Abstract：
Metacontrast masking is one of the most widely studied types of visual masking, in which a visual stimulus is rendered invisible by a subsequent mask that does not spatially overlap with the target. Metacontrast has been used for many decades as a tool to study visual processing and conscious perception in adults. However, there are so far no infant studies on metacontrast and it remains unknown even whether it occurs in infants. The present study examined metacontrast masking in 3- to 8-month-old infants (N = 168) using a habituation paradigm. We found that metacontrast is ineffective for infants under 7 months and that younger infants can perceive a masked stimulus that older infants cannot. Our results suggest that metacontrast is distinct from other simple types of masking that occur in early infancy, and would be consistent with the idea that metacontrast results from the disruption of recurrent processing.
摘要：
Metacontrast掩蔽是最广泛研究的视觉掩蔽类型之一，其中视觉刺激被不与目标在空间上重叠的后续蒙版呈现为不可见。Metacontrast已被用作研究成人视觉处理和意识感知的工具。然而,到目前为止，还没有关于metacontrast的婴儿研究，即使它是否发生在婴儿身上也是未知的。本研究使用习惯化范式检查了3至8个月大的婴儿（N=168）的超模型掩蔽。我们发现metacontrast对7个月以下的婴儿无效，并且年龄较小的婴儿可以感知到年龄较大的婴儿无法感知的掩盖刺激。我们的结果表明，metacontrast与婴儿期早期发生的其他简单类型的掩蔽不同，并且与metacontrast是由于重复处理的中断而产生的想法是一致的。
