Visual completion of partly occluded grating in infants under 1 month of age

Four groups of eight infants (3 weeks of age on average) were each habituated to one of four displays consisting of a grating of either low (0.4 cpd) or high (1.2 cpd) spatial frequency, whose central portion was covered up with a horizontal occluder which was either narrow (1.33°) or broad (4.17°). These habituation displays are referred to as LN (low spatial frequency grating and narrow occluder), LB (low and broad), HN (high and narrow), and HB (high and broad) displays. Posthabituation-test displays consisted of a complete grating (CG) of the same frequency as the habituated grating along with a separate grating (SG) whose central portion was replaced with a black gap of the same height as the occluder in the habituation displays. Infants habituated to the LN display looked significantly longer at the SG than the CG display during posthabituation-test trials. Infants habituated to the LB and HN displays looked at the CG and SG displays, almost equally. In contrast, infants habituated to the HB display looked longer at the CG than the SG display. These results show that infants under 1 month of age can perceive the continuation of the grating behind the occluder, and that their visual completion on habituation displays can be evoked according to the interaction between the spatial frequency of the grating and the occluder height. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.