Perceptual Shape Constancy in Early Infancy

Abstract

Infants 6 to 16 weeks old exhibited shape constancy for plain solid objects. Habituation of visual fixation occurred with respect to repeated viewing of a cube in the same orientation and of a cube in different orientations, but not when viewing photographs of a cube in different orientations. Since the photographs reproduced the outline shape and the luminance patterns of the solid object, it is suggested that motion parallax mediates the shape constancy. Infants responded to the photographs as if the latter were patterns rather than as if they were representations of solid objects.