Phenomenal permanence and the development of predictive tracking in infancy

The perceived spatiotemporal continuity of objects depends on the way they appear and disappear as they move in the spatial layout. This study investigated whether infants' predictive tracking of a briefly occluded object is sensitive to the manner by which the object disappears and reappears. Five-, 7-, and 9-month-old infants were shown a ball rolling across a visual scene and briefly disappearing via kinetic occlusion, instantaneous disappearance, implosion, or virtual occlusion. Three different measures converged to show that predictive tracking increased with age and that infants were most likely to anticipate the reappearance of the ball following kinetic occlusion. These results suggest that infants' knowledge of the permanence and nonpermanence of objects is embodied in their predictive tracking. (Excerpts 1-4) The stimuli presented below were modified from the original stimuli. For further reference, see: Bertenthal, B. I. (2008). Perception and action. M. M. Haith & J. B. Benson (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development. San Diego: Elsevier/Academic Press. (Excerpts 1-4) Bertenthal, B. I., Gredebäck, G., & Boyer, T. W. (2012). Differential contributions of development and learning to infants’ knowledge of object continuity and discontinuity. Child Development. Child Development, 84, 413-421.