VISUAL FORM RECOGNITION IN EARLY INFANCY

本提案中描述的工作将是理解视觉形式感知发展的一步。理解这一过程的第一步是在婴儿期早期区分完成这一任务所需的必要和充分的刺激（或信息类型）。一旦确定了大脑使用的信息类型，那么就可以探索刺激所允许的潜在计算机制，并可以分析和研究计算机制的发展起源。我们提出了一种系统的方法来解决这些问题，使用综合的心理物理婴儿实验和计算建模方法。在探索每个问题时，我们使用实验结果来指导我们通过建模和仿真进行分析，并使用仿真结果来指导实验。我们认为，这两种互补方法之间的相互作用，对于高度复杂系统（如大脑，特别是发育中的大脑）的方法学和严谨研究至关重要。了解视觉系统在不同发育阶段所利用的各种线索的作用，以及学习功能的类型和过程，将有助于促进和改善视障婴儿学习的医学应用，以及促进正常婴儿发展的教育应用。虽然这项研究建立在先前关于该主题的工作基础上，但它是第一次对婴儿期物体形式表征水平、计算机制和发展起源等问题进行严格调查。

The work described in this proposal will be a step towards the understanding of the development of visual form perception. The first step in understanding this process is to distinguish the necessary and sufficient stimuli (or the type of information) needed for this task in early infancy. Once the type of information used by the brain is determined, then the potential computational mechanisms allowed by the stimuli can be explored, and the developmental origins of the computational mechanisms can be analyzed and investigated. We propose a systematic method of attacking these issues using an integrated psychophysical infant experiments and computational modeling approach. In exploring each issue, we use the result of experiments in order to guide our analysis through modeling and simulation, and use the result of the simulations in order to guide the experiments. Such interplay between the two complementary approaches, we believe, is crucial for a methodological and rigorous study of a highly complex system such as the brain--in particular the developing brain. The knowledge of the role of various cues exploited by the visual system at different stages of development, and the type and process of learned functionalities will contribute to the medical applications aimed at facilitation and improvement of learning for visually-impaired infants, as well as educational applications enhancing the development of normal infants. While this research builds on previous work on the topic, it is the first rigorous investigation of issues such as the level of object form representation in infancy, the computational mechanisms and the developmental origins.