With or without a Hole: Young Infants' Sensitivity for Topological versus Geometric Property

Abstract

Evidence from adult psychophysics, brain imaging, and honeybee's behaviour has been reported to support the notion that topological properties are the primitives of visual representation (Chen, 1982 Science 218 699-700). Here, we ask how the sensitivity to topological property might originate during development. Specifically, we tested 1.5- to 6-month-old infants' visual sensitivity for topological versus geometric properties with the forced-choice novelty preference technique. A disk and a ring were used in the topologically different condition (experiment 1), while a disk and a triangle were used in the geometrically different condition (experiment 2). Spontaneous preferences for the disk, the ring, and the triangle were measured pairwise using the preferential looking-time technique (experiment 3). The results showed that infants could reliably discriminate stimuli based on topological differences, but failed to do so with geometric differences. Moreover, in the generalisation task, infants showed higher novelty preference for the topologically different figure (the ring). In addition, the results of both experiments cannot be attributed to a spontaneous preference for the ring or for the disk. Further analysis on individual infants' age and performance revealed two distinct developmental trends. Infants seem to be sensitive to topological differences as young as 1.5 months, while their ability to discriminate geometric differences was at chance before 3 months and gradually improved with age. Taken together, our findings suggested an early sensitivity for topological property, at least for the detection of stimuli with or without a hole.

Subcortical magnocellular visual system facilities object recognition by processing topological property

“…A topological theory, which holds that the extraction of TP serves as the starting point of object perception, has been proposed to address the fundamental question of what are the primitives of visual perception (Chen, 2005, 1982). This theory has been supported by sufficient evidence across species from insects, rodents to humans, demonstrating that visual system is more sensitive to detect TP differences in images than other non-TP shape differences, and TP is processed automatically and with higher priority (Chen, 1982; Chen et al, 2003; Chien et al, 2012; Han et al, 1999; Huang et al, 2019, 2018, 2011; Todd et al, 1998). Previous evidence from human brain imaging, i.e., functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), however, shows that the inferior temporal cortex (IT) was involved in TP processing (Wang et al, 2007; Zhou et al, 2010; Zhuo et al, 2003).…”

The ring that does not bind: Topological class in infants’ working memory for objects

“…Indeed, infants' sensitivity to topology appears to precede their sensitivity to geometric properties such as shape. In a recent study, Chien et al (2012) found that infants at 1.5 months could discriminate objects by topology, but it was not until 3.5 months that they could discriminate objects by shape. Similar results on the primacy of topological class over shape information have been found in adults (L. Chen, 1982) and even in bees (L. Chen, Zhang, & Srinivasan, 2003).…”

“…We reasoned that the topological distinction between these objects would be readily detectable by infants, since much younger infants have been shown to discriminate disks and rings in twodimensional displays (e.g. Chien, et al 2012) and to use topological class to reason about how three-dimensional objects should interact (e.g. Hespos & Baillargeon, 2001a;Wang, et al, 2005).…”

“…Topology is processed earlier in the brain (L. Chen, 1982), recognized earlier in development (e.g. Chien et al, 2012), and is more behaviorally relevant (e.g. Hespos & Baillargeon, 2001a) than surface-featural properties such as shape.…”

A Neural Network Model With Gap Junction for Topological Detection

“…Later, in other tasks, including multiple-object tracking (Zhou et al, 2010 ) and long-range apparent motion perception (Zhuo et al, 2003 ), Chen et al further confirmed that the human visual perception is indeed sensitive to the connectivity or the hole of stimuli. The studies on infants also support the precedence of topological perception (Piaget and Inhelder, 1956 ; Darke, 1982 ; Chien et al, 2012 ; Kibbe and Leslie, 2016 ). It was found that newborns, even as young as few days old, display the preference of using the topological information to discriminate objects (Turati et al, 2003 ).…”