Infants' Developing Sensitivity to Object Function: Attention to Features and Feature Correlations

Abstract

When learning object function, infants must detect relations among featuresfor example, that squeezing is associated with squeaking or that objects with wheels roll. Previously, Perone and Oakes (2006) found 10-month-old infants were sensitive to relations between object appearances and actions, but not to relations between appearances and sounds or actions and sounds. In this article the authors probed the development of infants' attention to feature correlations critical for representing function by testing 8-and 12-month-old infants' (N ¼ 126) sensitivity to such relations. Eight-month-old infants learned individual features but were not sensitive to the relations between those features. Twelve-month-old infants were sensitive to the relation among the features and significantly responded to violations in learned relations between object appearances and actions and between appearances and sounds. Thus, across development, infants become sensitive to an increasing number of relations with age, supporting an information-processing account of the development of object function.Understanding the function of objects is important for learning how to act on and categorize objects. Function is considered central to infants' conceptual development (Keil, 1989;Nelson, 1973Nelson, , 1974Nelson, , 1979), yet there is no standard definition for function in the field of psychological research.Correspondence should be sent to Lisa M. Oakes

Learning how actions function: The role of outcomes in infants’ representation of events

“…Consistent with the hierarchical model, by 7 months infants represent actions, objects, and outcomes independently (Baumgartner & Oakes, in press; Perone et al, 2008). Consistent with the common coding hypothesis, between 10 and 15 months infants develop the ability to combine or integrate such features (Baumgartner & Oakes, in press; Elsner & Aschersleben, 2003; Perone & Oakes, 2006).…”

“…Consistent with the hierarchical model, by 7 months infants represent actions, objects, and outcomes independently (Baumgartner & Oakes, in press; Perone et al, 2008). Consistent with the common coding hypothesis, between 10 and 15 months infants develop the ability to combine or integrate such features (Baumgartner & Oakes, in press; Elsner & Aschersleben, 2003; Perone & Oakes, 2006). Together, these findings support the general developmental model that infants first represent individual features and later represent the connections between those features (Cohen, 1988; Poulin-Dubois & Rakison, 2002; Rakison, 2004; Younger & Cohen, 1986).…”

“…One, infants may simply integrate actions and objects first, and before 10 months infants may represent abstract relations between them. Baumgartner and Oakes (in press) observed that 8-month-old infants are insensitive to specific relations between actions and objects in these events, but it is possible that at this age they represent the abstraction that some objects are acted on and other objects are not.…”

“…By 10 months of age, infants learn specific action-object pairings (Perone & Oakes, 2006). Around the end of the first year, infants learn specific action-outcome and object-outcome pairings (Baumgartner & Oakes, in press; Elsner & Aschersleben, 2003). As described above, there may be many potential experiential contributions to these developmental changes.…”

“…Ten-month-old infants encode pairings between specific actions and objects (e.g., purple spheres are squeezed and yellow cubes are rolled), but not pairings between specific actions and outcomes (e.g., squeezing produces squeaking) or between specific objects and the outcomes that occur when those objects are acted on (e.g., purple spheres squeak) (Perone & Oakes, 2006). By 12 to 15 months, infants encode pairings between actions and outcomes (e.g., pulling a ring produces tones and pushing a ring makes an object light up, Elsner & Aschersleben, 2003) and between object appearance and outcomes (Baumgartner & Oakes, in press). …”