Media release

From: The Royal Society

Infants’ visual perception without feature-binding

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Summary: We uncovered the unique visual world in infants before integrating color and motion features. Our visual perception relies on combining various features, a process driven by recurrent feedforward and feedback loops. The role of this processing has been examined using a visual illusion called misbinding. However, the development of this causal relationship has not been examined. In the present study, we investigated this relationship in infants with immature recurrent processing. We found that infants under six months did not exhibit misbinding; they accurately perceived presented visual information. In contrast, infants over six months showed misbinding. Our findings suggest that recurrent processing is not fully developed in younger infants, leading to differences in how they perceive visual information.

• Eyes-eyes baby – Newborns perceive the world more accurately than older infants. Infants younger than six months accurately perceived a visual stimulus showing red and green dots moving up or down. Older children inaccurately merged characteristics, seeing red dots in the periphery moving up, and green dots down. These findings suggest that babies see the world more clearly as their processing is not fully developed. Proceedings B