Object Individualization in Children and Adults: The Effects of Featural and Motion Cues

• Main Authors: Lo, Yu-Fen, 駱郁芬
• Other Authors: Chiang, Wen-Chi
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/56374048356094862694

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 臨床心理學研究所 === 100 === Individuation/identification and agency judgment are two basic domains of object recognition that will automatically start as soon as we see an object. There are two kinds of cues for object individuation/identification, the featural cues and the spatiotemporal cues, and two for agency judgment, the static cues and the dynamic cues. Most of the studies in this area used visual habituation paradigm and found the ability to individuate/identify an object developed at the age of 1. The present research adopts another paradigm, in which children verbally answer the experimenter’s questions, to investigate how the featural cues and conflicting dynamic cues affect the other domain of object recognition. Subjects in this research are forty-eight adults and 72 four-to-six-year-old children who underwent a series of three experiments. In experiment 1 and 2, two objects, one at a time, with identical appearance (consistent featural cues) and contrary ability of self-propulsion (inconsistent dynamic cues) were shown to the participants so that the participants would not know how many objects were in the tests. In experiment 3, before the exactly same procedure as established in experiment 1 and 2 was displayed, a cue trial from which the participants would receive the idea that “there are actually two objects with same appearance but different ability of self-propulsion” was given. In experiment 1, adults’ individuation/identification and agency judgment on the basis of the conflicting cues are explored whereas in experiment 2 and 3, those of children’s are explored. Research results demonstrate that the order an object shows its ability of self-propulsion makes a difference to participants’ reasoning in object individuation/identification and agency judgment. Furthermore, adults show a clearer tendency in agency judgment than children do. The role of adults’ richer object experience and the theory of the weight differences of static and dynamic cues in making agency judgment are therefore discussed.)