The Difficulties of Applying Category Knowledge Gleaned from 3-dimensional Experience to 2-dimensional Contexts by 7- to 9-month-old Infants

This thesis presents three experiments examining 7- to 9-month-old infants’ use of category knowledge of 3-dimensional objects to perceive 2-dimensional exemplars from the same category. In all experiments, infants failed to apply category knowledge from a 3-dimensional context to the 2-dimensional testing context, although some evidence of category knowledge application was seen when the quality of the 2-dimensional stimuli was improved (i.e., using dynamic videos rather than still images) and when infants received enriched 3-dimensional experience with the target category. Findings suggest the existence of a video deficit in category knowledge application between contexts in 7- to 9-month-old infants.