This two year fellowship for postdoctoral study will allow Dr. Huntley-Fenner to obtain training in cognitive psychology at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. A central problem in cognitive science is to discover the nature of our capacity to organize perceptual input such that it may be stored and recruited to guide action. There is considerable evidence that infants have a sophisticated understanding of the physical world. Such capacities implicate the existence of well-developed physical models. Dr. Huntley-Fenner's research is directed at the question of whether the physical models infants construct are based on the properties of objects or whether they are more general. These are other issues in visual cognition will be addressed during his postdoctoral tenure. The physical distinction between objects and non-solid substances reflects a deep conceptual distinction between kinds that are quantified as individuals (anything that can be counted) and those that are not. Mastery of this distinction is crucial to our knowledge of language and our capacity to count.
