ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2009) — Despite minimal exposure to the regular geometric objects found in developed countries, African tribal people perceive shapes as well as westerners, according to a new study.

Tests with westerners and African nomads suggest that brain has an innate sense of geometry; incidental result: baby likely can do without the ubiquitous shape sorter. (Credit: iStockphoto/Peter Polák)

The findings, recently published online in Psychological Science, suggested that the brain's ability to understand shapes develops without the influence of immersion in simple, manufactured objects.

"In terms of perceiving the world … either genetics or the natural world will give you the right type of experiences," said lead author Irving Biederman, an expert on perception who holds a named chair in neuroscience at the University of Southern California's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Biederman and his team specifically measured subjects' sensitivity to "non-accidental" properties of objects, such as whether they have straight or curved edges.

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