Improvements in Object Exploration Skills May Facilitate the Development of Object Segregation in Early Infancy

Three experiments investigated (a) the development of infants' use of features to find a boundary between 2 adjacent objects and (b) the possible connection between this ability and the development of object exploration skills. In Experiments 1 and 2, it was shown that 3 1/2-month-old infants are beginning to use object features to determine the composition of a display, interpreting a display composed of different-looking parts as 2 separate objects and a display of similar-looking parts as a single object. In Experiment 3, exploration and segregation abilities were assessed in the same infants. The results of this study were that the more actively exploring infants perceived the display used in Experiment 1 as 2 separate objects, whereas the less actively exploring infants did not. One hypothesis consistent with these findings is that infants may learn how object features can be used to find object boundaries as a result of new observations made possible by their more active exploration skills.