Making Sense of Infant Categorization: Stable Processes and Changing Representations

Madole, Kelly L.; Oakes, Lisa M.

doi:10.1006/drev.1998.0481

Cited by 169 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…A final point is that the role that early perceptually based categorical representations play in support of higher level concepts remains controversial (Madole & Oakes, 1999;Mandler & McDonough, 1998;Quinn & Eimas, 1997;Xu & Carey, 1996). Clearly, children and adults come to know animals as distinct "kinds" through information that is not available to young infants (e.g., that dogs make good pets, possess dog DNA, and give birth to puppies).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this article, the term categorical representation is used to describe this internal representation. When and how categorical representations are initially formed, elaborated, integrated with other knowl-edge structures (i.e., concepts), and related to language have been critically important issues for contemporary experimentalists and theorists (e.g., Gelman, 1996;Goldstone & Barsalou, 1998;Jones & Smith, 1993;Madole & Oakes, 1999;Malt, 1995;Mandler & McDonough, 1998;Millikan, 1998;Quinn & Eimas, 1997;Rakison & Butterworth, 1998;Schyns, Goldstone, & Thibaut, 1998;Thelen & Smith, 1994;Waxman & Markow, 1995;Xu & Carey, 1996). Here we continue an inquiry into the nature of the perceptual information that infants use to form categorical representations for individual animal species Eimas, Quinn, & Cowan, 1994;Quinn & Eimas, 1996a;Quinn, Eimas, & Rosenkrantz, 1993;Spencer, Quinn, Johnson, & KarmiloffSmith, 1997).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Perceptual Categorization of Cat and Dog Silhouettes by 3- to 4-Month-Old Infants

Quinn

Eimas

Tarr

2001

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Given evidence that silhouette information can be used by adults to form categorical representations at the basic level, four experiments utilizing the familiarization-novelty preference procedure were performed to examine whether 3-and 4-month-old infants could form categorical representations for cats versus dogs from the perceptual information available in silhouettes (e.g., global shape and external outline). Experiments 1 and 2 showed that infants could form individuated categorical representations for cat and dog silhouettes, whereas Experiments 3 and 4 revealed that infants could use silhouette information from the head, but not the body, to categorically separate the two species. These results indicate that general shape or external contour information that is centered about the head is sufficient for young infants to form individuated categorical representations for cats and dogs. The data thus provide information regarding the nature of the perceptual information that can be used by infants to form category representations for individual animal species and are discussed in terms of domain-general versus domain-specific processing accounts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual Categorization of Cat and Dog Silhouettes by 3- to 4-Month-Old Infants

Quinn

Eimas

Tarr

2001

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…Much recent research on the origins of visual cognition and its early development has been concerned with the manner in which young infants form perceptual category representations for classes of stimuli (Madole & Oakes, 1999;Quinn & Eimas, 1997). For example, 3-and 4-month-old infants have been shown to form category representations for vertically versus diagonally oriented stimuli (Bomba, 1984;Bornstein, 1982;Quinn & Bomba, 1986), hues (Bornstein, 1985), classes ofgeometric shapes (Bomba & Siqueland, 1983;Quinn, 1987;Younger & Gotlieb, 1988), realistic, pictorial exemplars of various animal kinds at both global and basic levels (Behl-Chadha, 1996;Eimas & Quinn, 1994;Quinn, Eimas, & Rosenkrantz, 1993), and spatial relations, such as above, below, and between (Quinn, 1994;Quinn, Cummins, Kase, Martin, & Weissman, 1996;Quinn, Norris, Pasko, Schmader, & Mash, 1999).…”

Section: Perceptual Reference Points For Form and Orientation In Younmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual reference points for form and orientation in young infants: Anchors or magnets?

Quinn

2000

Perception & Psychophysics

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In some domains, certain stimuli are especially salient and efficiently encoded and are referred to as reference points. One current issue concerns whether reference points are associated with regions of increased or decreased discriminability and function as either perceptual anchors or magnets. In two experiments utilizing the familiarization/novelty-preference procedure, the question of whether 3-to 4-month-old infants' representations of form and orientation information are structured by perceptual reference points and whether such reference points serve as anchors or magnets is examined. In Experiment 1, infants displayed above-chance discrimination performance for pairs of form stimuli that were equivalently distinct on a physical basis, but only when one member of each pair was a "good" form (Le., diamond, square, or triangle). In Experiment 2, infants displayed above-chance discrimination performance for pairs of stimuli differing by 7.5" of orientation, but only when one member of each pair was either horizontal or vertical. The combined results from the two experiments suggest that "simple" gestalts and main axes (Le., horizontal and vertical) serve as perceptual anchors in young infants' representations of form and orientation information.

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“…However, an agent, not only perceiving the situation but also acting in it, has to be able to map its intracontextual symbols onto motoric patterns. We are aware of the controversial debate about whether agents use symbols (Madole and Oakes 1999;Keijzer 2002). From our perspective the notion of intracontext comprises both perceptual and conceptual processes in agents, irrespective of whether symbols play a role in these processes or not.…”

Section: Symbol Groundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Situatedness: The Interplay between Context(s) and Situation

Rohlfing¹,

Rehm²,

Goecke³

2003

J Cogn Cult

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In order to interpret the behaviour of cognitive systems, the integration into their specific cultural environment must be considered. The phenomenon of situatedness is a crucial determinant of this behaviour. We derive the notion of situatedness from the interplay between agent, situation, and context (divided into inter- and intracontext). The main objective of this paper is to connect a theoretical analysis of situatedness with its implications for empirical research. In particular, we consider processes of situated learning in natural and artificial systems.

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Making Sense of Infant Categorization: Stable Processes and Changing Representations

Cited by 169 publications

References 55 publications

Perceptual Categorization of Cat and Dog Silhouettes by 3- to 4-Month-Old Infants

Perceptual Categorization of Cat and Dog Silhouettes by 3- to 4-Month-Old Infants

Perceptual reference points for form and orientation in young infants: Anchors or magnets?

Situatedness: The Interplay between Context(s) and Situation

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