Principles of Object Perception ELIZABETH, SPELKE Come Uivety ‘tava on honor nosh bapena height on ary develop precnee {er tegmening repeal rosin se ers net ‘yang tre deemrel voce srergenets on mtow Tse pe. ‘ton Sur no carina preel acy meine ire po ‘Sinesevoi pone orn re Soeporaan (2tae copa trp ats ate ek veo om hn tt me ‘rotor neo: he ed non ws Seemed prin let ony nd i re {ene pyc ong This article i animated by two proposals about perception and percep] development. One proposal is substantive: In situations wtee perception lop through experience, But without instruction or deliberate ref. developmen tends to entch perceptual abilities bu not o change them HHundameatally. The second proposal is methodological: In te above situs: ons, studies of the oriins and early development of pereption can shed on perception ints mature sate. These proposal wil se from ads ‘ouslon ofthe early development of one perceptual aby: the ability 10 rganize arrays of surfaces into unitary, bounded, and pesstng objects PERCEIVING OBJECTS In recent years, my colleagues and Ihave been studying yours infants per- ‘ception of objects in complex dapays in which objects are aacent to other ‘objets, objets ae par hidden behind other objets, of objets move fully earn fh re mas upped ym om NIH D138 and NSE NS stb at rm Ha Pe pg ‘Commend sd ent fri hal be at Elia Sp, Cont ‘Usher Dermat of Ply, Urs Ha ae NYcut of view. We have focused on object peretion in cuter, changing tres for es reasns, it ceed aay ae the norm in ordinary n- ‘ronments: Objects rarely stand agit homogeneous meu, spared [fom one another and cotinuou, flyin vew- More commonly, objects ‘upon end beside ter object, they ae party hidden by objets cower {o te viewer and they enter and leave the visa eld sporadically a he ‘ewer, or some objec, mover. No mechani for segmenting he srface pout osece suk! operat effete if cond nt determine the oundars between object that are adjacent, the compete shapes of ob- lsh that are pry ocladed, andthe peristng identity of objects that nove out of ght. “Sond, apprehending object in arich and changing environments ns cesarly apron of ing beyond the immediatly viable surface layot 10 ota the underyng rangement of bodies hat gave ist that layout. ‘Ts eccomplahmen can be viewed aa ind of perceptual inference (Hei ales) Hocker, 1978). So vewed, may shed ight on base Prin pies and essumplions tat gover object perception in any situation. “Tid the bit to orate unexpected, catered, an changing ars ing objects mysterious so myotrou that noeising mechanical vision ‘psc can accomplish his tekin any general munnet I hasbeen aged ‘atts iimpotbe la principe: One cannot perceive the unity, boun- ars, and persistence of objects ngeeral, but ony the unk, boendars, Sd pentose of bjt of parla nds (Hume, 1962; Wiggin, 1980; tere Mar, 198), Ts, terete no separate sage of objet segmentation imanumber of cure! obec esopnton procedures, which bohategorze chjets end find thee boundaries by fing modes of fama objets 1 Chueenentedrerevetatons of visual ara 4. Hutelocer, 1988, “Contrary to ths vw, Iw ugger that general sepmentaton process sete ve vial pinto obj, Te roses perm ee Coed perceives fo apprehend physi objects as persisting bode wit {ternal unity and sabe boundaries, The sme procses as might fc {at cbs recogiaon by experince persivers,Dcause they constrain the portion of visual ray to mich model of particular kids of objects can Retmached. Studies of aft perception aye especialy wll laced to Shella ca these rocesee, however Bcnue infant lack modes for Imot etegories of bjt. In infancy, processes for segmenting arrays nto hj aren ove and obcared by process for recognizing Obes of a multe of Kod. ‘Gur research soget tha the procses by wich humans apprehend objects or relatively nein isl anal after the recovery of informe. tin forthe dimensional nurfacesrangomens and motion. The processes “ppear to accord with four principles-coheson,Doundedness iii [fd o actin a dstance—that refs ba consis onthe mtions ot physical bodies. These principles may be central both to human pereption ‘of objects and to human reasoning about object maton. ‘The present, brief overview sdvided into four pare is, cus the principal negative finding from experiments on obec perception in infancy fans do not appear to percive objects by virtue of aay general tendency to confer the simplest, most regular organization on visual experience. Sc. ‘ond, I outline the principal positive findings ofthese experiments: Young intans perceive objects as unitary, bounded, and persiting bodies by ana: ‘yzing surface arrangements and motions. Third, [proposes paral sccount ‘ofthese findings in terms ofthe four principles of ebject mation. Finally, ‘speculate oo the implications ofthese ndings for theories of objet percep- tion by adults (and for arc vision system) by considering the ways in ‘which perception might and might not change withthe growth of knowledge (GESTALT RELATIONS AND OBJECT PERCEPTION IN INFANCY My search forthe principles of object perception began with wo tational proposals: The Gest psychologists efor to understand objet perception Interms ofthe principe of "Pragnanz,” andthe empiric effort o under ‘and object perception in terms of principles of sensation and association. ‘According to Gestalt theory, perception tend inherently to aseume he simplest and most regular organization thats consistent with given ial array (Kofta, 1935; Kehler, 1929; Wertheimer, 1958; se also Hatfield & -Epscin, 1985) This tendency underlies the organization of visible surfaces Into objects. For example, a pry occluded obec wll appea to continue behind an occluding surface whenever such a continuation prodaces units that are more homogeneous in color and texture (principe of similarity), ‘more smoothly contoured (principle of good continuation), more regula in ‘shape (principle of good form), and more uniform in thee motion (rincile ‘of common fat), than the fragments of surfaces that are directly visible, ‘According to empicicst theories, in contrast, perception inlay corre- ‘sponds only to that which s immediatly ven othe senses (eg, Berkeley, 190: Helmholtz. 1925). Percelvers learn ta go beyond imedine esa batters by ating onthe world, relating thelr changing Visual sensations to ‘ach other and to sensations arising fom ther actions. On thi view, infants first perceive only the vise fragments ofan array. As infants manipulate te surface layout and move aound itty comet lean tha crtalnprop- ‘tes of visual arrays are related to certain properties of the bodies they feo. For example, children may lear that collinear edesin a retinal array tend to He on a slagle displaceable body (Helmoltz, 1925; Brunewik & ‘Kamiya, 1953) In his way, pereepion comes to accord with the principle of good continuation.stein ity A ZN /\ ZN Hews mati dpc ofthe dil lr a apernent on ian ecpon Beate conecotaed ts hel Spl eve compere of erie ‘vt Siac ean & Spt 1" sped om cane wo. 6) as Seer tpi ner tn Senne ernest Sevens oramneianne scree meta tie ac tee pase eat enacted ants Rone acer a nase terete ag omen ents ete toe ee hone ae Shear omega ete SSS eterna areas PRNCALS OF ONT FEREPTON 2 splays were presented on 6 alternating ts trials, each of which began ‘when the infant looked a the display and ended when he or abe loked ‘vay Infants in baseline contro experiments received the same 6 tet tral ‘iter without any habituation sequence or flr habituation oan unrelated ‘splay. Toa looking time to cach test daplay was recorded By observers ‘unaware ofthe particular display viewed on any tril. The text tal ooking times of infants inthe habituation and the bastine experiments were then compared. "The interpretation of tet tll looking paters in these experiment