GESTALT RELATIONS AND OBJECT PERCEPTION - A DEVELOPMENTAL-STUDY

We investigated whether adults and infants aged 3, 5, and 9 months per ceive the unity and boundaries of visible objects in accord with the G estalt relations of color and texture similarity, good continuation, o r good form. Adults and infants were presented with simple but unfamil iar displays in which all three Gestalt relations specified either one object or two objects-perception of the objects was assessed by a ver bal rating method in the adults and by a preferential looking method i n the infants. The Gestalt relations appeared to influence the adults' perceptions strongly. However, the relations appeared to have no effe ct on the perceptions of 3-month-old infants and weak effects on the p erceptions of 5-month-old and 9-month-old infants. The findings suppor t the suggestion that developmental changes in object perception occur slowly. These changes, and the organizational phenomena to which Gest alt psychology called attention, may depend in part on the child's dev eloping ability to recognize objects of particular kinds.