Illusory contour figures are perceived as occluding contours by 4-month-old infants.

Bremner, J. Gavin; Slater, Alan; Johnson, Scott P.; Mason, Ursula; Spring, Joanne

doi:10.1037/a0024922

Cited by 15 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…However, this profile for the later development of global perceptual abilities is a matter of some debate. A number of researchers report that young infants show evidence of global processing by distinguishing global forms such as Gabor contours in noise, Navon letters, and illusory shapes (Bertenthal et al, 1980; Ghim & Eimas, 1988; Kavsek, 2002; Csibra, 2001; Gerhardstein et al, 2004; Otsuka et al, 2004; Bulf et al, 2009; Bremner et al, 2012). Indeed, Freeseman, Colombo, & Coldren (1993), studying 4-month-olds, concluded that global processing is evident before local processing.…”

Section: Local To Global Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on habituation and looking time methods, infants appear to perceive KIC figures, although researchers disagree as to the age at which this global perceptual ability is evident (range: 1 month to 8 months; Treiber & Wilcox, 1980; Bertenthal et al, 1980; Csibra, 2001; Otsuka et al, 2004; Bulf et al, 2009; Bremner et al, 2012). Some researchers have questioned whether the looking-time data actually indicate perception of the illusory shape or simply a novelty preference, a stimulus-related preference, or some other variable (Colombo et al, 1988; Freeseman et al, 1993; Kavsek & Yonas, 2006; Bulf et al, 2009; Sato et al, 2013), but other researchers argue that appropriate control conditions explicitly address potential confounding variables in static (Otsuka et al, 2008) and dynamic illusory displays (Curran et al, 1999; Kavsek & Yonas, 2006; Sato et al, 2013).…”

Section: Local To Global Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

Nayar

Franchak

Adolph

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Global visual processing is important for segmenting scenes, extracting form from background, and recognizing objects. Local processing involves attention to the local elements, contrast, and boundaries of an image at the expense of extracting a global percept. Previous work is inconclusive regarding the relative development of local and global processing. Some studies suggest that global perception is already present by 8 months of age, whereas others suggest that the ability arises in childhood and continues to develop in adolescence. We used a novel method to assess the development of global processing in 3-to 10-year-old children and an adult comparison group. We used Kanizsa illusory contours as an assay of global perception and measured responses on a touch screen while monitoring eye position with a head-mounted eye tracker. Participants were tested using a similarity match-to-sample paradigm. Using converging measures, we found a clear developmental progression with age such that the youngest children performed near chance on the illusory contour discrimination whereas 7-to 8-year-olds performed nearly perfectly, as did adults. There was clear evidence of a gradual shift from a local to a global processing strategy: Young children looked predominantly at and touched the pacman inducers of the illusory form, whereas older children and adults looked predominantly at and touched the middle of the form. These data show a prolonged developmental trajectory in appreciation of global form, with a transition from local to global visual processing between 4 and 7 years of age. KeywordsKanizsa illusory contours; perceptual development; global processing; eye tracking; global form perception Visual information about objects is often incomplete. Parts of objects can be occluded, missing, or blend seamlessly into the background, yet adults perceive the objects as complete global forms rather than a collection of disconnected local elements. In the laboratory, adults perceive holistic contours of shapes based on illusory edges that have no Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript physical luminance, color, or texture boundary. How does this global perceptual ability come about? Although some researchers have found evidence for perception of illusory figures in young infants (e.g., Bertenthal, Campos & Haith, 1980;Kavsek, 2002;Otsuka & Yamaguchi, 2003;Bulf et al., 2011), others have reported that global form perception and discrimination of illusory shapes do not reach maturity until late childhood (Abravanel, 1982;Kimchi et al., 2005;Sherf et al., 2009;Hadad, Maurer & Lewis, 2010). Here, we used a novel approach-accuracy on a match-to-sample task paired with several measures of spontaneous manual and visual behaviors-to investigate the development of illusory contour perception as an assay of global form perception in children from 3 to 10 years of age. Our objective methods and converging behavioral evidence show a clear, protracted developmental program for global visual process...

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Section: Local To Global Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Local To Global Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

Nayar

Franchak

Adolph

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…For example, Watanabe and Oyama (1988) found that Kanizsa illusory squares were perceived as stronger (e.g., greater contrast and clarity) when proximity between the four elements was high (see also Shipley and Kellman, 1992; Hadad et al, 2010b). Indeed, 4-month old infants perceive an illusory contour formed by a Kanizsa square as an occluding object only when proximity was high and the square formed a narrow occluder (Bremner et al, 2012). Thus, the greater dependence upon the proximity heuristic for illusory contours is may reflect limitations in the distance projected by the horizontal connections in the visual system.…”

Section: Path To Object Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of contour processing: evidence from physiology and psychophysics

et al. 2014

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Object perception and pattern vision depend fundamentally upon the extraction of contours from the visual environment. In adulthood, contour or edge-level processing is supported by the Gestalt heuristics of proximity, collinearity, and closure. Less is known, however, about the developmental trajectory of contour detection and contour integration. Within the physiology of the visual system, long-range horizontal connections in V1 and V2 are the likely candidates for implementing these heuristics. While post-mortem anatomical studies of human infants suggest that horizontal interconnections reach maturity by the second year of life, psychophysical research with infants and children suggests a considerably more protracted development. In the present review, data from infancy to adulthood will be discussed in order to track the development of contour detection and integration. The goal of this review is thus to integrate the development of contour detection and integration with research regarding the development of underlying neural circuitry. We conclude that the ontogeny of this system is best characterized as a developmentally extended period of associative acquisition whereby horizontal connectivity becomes functional over longer and longer distances, thus becoming able to effectively integrate over greater spans of visual space.

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“…The failure of grouping in the control condition suggests that infants could not bridge the contour gaps to construct illusory regions. In prior studies, infants as young as 3 months of age exhibited evidence of perceiving illusory contours (e.g., Bremner, Slater, Johnson, Mason, & Spring, 2012;Ghim, 1990;Hayden et al, 2008). However, other studies indicate that illusory contour formation is not evident until later in life (e.g., Csibra, 2001), and its development continues well into childhood (Palomares, Landau, & Egeth, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The contradictory evidence in infant studies indicates that illusory contours are perceived by young infants only if there is sufficient information to support contour formation. For instance, in Bremner et al (2012), while 4-month-olds perceived illusory occluding surfaces when both occluding edges and the occlusion of background texture elements were present at the same time, they failed to do so if only one of these cues was present. It appears that the level of information in the control conditions of the present study was similarly not enough for infants to perceive illusory part regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parts function as perceptual organizational entities in infancy

et al. 2013

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Both objects and parts function as organizational entities in adult perception. Prior research has indicated that objects affect organization early in life: Infants grouped elements located within object boundaries and segregated them from those located on different objects. Here, we examined whether parts also induce grouping in infancy. Five-and 6.5-month-olds were habituated to two-part objects containing element pairs. In a subsequent test, infants treated groupings of elements that crossed part boundaries as novel, in comparison with groupings that had shared a common part during habituation. In contrast, the same arrangement of elements failed to elicit evidence of grouping in control conditions in which the elements were not surrounded by closed part boundaries. Thus, infants grouped and segregated elements on the basis of part structure. Part-based processing is a key aspect of many theories of perception. The present research adds to this literature by indicating that parts function as organizational entities early in life.

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Illusory contour figures are perceived as occluding contours by 4-month-old infants.

Cited by 15 publications

References 33 publications

From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

From local to global processing: The development of illusory contour perception

The development of contour processing: evidence from physiology and psychophysics

Parts function as perceptual organizational entities in infancy

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