Object Cognition in Infants and Adults

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

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.