ABSTRACT: 56 4-mo old long- and short-looking infants were habituated to a visual form from which 50% of the contour
 was removed. Ss were tested for recognition of the visual form with paired comparison trials in which 2 other 50%-degraded
 visual forms were simultaneously presented. One of the 2 degraded forms presented was a novel form, and the other was
 comprised of the "complementary contour" (i.e., the contour not previously shown) of the degraded habituation stimulus,
 thereby testing the Ss' recognition of a form across stimuli that shared no common contour. Only Ss with shorter attentional
 fixation durations recognized forms when tested this way. Results suggest that some infants are capable of generalizing from
 one complementary image to another; the observation of this ability in only short-looking Ss being consistent with previous
 suggestions of differences in visual encoding as a function of individual differences in fixation duration. ((c) 1997
 APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved)

 DESCRIPTORS:
        (*=Major)
                 Form and Shape Perception * | Perceptual Development * | Stimulus Generalization * | Recognition
                 (Learning) * | Visual Perception * | (Childhood) (Infants) (Eye Fixation)
   KEY PHRASE:
                 novel vs degraded habituation visual stimulus, complementary contour recognition, 120-127 day olds
  CLASS. CODE:
                 Cognitive & Perceptual Development (2820)
   AGE GROUP:
                 Childhood (birth-12 yrs) | Infancy (1-23 mo)
  POPULATION:
                 Human
       UPDATE:
                 19970101