Abstract
Three experiments (familiar animals, familiar artefacts, newly learned but previously novel objects) investigated different developmental trajectories for part-based and analytical-based object processing between 7-16yrs. The 3-AFC task required selecting the correct appearance from individual part or part-relational manipulated versions. In all experiments, even the youngest children showed adult-like performance on part-changes. However, for animals and artefacts similar levels were only reached by 11-12yrs for relational changes. Interestingly, for novel objects relational- and part-change performance was equivalent throughout the age range. These results suggest an unexpected complex trajectory of analytical-based object recognition into adolescence.