Developmental Trajectories of Picture-Based Object Representations during the First Year of Life

Experience with an object’s photo changes 9-month-olds’ preference for the referent object, confirming they can form picture-based object representations (Shinskey & Jachens, 2014). However, infants’ picture-based representations often appear weaker than object-based ones. The current study’s first objective was to investigate age differences in infants’ recognition memory for a real object after familiarization with its picture. The second objective was to test whether age differences in object permanence sensitivity with picture-based representations conceptually replicate those found with object-based representations, whereby 7-month-olds search more for familiar hidden objects but 11-month-olds search more for novel ones (Shinskey & Munakata, 2005; 2010). Twenty 6-month-olds and 20 11-month-olds were familiarized with an object’s photo and tested on their representation of the real referent object by comparing their preferential reaching for it versus a novel distractor object. The objects were visible in one condition testing recognition memory and hidden in another condition testing object permanence. Like 9-month-olds, 6- and 11-month-olds had a novelty preference with visible objects. This finding shows robust early recognition memory for an object after familiarization with its photo as well as developmental continuity. Unlike 9-month-olds, who switched to a familiarity preference with hidden objects, 6- and 11-month-olds switched to null preference. This U-shaped pattern fails to conceptually replicate 7- and 11-month-olds’ preferences with hidden objects after familiarization with a real object. It reveals discontinuity in sensitivity to an object’s permanence after familiarization with its picture, and suggests that such picture-based representations are weaker than object-based ones.