Striking deficiency in top-down perceptual reorganization of two-tone images in preschool children

Two-tone images (black and white transformations of gray-scale photographs) can be difficult for adult observers to recognize. However, following a brief presentation of the original photograph from which the two-tone image was created, adults experience rapid and long-lasting perceptual reorganization, such that after the initial presentation, the two-tone image becomes immediately and easily recognizable. Following a previously reported observation [1], we present evidence that, in contrast to the effortless recognition seen in adults, preschoolaged children are generally unable to recognize two-tone images even when the photograph is simultaneously available. When asked to draw corresponding parts of the photo and two-tone images, children often marked correct regions of the photo and nonsensical regions of the two-tone image. A control experiment showed that children are fully able to mark corresponding parts of two identical photographs. These results point to a dramatic lack of cue-driven perceptual reorganization in young children under conditions that trigger instant recognition in adults. We suggest that this robust phenomenon may provide a window into the development of top-down mechanisms of perceptual learning and consider interventions (e.g., [2-4]) that may improve young children's ability to use one image to reorganize another.