PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION OF COMPLEX VISUAL CONFIGURATIONS BY YOUNG INFANTS

Two experiments using the familiarization-novelty preference procedure were performed to determine if 3- and 4-month-old infants can organiz e visual patterns consisting of two intersecting forms. The results of both experiments indicate that infants can parse complex configuratio ns of contour information into coherent forms in a manner predicted by the Gestalt principles of good continuation and perhaps closure. The data also suggest the possibility that spontaneous preferences for cer tain stimulus features (e.g., curvature) may play a facilitative role in the parsing of forms containing those features. The findings are di scussed in terms of a developmental account of form perception in whic h the visual system of the young infant is hypothesized to be biologic ally constrained to follow certain basic Gestalt organizational princi ples that become more powerful with maturation and/or experience.