Origins of Object Concepts

对象概念的起源

• 批准号: 0418103
• 负责人: Scott Johnson
• 金额: $ 34.01万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-07-01 至 2006-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0418103&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Origins; Object; Concepts

When we look around the world, we see objects that are separate from one another, each of which is defined by a unique size, shape, surface pattern, and distance. Our ability to perceive coherent objects overcomes incomplete input to the visual system, which is actually fragmented across space and time. That is, most objects we see are partly occluded by other, nearer objects, and may go in and out of sight as they move or as we move. Commonsense notions of "object permanence," the knowledge that objects persist when away from direct perceptual contact, are central to this experience. Origins of object concepts in children have long been a source of interest among philosophers and researchers. Most notably, the pioneering studies of the eminent child psychologist Piaget provided evidence that object concepts develop only after months of experience handling and reaching for objects. More recently, some researchers have challenged Piaget's account on the grounds that it relies too much on reaching as an index of object concepts. Reaching may be difficult for infants, and may underestimate "true" object knowledge. Infants' object concepts, instead, have been proposed to be rooted in innate knowledge structures, such as "object continuity," the understanding that an object, seen to have become occluded, maintains its existence and location or trajectory when out of sight. Such concepts are claimed to be revealed when looking time methods are employed, and an event is presented to an infant that violates some expectation of object permanence (this attracts longer looking than would be expected normally). Such accounts, however, have themselves come under fire for failing to furnish viable explanations of developmental mechanism: Even if some ability is innate, it must have developed somehow. In addition, these "violation of expectation" methods have been criticized as leading to ambiguity in interpretation. In general, then, there is much disagreement about the origins of fundamental kinds of object knowledge in infants. The present proposal investigates this question by testing the role of specific visual cues in young infants' perceptions of object motions, as well as recording eye movements and reaching patterns in response to occlusion displays. The results are expected to yield important information on infants' perceptual and cognitive development, by providing converging evidence from multiple methods including assessments of object continuity, intermodal (visual-auditory) object perception, object "identity" (the ability to distinguish objects on the basis of appearance, location, and movement), and depth perception. It is anticipated that these findings will provide evidence and accounts that elucidate fundamental mechanisms of development, and it is hoped that such work will help guide theorizing on vital questions of the emergence of object concepts in infancy.

当我们环顾世界时，我们会看到对象彼此分开的对象，每个对象都由独特的大小，形状，表面图案和距离定义。 我们感知一致对象的能力克服了对视觉系统的输入不完整的能力，而视觉系统实际上在空间和时间上散布了。 也就是说，我们看到的大多数对象部分被其他，靠近的物体遮住，并且随着我们移动或移动时，可能会进出。 “对象持久性”的常识性概念，即远离直接感知接触时对象持续存在的知识对于这一经验至关重要。 长期以来，儿童对象概念的起源一直是哲学家和研究人员的兴趣来源。 最值得注意的是，对著名儿童心理学家伯爵的开创性研究提供了证据，表明只有经过数月的经验处理和触及对象的经验，对象概念才会发展。 最近，一些研究人员挑战了Piaget的说法，理由是它过于依赖于作为对象概念的指数。对于婴儿来说可能很困难，并且可能低估了“真实”的对象知识。 相反，婴儿的对象概念已被提议植根于天生的知识结构，例如“对象连续性”，即被视为被遮挡的对象的理解，在看不见时保持其存在，位置或轨迹。 据称，当使用时光方法方法时会揭示此类概念，并将事件提交给一个违反对象永久性期望的婴儿（这吸引了比正常预期的更长的外观）。 但是，这些说法本身因未能提供可行的发展机制解释而受到抨击：即使某种能力是先天的，它也一定已经发展出来。 此外，这些“违反期望”方法被批评为导致解释的歧义。 一般而言，关于婴儿中基本知识的基本知识的起源存在很多分歧。 本提案通过测试特定视觉提示在年轻婴儿对对象运动的看法以及记录眼动和达到遮挡显示器的模式来研究这个问题。 预计该结果将通过从多种方法中提供融合的证据，包括评估对象连续性，模式（视觉原理）对象感知，对象“身份”（以外观，位置和运动的基础来区分对象的能力）和深度感知。 可以预料，这些发现将提供阐明发展基本机制的证据和叙述，并希望这样的工作将有助于指导对婴儿期对象概念出现的重要问题的理论。