Infants Perceive Three-Dimensional Illusory Contours as Occluding Surfaces

• Published in: Child development Vol. 86; no. 6; pp. 1865 - 1876
• Main Authors: Kavšek, Michael, Marks, Elmira
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2015; Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development
• Subjects: Babies; Child development; Child Development - physiology; Child psychology; Contours; Cues; Depth perception; Depth Perception - physiology; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; Female; Form Perception - physiology; Humans; Illusions - physiology; Infant; Infants; Male; Sensory perception
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12419

The study assessed the contribution of stereoscopic depth cues to infants' perception of a Kanizsa rectangle as a surface that temporarily occludes a moving object. In Experiment 1, the Kanizsa figure was shifted into the foreground by enriching it with stereoscopic depth information. According to the results, perception of a three-dimensional Kanizsa figure as an occluding surface emerges between 5 (n = 16) and 7 (n = 16) months of age. Experiment 2 demonstrated that 7-month-old (n = 16) infants performed similarly to the 7-month-olds who participated in Experiment 1 if the moving object was shifted into the background. These findings suggest that 7-month-old infants respond to stereoscopic depth cues and that they exploit it to perceive subjective contours as occluders.