Active Object Exploration in Toddlers and its Role in Visual Object Recognition

Adult active object exploration of novel objects is highly focused; particularly considering the time spent performing specific visual transformations of an object as found in previous experimental studies. The most stereotypical is rotating around object orientations where the object’s main axis is either elongated (e.g. a side) or foreshortened (e.g. the top or the bottom). These orientations, called planar views, are in contrast to a visual transformation around an object view that shows multiple sides, for example a view. In contrast to visual recognition of static pictures of well known categories, where views are preferred and faster to recognize, adults prefer planar views when dynamically exploring an object. This bias is related to higher performance in later visual object recognition tasks. The question of the developmental origins of this preference is important both because of the crucial role of sensorimotor exploration for cognitive development and because of the promise of this research for offering a more comprehensive account of visual object recognition, one that includes action. To this end we recorded the self-selected visual information, during active object play, of toddlers aged 15 to 30 months, using a head mounted camera. This age period selected is one where previous studies found large changes in visual object recognition. Children were grouped by vocabulary level and not age in reporting the results, motivated by past research that shows this index of developmental level to be more sensitive to changes in object recognition. Our results suggest that this preference may emerge during this period and by the end, children already demonstrate a preference towards specific visual transformations.