Quinn P C Slater A M Brown E

Quinn, P. C. , Slater, A. M. , Brown. , E. , & Hayes, R. A. (2001). Developmental change in form categorization in early infancy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 19, 207– 218. Theory • • Infants have form categorization capacity 3 - to 4 -month-old infants extract better defined category representations than newborns Methods • • 8 -18 newborn and older (3 -4 mo. ) infants First established whether newborns could discriminate between instances from different form categories in Expt 1 Whether they could discriminate between instances from within a form category in Expt 2. Experiment 3 followed the examination of between and within-category discrimination in newborns Findings • Newborns displayed the ability to discriminate between exemplars across geometric categories (e. g. circle vs. square, Expt 1), within same form classes (e. g. one circle vs. another, Expt 2). • In Expt 3, older infants provided evidence of having formed individuated categorical representations for circles, crosses, squares and triangles, whereas newborn infants did not. • However, newborn performance was consistent with the formation of broader categorical representations for open versus closed classes of form (i. e. crosses vs. circles, squares and triangles). Illustration Strengths • Comprehensive methodology; Developmental contrast between newborn and older infants • Discrimination between perceptual discrimination and categorization Weaknesses • Categorical representation influenced by exemplars presented earlier • Categories are not distinct enough in determining whether newborns have formed categorical representations of familiar forms