The Significance of Event Information for 6- to 16-Month-Old Infants' Perception of Containment.

Four experiments familiarized 6-, 9-, 12-, and 16-month-old infants to a solid block that was repeatedly lowered into a semitransparent container. In test trials the end state, containment, was either compatible or incompatible with the objects' size and position. In Experiment I, infants saw the block and box successively before they observed the end state. This forced infants to attend to each object individually and memorize its size and position while observing the end state. In Experiments 2 and 3, the block and container were shown simultaneously, the block suspended above the container at a distance of either 25 cm (Experiment 2) or 2 cm (Experiment 3). The shorter distance made direct comparison easier to perform. In Experiment 4, the full event was shown in which the block was lowered inside the container from a distance of 25 cm. Infants' perception of containment was related to the visual information that was available. When the event made it easier to grasp the relevant information, infants could perceive whether the block could pass in the container at a progressively younger age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]