Abstract
One of the most basic and fundamental aspects of visual perception is the ability to extract depth cues and generate 3D representations of our visual surrounding. Previous studies have suggested that this ability is developed early in life, and is already present in infancy. However, considerable evidence suggests that the visual system reaches maturity only in late adolescence. Here, we examined the sensitivity of the visual system to object 3D structure in children aged 7.5-12 years old. In a series of experiments, we showed that children were less sensitive to structural information than adults and that this skill correlated with age. More interestingly, children did not exhibit sensitivity to this type of information even in a task in which patients with ventral temporal lesions and visual object agnosia exhibited such sensitivity. These results suggest that the underlying representations of object 3D structure is not yet mature even in late childhood. Finally, and of interest, we also demonstrated that these representations could be elicited in children when instructed specifically and given practice to engage in depth processing, and this resulted in enhanced sensitivity to structural information. Taken together, the results of the present experiments suggest that the representations of object 3D structure are not yet mature in late childhood and are more prone to be modulated by practice and experimental setting.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016