Part—whole perception in early infancy: Evidence for perceptual grouping produced by lightness similarity

Four experiments using the familiarization-novelty preference procedure were conducted to determine whether 3-month-old infants can organize visual pattern information in a manner predicted by the Gestalt principle of lightness similarity. The combined results of Experiments 1 through 3 suggest that infants were able to group individual elements into larger perceptual units on the basis of lightness similarity. The combined results of Experiments 2 and 4 suggest that constituent elements actually retain an independent psychological existence within organized wholes and may be processed more efficiently than the elements of disorganized wholes. The implications of all of these results for models of part—whole perception are discussed.

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