Discrimination Between Solid Forms in Early Infancy

Abstract This paper describes three experiments concerned with the ability of 3-month-old infants to discriminate between stationary solid forms. Experiment 1 confirmed, using a habituation/recovery technique, the finding of Cook, Field, and Griffiths (1978) that the infants do not distinguish between a cube and a truncated pyramid (and a range of other solid forms). Experiment 2 showed that infants can distinguish the square face of the cube from a trapezoidal face of the truncated pyramid when these shapes are presented in isolation. Experiment 3 showed that this discrimination is not made when the corresponding faces (square and trapezoid) of the solid cube and trapezoid are colored distinctively. These results are discussed in terms of limitations in the infants' capacity to resolve solid form.