Self-Produced Locomotion and the Development of Responsiveness to Linear Perspective and Texture Gradients

Replicated and extended research on the development of sensitivity to the depth cues of linear perspective and texture gradients by using a more sensitive method (Experiment 1) and by investigating the role of self-produced locomotion in facilitating the onset of sensitivity to information (Experiment 2). Using a method similar to Yonas, Granrud, Arterberry, and Hanson (1986), infants' reaching to the pictorially closer object served as the dependent measure. Changes in methodology provided an increase in the difference between 7-month-olds' monocular and binocular reaching performance, but 5-month-olds failed to show evidence of sensitivity to the depth cues investigated. Experiment 2 found no difference in monocular reaching performance among 7-month-old infants with varying degrees of locomotor experience, suggesting that self-produced locomotion may not play a role in facilitating the onset of sensitivity to static-monocular depth information.