Mechanisms of Visual Object Recognition in Infancy: Five‐Month‐Olds Generalize Beyond the Interpolation of Familiar Views

Abstract

This work examined predictions of the interpolation of familiar views (IFV) account of object recognition performance in 5-month-olds. Infants were familiarized to an object either from a single viewpoint or from multiple viewpoints varying in rotation around a single axis. Object recognition was then tested in both conditions with the same object rotated around a novel axis. Infants in the multiple-views condition recognized the object, whereas infants in the single-view condition provided no evidence for recognition. Under the same 2 familiarization conditions, infants in a 2nd experiment treated as novel an object that differed in only 1 component from the familiar object. Infants' object recognition is enhanced by experience with multiple views, even when that experience is around an orthogonal axis of rotation, and infants are sensitive to even subtle shape differences between components of similar objects. In general, infants' performance does not accord with the predictions of the IFV model of object recognition. These findings motivate the extension of future research and theory beyond the limits of strictly interpolative mechanisms.