Empirical support for object constancy in 3-month-old infants using a memory reactivation task

Reminder cues can impact remembering in infancy in multiple ways. Infants typically show highly specific remembering following a reminder, or reactivation procedure, but in some instances, (such as size perception) have demonstrated an ability to remember when given a cue or prime that differs in certain specific characteristics, relative to the training experience. The capacity of infants to use a novel view of an object as a prime to retrieve a training view was tested in this investigation, using simple (single part) 3D objects, and an operant training procedure. Infants trained with a simple object, shown in a limited range of views, demonstrated remembering of this event following a delay sufficient to produce forgetting in a control group. Remembering was demonstrated both when the primed view of the object was from within the limited training range and when the primed view was substantially novel (that is, outside the training range). This finding holds implications for the capacity of young infants to establish an abstract representation of 3D shape.space