in this study. Then, 16-month-old infants could still differentiate the different outcomes.…”

“…The results are in line with those of Dejonckheere et al (2006). The researchers showed infants a block that was lowered into a container but occluded the area where the block entered the container opening.…”

“…The above studies clearly show that at the age of 6 months, infants pay attention to the topology that specifies containment and can discern whether the way the event unfolds is consistent with containment. To further test the significance of the topological information for infants' perception of containment, Dejonckheere et al (2006) covered the passing-through episode of the event with a 9-cm-high screen in front of the container starting at the level of the rim. When the experimenters showed the descent of the object into a too narrow container and occluded the passing-through episode from sight, only 16-month-old infants, and not younger infants, showed longer looking times.…”

“…Developmentalists now widely agree that infants are able to perceive objects and functional relations between objects as outcomes of events they observe, such as support, collision, occlusion, causality, and containment (Aguiar & Baillargeon, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003; Baillargeon, 1991; Baillargeon & Wang, 2002; Belanger & Desrochers, 2001; Cohen & Amsel, 1998; Casasola, Cohen, & Chiarello, 2003; Cohen, Rundell, Spellman, & Cashon, 1999; Dejonckheere, Smitsman, & Verhofstadt-Denève, 2005, 2006; Hespos & Baillargeon, 2001a, 2001b; Kotovsky & Baillargeon, 1998; Oakes, 1994; Sitskoorn & Smitsman, 1995, 1997; Spelke, Breinlinger, Macomber, & Jacobson, 1992; Wang, Kaufman, & Baillargeon, 2003). However, researchers do not have a clear understanding of mechanisms that enable infants to discriminate different end states, extract properties to anticipate end states for objects, and perceive the information to which these mechanisms get attuned.…”

“…Gathering information from events plays an important role in current views on infants' developing insight about objects and object functions (Baillargeon, 2004; Dejonckheere et al, 2006). The functions objects may have are as much properties of physical events as they are of the objects that make those events happen (Smitsman & Bongers, 2003; Smitsman, Cox, & Bongers 2005).…”