PERCEPTION OF SHAPE-AT-A-SLANT IN THE YOUNG INFANT

In a recent study using recovery from habituation to index discrimination, the authors were unable to replicate Bower’s shape-constancy findings. Since our habituation figures were steeply slanted, infants may have been unable to process their shape characteristics (real or proximal). To determine whether this was the case, two groups of 12-week-old infants were each habituated to one of the slanted figures used in the previous study and were then exposed to a new shape at the same slant. Significant recovery to the altered shape in both groups relative to a no-change control group indicated that the shape properties of the slanted objects had indeed been discriminated. © 1979, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.