Dynamic mental representation in infancy

Recent research indicates that 4- to 8-month-old infants can track and anticipate the final orientation of an object following different invisible spatial transformations (Rochat, P., Hespos, S.J. (1996). Cognitive Development, 11, 3-17). Six experiments were designed to specify further the nature and development of early expectation for a set of dynamic events. A violation of expectation method was used to assess infants' reactions to probable and improbable outcomes of an objects' orientation following an invisible transformation. The availability of orientation cues, the path of motion, and the amount of invisible spatial transformation was systematically varied. The studies indicate that infants as young as 4 months of age detect orientation-specific cues for objects undergoing invisible spatial transformations. Developmental differences in this ability between 4 and 6 months of age lend insight to the nature and limitations of this early representational ability. These findings provide evidence for dynamic mental representation in infancy.