Number Versus Contour Length in Infants' Discrimination of Small Visual Sets

This study examined infants' use of contour length in number discrimination tasks. We systematically varied number and contour length in a visual habituation experiment in order to separate these two variables. Sixteen 6- to 8-month-old infants were habituated to displays of either two or three black squares on a page. They were then tested with alternating displays of either a familiar number of squares with a novel contour length or a novel number of squares with a familiar contour length. Infants dishabituated to the display that changed in contour length, but not to the display that changed in number. We conclude that infants base their discriminations on contour length or some other continuous variable that correlates with it, rather than on number.

[1]  J. Kagan,et al.  Attention in the infant: effects of complexity, contour, perimeter, and familiarity. , 1967, Child development.

[2]  B. Karmel,et al.  The effect of age, complexity, and amount of contour on pattern preferences in human infants. , 1969, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[3]  John N. Crossley.  The emergence of number , 1980 .

[4]  P. Starkey,et al.  Perception of numbers by human infants. , 1980, Science.

[5]  M. Strauss,et al.  Infant perception of numerosity. , 1981, Child development.

[6]  S E Antell,et al.  Perception of numerical invariance in neonates. , 1983, Child development.

[7]  M. Haith,et al.  Infant visual responses to pattern: which metric predicts best? , 1984, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[8]  E. Spelke,et al.  Numerical abstraction by human infants , 1990, Cognition.

[9]  Karen Wynn,et al.  Addition and subtraction by human infants , 1992, Nature.

[10]  Prentice Starkey,et al.  The early development of numerical reasoning , 1992, Cognition.

[11]  R. Gelman,et al.  Mapping the mind: First principles can support both universal and culture-specific learning about number and music , 1994 .

[12]  Karen Wynn,et al.  Origins of Numerical Knowledge. , 1995 .

[13]  Karen Wynn,et al.  Infants' Individuation and Enumeration of Actions , 1996 .

[14]  Kelly S. Mix,et al.  Numerical abstraction in infants: another look. , 1997, Developmental psychology.

[15]  K. Wynn.  Competence models of numerical development , 1997 .

[16]  Numerical knowledge in infancy: The number/mass distinction , 1998 .