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，我们会看到彼此分离的物体，每个物体都有独特的尺寸、形状、表面图案和距离。 我们感知连贯物体的能力克服了视觉系统的不完整输入，视觉系统实际上在空间和时间上是碎片化的。 也就是说，我们看到的大多数物体都被其他更近的物体部分遮挡，并且随着它们移动或我们移动，可能会进入和离开视线。 “物体持久性”的常识概念，即物体在远离直接感知接触时仍然存在的知识，是这种体验的核心。 儿童物体概念的起源长期以来一直是哲学家和研究人员感兴趣的来源。 最值得注意的是，著名儿童心理学家皮亚杰的开创性研究提供了证据，表明物体概念只有在数月的处理和接触物体的经验之后才会发展。 最近，一些研究人员对皮亚杰的解释提出了质疑，理由是它过于依赖“到达”作为对象概念的索引。对于婴儿来说，伸手可能会很困难，并且可能会低估“真实”的物体知识。 相反，婴儿的物体概念被认为植根于先天的知识结构，例如“物体连续性”，即认为被遮挡的物体在看不见时仍保持其存在、位置或轨迹。 据称，当采用观看时间方法时，这些概念就会被揭示出来，并且向婴儿呈现一个违反物体持久性预期的事件（这会吸引比正常预期更长的观看时间）。 然而，此类说法本身就因未能对发展机制提供可行的解释而受到批评：即使某些能力是天生的，它也一定是通过某种方式发展起来的。 此外，这些“违反预期”的方法也被批评为导致解释含糊不清。 因此，总的来说，对于婴儿基本类型的物体知识的起源存在很多分歧。 目前的提案通过测试特定视觉线索在幼儿对物体运动的感知中的作用，以及记录眼球运动和对遮挡显示的响应模式来研究这个问题。 通过提供多种方法的综合证据，包括对象连续性评估、联运（视觉-听觉）对象感知、对象“身份”（区分对象的能力），预计结果将产生有关婴儿知觉和认知发展的重要信息。外观、位置和运动的基础）和深度知觉。 预计这些发现将提供证据和说明，阐明发展的基本机制，并希望此类工作将有助于指导婴儿期客体概念出现的重要问题的理论化。