Object Cognition in Infants and Adults

婴儿和成人的物体认知

• 批准号: 0132444
• 负责人: M. Karen Wynn
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-04-01 至 2006-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0132444&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Object; Cognition; Infants; Adults

One of the central lessons we have learned from the emerging discipline of cognitive science is that most seemingly effortless mental tasks, for instance recognizing faces and understanding speech, are in fact the result of incredibly complex feats of cognitive processing. Our minds not only make such accomplishments possible, but they do so in a seemingly effortless way that hides their complexity and difficulty from us. This research project will focus on the cognitive processing responsible for one such seemingly obvious aspect of our mental lives, our intuitive ability to perceive the world in terms of discrete objects (such as people, cars, and chairs). This ability seems somehow obvious and necessary to us; after all, the world is populated by such discrete objects. In fact, however, interpreting the world in terms of discrete objects is a Herculean task for the brain, since the incoming visual information consists of an undivided wash of colors, shapes, and motions. Our brains must grapple with such information, and through great efforts turn it into the orderly scenes of discrete objects that we perceive during almost every moment of our lives. This cognitive processing is critical to our lives, as it makes our visual experience coherent. This research project will explore how these "object cognition" processes work, answering a number of important and specific questions: What information does the brain use to infer the existence of a discrete object in a visual scene? What information is used to determine whether a briefly glimpsed object is in fact the same object that was viewed earlier? What are the limits on such abilities? The answers to such questions will help us understand how the brain accomplishes some of its most important but least appreciated tasks. This research will also address other critical questions: Where do these abilities come from? Are they hardwired into our visual systems from birth, or are they learned gradually? Are the cognitive processes which young infants use to make sense of the world in terms of discrete objects the same processes that guide our mature perception of objects in the world? Previous research on "object cognition" has studied both infants and adults, but these investigations have typically proceeded completely independently, in different sub-fields of cognitive science. This research will bridge this gap, by comparing object cognition in infants and adults, and by directly testing the hypothesis that researchers in these two areas have been exploring the same underlying brain mechanisms. This research thus has the potential to unite two previously independent areas of cognitive science, while pursuing the main goal of understanding the cognitive processing which provides us with the coherent perception of a world filled with discrete persisting objects, which we rely on but take for granted during almost every waking moment. In addition, this research on object cognition in normal adults and infants has implications for better understanding of, and perhaps improved treatment for, certain object-based visual disorders in impaired patient populations (such as "Balint Syndrome"). In addition, it may be useful in the development of artificial systems that implement similar processes for dividing visual scenes into discrete objects and tracking them over time and motion.

我们从新兴的认知科学学科中学到的一个重要教训是，大多数看似毫不费力的心理任务，例如识别面孔和理解语音，实际上是认知过程中令人难以置信的复杂壮举的结果。 我们的头脑不仅使这些成就成为可能，而且它们以一种看似毫不费力的方式做到了这一点，从而向我们隐藏了它们的复杂性和困难性。 这个研究项目将集中在认知处理负责我们的心理生活中这样一个看似明显的方面，我们的直觉能力，感知世界的离散对象（如人，汽车，椅子）。 这种能力在我们看来似乎是显而易见和必要的;毕竟，世界上充满了这样的离散对象。 然而，事实上，用离散的物体来解释世界对大脑来说是一项艰巨的任务，因为传入的视觉信息由不可分割的颜色、形状和运动组成。 我们的大脑必须处理这些信息，并通过巨大的努力将其转化为我们生活中几乎每时每刻都能感知到的离散物体的有序场景。 这种认知过程对我们的生活至关重要，因为它使我们的视觉体验连贯一致。 这个研究项目将探索这些“物体认知”过程是如何工作的，回答一些重要而具体的问题：大脑使用什么信息来推断视觉场景中离散物体的存在？ 用什么信息来判断一个短暂瞥见的物体是否就是之前看到的同一个物体？ 这种能力的极限是什么？ 这些问题的答案将帮助我们理解大脑如何完成一些最重要但最不受重视的任务。 这项研究还将解决其他关键问题：这些能力从何而来？ 它们是与生俱来就融入我们的视觉系统的，还是逐渐习得的？ 幼儿用离散的物体来理解世界的认知过程，与指导我们成熟时感知世界中物体的认知过程是同一个过程吗？ 以前关于“物体认知”的研究既研究了婴儿，也研究了成人，但这些研究通常是在认知科学的不同子领域完全独立进行的。 这项研究将弥合这一差距，通过比较婴儿和成人的物体认知，并直接测试这两个领域的研究人员一直在探索相同的潜在大脑机制的假设。 因此，这项研究有可能将认知科学的两个先前独立的领域结合起来，同时追求理解认知过程的主要目标，这为我们提供了对充满离散持久对象的世界的连贯感知，我们依赖于这些对象，但在几乎每一个清醒的时刻都认为这是理所当然的。 此外，这项关于正常成人和婴儿物体认知的研究对更好地理解受损患者群体中某些基于物体的视觉障碍（如“巴林特综合征”），并可能改善其治疗具有重要意义。 此外，它可能是有用的人工系统的开发，实现类似的过程，将视觉场景划分为离散的对象，并跟踪他们随着时间和运动。