Dean Petters

Developmental trajectories of part-based and configural object recognition in adolescence.

Three experiments assessed the development of childrens part and configural (part-relational) processing in object recognition during adolescence. In total, 312 school children aged 7-16 years and 80 adults were tested in 3-alternative forced choice (3-AFC) tasks. They judged the correct appearance of upright and inverted presented familiar animals, artifacts, and newly learned multipart objects, which had been manipulated either in terms of individual parts or part relations. Manipulation of part relations was constrained to either metric (animals, artifacts, and multipart objects) or categorical (multipart objects only) changes. For animals and artifacts, even the youngest children were close to adult levels for the correct recognition of an individual part change. By contrast, it was not until 11-12 years of age that they achieved similar levels of performance with regard to altered metric part relations. For the newly learned multipart objects, performance was equivalent throughout the tested age range for upright presented stimuli in the case of categorical part-specific and part-relational changes. In the case of metric manipulations, the results confirmed the data pattern observed for animals and artifacts. Together, the results provide converging evidence, with studies of face recognition, for a surprisingly late consolidation of configural-metric relative to part-based object recognition.

Earlier Development of Analytical than Holistic Object Recognition in Adolescence

Background Previous research has shown that object recognition may develop well into late childhood and adolescence. The present study extends that research and reveals novel differences in holistic and analytic recognition performance in 7–12 year olds compared to that seen in adults. We interpret our data within a hybrid model of object recognition that proposes two parallel routes for recognition (analytic vs. holistic) modulated by attention. Methodology/Principal Findings Using a repetition-priming paradigm, we found in Experiment 1 that children showed no holistic priming, but only analytic priming. Given that holistic priming might be thought to be more ‘primitive’, we confirmed in Experiment 2 that our surprising finding was not because children’s analytic recognition was merely a result of name repetition. Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest a developmental primacy of analytic object recognition. By contrast, holistic object recognition skills appear to emerge with a much more protracted trajectory extending into late adolescence.

Late development of metric part-relational processing in object recognition

Four experiments with unfamiliar objects examined the remarkably late consolidation of part-relational relative to part-based object recognition (Jüttner, Wakui, Petters, Kaur, & Davidoff, 2013). Our results indicate a particularly protracted developmental trajectory for the processing of metric part relations. Schoolchildren aged 7 to 14 years and adults were tested in 3-Alternative-Forced-Choice tasks to judge the correct appearance of upright and inverted newly learned multipart objects that had been manipulated in terms of individual parts or part relations. Experiment 1 showed that even the youngest tested children were close to adult levels of performance for recognizing categorical changes of individual parts and relative part position. By contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated that performance for detecting metric changes of relative part position was distinctly reduced in young children compared with recognizing metric changes of individual parts, and did not approach the latter until 11 to 12 years. A similar developmental dissociation was observed in Experiment 3, which contrasted the detection of metric relative-size changes and metric part changes. Experiment 4 showed that manipulations of metric size that were perceived as part (rather than part-relational) changes eliminated this dissociation. Implications for theories of object recognition and similarities to the development of face perception are discussed.

Attachment Modelling: From Observations to Scenarios to Designs

The purpose of the research programme detailed in this paper is to update the attachment control system framework that John Bowlby set out in his formulation of Attachment Theory. It does this by reconceptualising it as a cognitive architecture that can operate within multi-agent simulations. This is relevant to computational psychiatry because attachment phenomena are broad in scope and range from healthy everyday interactions to psychopathology. The process of attachment modelling involves three stages and this paper makes contributions in each of these stages. Firstly, a survey of attachment research is presented which focuses on two important attachment behavioural measures: the Strange Situation Procedure and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). These studies are reviewed to draw out key behavioural patterns and dependencies. Secondly, the empirical observations that are to be explained in this research programme are abstracted into scenarios which capture key behavioural elements. The value of behavioural scenarios is that they can guide the simulation design process and help evaluate simulations which are produced. Thirdly, whilst the implementation of these scenarios is still a work in progress, several designs are described that have been created and implemented as simulations. These include normative and non-pathological infant behaviour patterns observed across the first year of life in naturalistic observations and ‘Strange Situation’ studies. Future work is described which includes simulating dysfunctional infant behaviour patterns and a range of adult attachment behaviour patterns observed in the Adult Attachment Interview. In conclusion, this modelling approach is distinguished from other approaches in computational psychiatry because of the psychologically high level at which it models phenomena of interest.

Modelling emotional attachment: An integrative framework for architectures and scenarios

Humans possess a strong innate predisposition to emotionally attach to familiar people around them who provide physical or emotional security. Attachment Theory describes and explains diverse phenomena related to this predisposition, including: infants using their carers as secure-bases from which to explore, and havens of safety to return to when tired or anxious, the development of attachment patterns over ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, and emotional responses to separation and loss throughout the lifespan. This paper proposes that one way for computational modelling to integrate these phenomena is to organise them within temporally nested scenarios, with moment to moment phenomena organised within ontogenetic and phylogenetic sequences. A number of existing agent-based models and robotic attachment simulations capture attachment behaviour, but individual simulations created with different tools and modelling approaches typically do not integrate easily with each other. Two ways to better integrate attachment model are proposed. First, a number of simulations are described that have been created with the same agent-based modelling toolkit, so showing that moment to moment secure base behaviour and the development of individual differences in attachment security can be simulated with closely related architectural designs. Secondly, an integrative modelling approach is proposed where the evaluation of, and comparison between attachment models is guided by reference to a shared conceptual framework for architectures provided by the CogAff schema. This approach can integrate a broad range of emotional processes including: the formation of a set of richer internal representations; and loss of control that can occur in emotional episodes.

Bringing Together Different Pieces to Better Understand Whole Minds

This collection of chapters looks at a diverse set of topics in the study of cognition. These topics do not of course, despite their broad range, include all the pieces needed for a whole mind. However, what this collection provides is explorations of how some very different research topics can be brought together through shared themes and outlook.

Epilogue: reflections on a Special Issue of Attachment & Human Development in Mary Ainsworth’s 100th year

A Special Issue such as this, celebrating the 100 year since Mary Ainsworth’s birth, reflects unusual fondness and appreciation. For the editors and contributors, and for Mary Ainsworth’s students as well, it is a special treat to revisit her accomplishments and, by clarifying and elaborating, see her remarkable contributions shared and sustained through new generations. Mary Ainsworth’s first study of infant–mother interaction and attachment appeared in the Determinants of Infant Development series edited by Brian Foss (Ainsworth, 1963). She was 50 years old. Over the years she published two good books, two dozen empirical articles, and as many theoretical articles and reviews. Emphasizing quality over quantity, she may have done more than John Bowlby himself to explain the new attachment paradigm to psychologists and open conceptual doors for new generations that would give attachment study the depth and scope reflected in journals, handbooks, and this Special Issue. Indeed, it doesn’t diminish John Bowlby’s contributions to suggest that, absent Mary Ainsworth’s contributions, his great trilogy might not have carried the day. This Special Issue could well have focused on the Strange Situation for it was certainly the individual differences perspective and its promise of clinical implications that attracted much of the early interest in attachment study. However, as Mary Ainsworth explained when she received the APA’s 1989 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, the Strange Situation is a tool to be used while it is needed; the better use we make of it, the sooner we will put it aside. In fact, her lasting impact rests as much on her insights into the meanings infants find in countless real-world interactions with a primary caregiver as on the Strange Situation. By focusing on maternal sensitivity and attachment security rather than the Strange Situation, this Special Issue will draw much new attention to Mary Ainsworth’s Uganda research. This is long overdue. In addition, the contributors to this Special Issue focus on two areas in which Mary Ainsworth had singular insights: (1) the nature of the infant’s interactions with its mother and (2) the evolution of security in their relationship. The biographies and histories are important vehicles for maintaining theoretical and programmatic coherence across disciplines and generations. Thus, we are fortunate to have good biographies and broadly drawn histories of attachment theory and research (e.g., Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991; Ainsworth & Marvin, 1995; Ainsworth, 1982;

Modeling, simulating, and simplifying links between stress, attachment, and reproduction

John Bowlbys use of evolutionary theory as a cornerstone of his attachment theory was innovative in its day and remains useful. Del Giudices target article extends Belsky et al.s and Chisholms efforts to integrate attachment theory with more current thinking about evolution, ecology, and neuroscience. His analysis would be strengthened by (1) using computer simulation to clarify and simulate the effects of early environmental stress, (2) incorporating information about non-stress related sources of individual differences, (3) considering the possibility of adaptive behavior without specific evolutionary adaptations, and (4) considering whether the attachment construct is critical to his analysis.

Using Computational Models of Object Recognition to Investigate Representational Change Through Development

Empirical research on mental representation is challenging because internal representations are not available to direct observation. This chapter will show how empirical results from developmental studies, and insights from computational modelling of those results, can be combined with existing research on adults. So together all these research perspectives can provide convergent evidence for how visual representations mediate object recognition. Recent experimental studies have shown that development towards adult performance levels in configural processing in object recognition is delayed through middle childhood. Whilst part-changes to animal and artefact stimuli are processed with similar to adult levels of accuracy from 7 years of age, relative size changes to stimuli result in a significant decrease in relative performance for participants aged between 7 and 10. Two sets of computational experiments were run using the JIM3 artificial neural network with adult and ‘immature’ versions to simulate these results. One set progressively decreased the number of neurons involved in the representation of view-independent metric relations within multi-geon objects. A second set of computational experiments involved decreasing the number of neurons that represent view-dependent (non-relational) object attributes in JIM3’s surface map. The simulation results which show the best qualitative match to empirical data occurred when artificial neurons representing metric-precision relations were entirely eliminated. These results therefore provide further evidence for the late development of relational processing in object recognition and suggest that children in middle childhood may recognise objects without forming structural description representations.

Developmental commonalities between object and face recognition in adolescence

In the visual perception literature, the recognition of faces has often been contrasted with that of non-face objects, in terms of differences with regard to the role of parts, part relations and holistic processing. However, recent evidence from developmental studies has begun to blur this sharp distinction. We review evidence for a protracted development of object recognition that is reminiscent of the well-documented slow maturation observed for faces. The prolonged development manifests itself in a retarded processing of metric part relations as opposed to that of individual parts and offers surprising parallels to developmental accounts of face recognition, even though the interpretation of the data is less clear with regard to holistic processing. We conclude that such results might indicate functional commonalities between the mechanisms underlying the recognition of faces and non-face objects, which are modulated by different task requirements in the two stimulus domains.