CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS - CATEGORICAL POP-OUT IN INFANT VISUAL-ATTENTION

In order to assess whether infant attention would be directed towards a visual stimulus that was categorically at odds with surrounding stim uli, 16 infants (mean age = 39 weeks) were presented with 5 displays, each comprising a pair of categorically related items (2 birds) and a pair of unrelated items (bird and cat). The infants displayed earlier and longer fixation to the latter pair, with primary response to the d iscrepant item in this pair (the cat). Three preliminary experiments w ith 30 infants (mean age = 38 weeks) discounted a priori preferences f or the cat as an explanation of these results, and confirmed that infa nts were able to discern the categorical similarity amongst the bird i tems, while also being able to discriminate these items.