Babies develop understanding of shapes on their own

November 14, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: Baby Health, News

Babies’ brains are capable of developing shape perception unaided says new research.

New research performed on remote African tribes has shown that babies learn about shapes on their own, not requiring assistance from the outside.

The research, headed by Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, found that exposure to regular geometric objects found in developed worlds were unnecessary to understand shape and form.

“In terms of perceiving the world, either genetics or the natural world will give you the right type of experiences,” said Biederman.

The theory that Biederman and his colleagues tested is one stating that the brain has greater levels of sensitivity to “non-accidental” properties than metric properties. In other words, the brain more easily grasps uniform objects than non-uniform objects.

The team tested their theory by seeking out African tribes that haven’t been exposed to Westernization. Going deep into tribal territory, they found tribes like the Himba tribe of northwestern Namibia that had no exposure to uniform, manufactured objects.

One of the experiments asked test subjects to look at two geometric objects and decide which one was an exact match to a third sample object. The non-matching object was always different in non-accidental or metric property. The researchers found that the subjects had no problem matching the objects.

“The experiment offers, to our knowledge, the most rigorous assessment of the effects of exposure to modern artifacts on the representation of shape,” said Biederman.

So, while modern shape holders and sorters may have additional properties of amusement and may increase fine motor skills, their main purpose of teaching shape recognition is definitely now in question.

“Your kids will grow up being able to see shapes just fine without specific training,” said Biederman.

The research was published online by Psychological Science. Print publication is expected this coming winter.