Infant Perception and Cognition

This chapter examines methods, theories, and research on infant perception and cognition. The focus is on developmental changes during the first two years of life, and no sharp distinction is made between perceptual development and cognitive development. The chapter emphasizes a set of information-processing propositions, according to which early perceptual and cognitive development is a constructive, nonlinear process involving successive levels of information integration over age. Several popular techniques for assessing infant perception and cognition are described, including visual preferences, habituation, and conditioning. Similarities and differences among these techniques are mentioned along with a number of misconceptions regarding them. Several theoretical approaches are outlined, including Piagetian theory, dynamical systems, connectionist modeling, and cognitive neuroscience. Specific research topics covered in the chapter include infant perception of color, form, size, and shape and the development of perceptual constancies. Next discussed are topics related to infants' perception of entire objects, including object permanence, object unity, object identification, and the special case of infant face perception. How infants group multiple objects into categories is covered next. The final section describes research on individual differences and the degree to which one can predict childhood performance from scores on infant tests. Keywords: categorization; cognition; infancy; information processing; perception; vision research