Young infants' awareness of object identity and number: Evaluating arithmetic reasoning, object file, and object tracking accounts.

小婴儿对物体身份和数量的意识：评估算术推理、物体文件和物体跟踪帐户。

基本信息

批准号：
ES/K000934/1
负责人：
Gavin Bremner
金额：
$ 70.97万
依托单位：
Lancaster University
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2013
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2013 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK000934%2F1
关键词：
Young infants awareness object identity

项目摘要

Wynn (1992) made the controversial claim that young infants understand addition and subtraction, finding that they looked longer at events with numerically incorrect outcomes. Although alternative interpretations of Wynn's influential results have been offered, investigations have stopped short of the systematic manipulation of relevant factors needed to identify an appropriate interpretation. This proposal is motivated by the pressing need to provide a firmly based account of how young infants process single and multiple object occlusion events.Alternative explanations include the object file account, which although based on representational processes does not assume a symbolic understanding of number. It does, however, make predictions regarding the outcome of certain manipulations of Wynn's task, but these predictions conflict with each other. Secondly, a lower level object tracking account makes specific predictions regarding infants' responses to violations of existence, featural identity, and position of objects in Wynn's task, and is parsimonious through not assuming mental representation.It is apparent that manipulation of Wynn's task has potential to answer key questions regarding infants' object tracking that go well beyond Wynn's initial question. This proposal involves a core set of 23 experiments with 5-month-olds, as a systematic investigation of infants' ability to keep track of objects. Our main measure will be infants' looking time as an indicator of violation of expectation. (The assumption of this well tried measure is that infants look longer at events that violate their expectations.) This will be supplemented by eye-tracking and pupillometry data to investigate whether infants look more at an object that violates expectation regarding its existence, featural identity, or position. In cases where young infants do not respond to a particular violation, the experiments will also be run with a group of older infants to seek evidence for developmental increase in sensitivity.Experimental series 1 and 2 will involve a single object, and will involve the numerical operations 0 + 1 = 1 and 1 - 1 = 0, respectively (see Annexe 2 for a figural description). The 0 + 1 experiments will begin with an empty stage whereupon a screen will rotate to vertical, and an object will be introduced and placed behind the screen. On violation trials the screen will rotate down to reveal, (i) no object, (ii) the object in the wrong place, (iii) a different object in the right place, or (iv) a different object in the wrong place. The 1 - 1 Experiments will commence with an object present, the screen will rotate to hide it whereupon a hand will appear and remove the object. On violation trials, the screen will rotate down to reveal one of the same sorts of violation as in the 0 + 1 case. Series 3 and 4 relate directly to Wynn's work, involving two objects and concerning the numerical operations 1 + 1 = 2 (initial state one object present, screen rotates whereupon a second object is added) and 2 - 1 = 1 (initial state two objects present, screen is rotated whereupon one object is removed). In the case of series 3 and 4, we shall assess the degree to which infants detect different forms of violation applied to the first versus the second placed objects. In the 1 + 1 case we shall also assess performance on a variant in which both objects are added once the screen is rotated, to test the object file account prediction that an object perceived in position before occlusion leads to a stronger object file representation than one seen disappearing behind a screen.We anticipate that these studies will provide an important body of evidence arising from systematic variations of a single procedure. This should clarify apparent contradictions in the literature and will provide a superior account of the processes through which young infants keep track of multiple objects.

Wynn（1992）提出了一个有争议的说法，即年轻的婴儿了解加法和减法，发现他们看着以数值不正确的结果看待事件。尽管已经提供了对永利有影响力结果的替代解释，但调查已经停止了对确定适当解释所需的相关因素的系统操纵。该建议是由紧迫的需要的激励，以提供对年轻婴儿如何处理单个和多个对象遮挡事件的牢固说明。替代解释包括对象文件帐户，尽管基于代表性过程并未假定对数字的象征理解。但是，它确实对永利任务某些操纵的结果做出了预测，但是这些预测相互冲突。其次，较低级别的对象跟踪帐户对婴儿对存在，特征身份和对象在永利任务中的侵犯的反应做出了具体预测，并且通过不假设心理表征来嘲笑。显然，对Wynn对Wynn的任务的操纵可能有可能回答有关婴儿对象跟踪的重要问题，而这些问题就会在Wynn的初始问题中回答。该提案涉及一组5个月大的核心实验，作为对婴儿跟踪对象的能力的系统研究。我们的主要措施将是婴儿看起来是违反期望的指标。（这项久经考验的措施的假设是，婴儿查看违反期望的事件的时间更长。）这将通过眼睛跟踪和瞳孔计量数据来补充，以调查婴儿是否更多地看待违反对其存在，特征身份或位置的期望的对象。如果年轻婴儿对特定违规行为没有反应，则该实验还将与一群老年婴儿一起进行，以寻求敏感性增长的证据。实验性系列1和2将涉及一个对象，并且将涉及数值操作0 + 1 = 1 = 1 = 1和1-1-1 = 0（请参阅Annexe 2（Annexe 2））。 0 + 1实验将从一个空阶段开始，其中屏幕将旋转至垂直，并将对象引入并放置在屏幕后面。在违规试验中，屏幕将旋转以揭示，（i）没有对象，（ii）错误位置的对象，（iii）正确位置的另一个对象，或（iv）在错误的位置中的另一个对象。 1-1实验将从存在的对象开始，屏幕将旋转以隐藏它，因此将出现手并删除对象。在违规试验中，屏幕将旋转以揭示与0 + 1情况下的违规行为之一。系列第3和4直接与Wynn的工作有关，涉及两个对象，以及数值操作1 + 1 = 2（初始状态一个对象，一个对象，屏幕旋转，添加了第二个对象）和2-1 = 1（初始状态两个对象，存在两个对象，将屏幕旋转一个对象，将一个对象删除）。在第3和4系列的情况下，我们将评估婴儿检测到对第一个物体和第二个放置对象的不同形式的违规行为。在1 + 1个情况下，我们还应评估屏幕旋转后添加两个对象的性能，以测试对象文件帐户的预测，即在遮挡之前感知到位置的对象会导致对象文件表示比屏幕后面消失的更强的对象文件表示。我们预计这些研究将提供来自单个过程的系统变异的重要证据。这应该阐明文献中明显的矛盾，并将为年轻婴儿跟踪多个物体的过程提供更好的说明。