Pictorial cues and three-dimensional information processing in early infancy

Adults derive 3-D information from 2-D images by initially processing local line junction cues and then combining information from many junctions. Pri or research indicates that 3-month-olds are sensitive to 3-D cues in indivi dual line junctions. In Experiment 1, we examined whether infants are sensi tive to holistic combinations of line junctions that adults use to derive o verall 3-D structure. Infants detected a misoriented shape in an array depi cting 3-D blocks but not in 2-D patterns that contained all of the trilinea r junctions of the 3-D shapes but without the connecting lines. Thus, like adults, infants exhibited sensitivity to holistic combinations of line junc tions rather than to individual junctions. In Experiment 2, when confronted with two test patterns, one containing an individual novel element among 1 5 familiar elements and the other containing a single familiar element amon g 15 novel elements, infants preferred to look at the former pattern in the 3-D condition but at the latter pattern in the 2-D condition. Thus, akin t o pop-out in adults, discrepancies in 3-D cues selectively engaged infants' attention. These results suggest that 3-month-olds are not only sensitive to holistic combinations of line junctions that adults use to derive 3-D in formation but also selectively attend to these 3-D cues in static images. ( C) 2001 Academic Press.