Vision Models Capture Complementary Representations in Children That Converge in Adults

Domenic Bersch; Timothy Schaumlöffel; Michela Proietti; Antonia Franaszek-Traczewska; Hannah Elisabeth Zwad; Siying Xie; Marlena Baldauf; Teresa Sylvester; Christina Maria Schätz; Bert Turtleton; Moritz Köster; Stefanie Höhl; Radoslaw Cichy; Gemma Roig

arXiv · 2610.16860

Vision Models Capture Complementary Representations in Children That Converge in Adults

Domenic Bersch·Timothy Schaumlöffel·Michela Proietti·Antonia Franaszek-Traczewska·Hannah Elisabeth Zwad·Siying Xie·Marlena Baldauf·Teresa Sylvester·Christina Maria Schätz·Bert Turtleton·Moritz Köster·Stefanie Höhl·Radoslaw Cichy·Gemma Roig

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Abstract

How the relationship between image-text aligned and vision-only models changes across development remains unknown. We applied time-resolved representational similarity analysis to EEG data from 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults. CLIP showed significant model-brain alignment already in children, whereas vision-only models aligned more strongly later in development. Residual analyses revealed complementary structure, with CLIP retaining alignment beyond an architecture-matched vision-only model from age 8. Much of the model-brain alignment reflected semantic structure, with EEG representations of category and animacy strengthening toward adulthood, while alignment with low-level image properties remained weak across age. Together, these findings suggest that image-text aligned and vision-only models capture complementary aspects of developing visual representations and may provide useful constraints for AI systems that aim to learn and adapt over time.

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Domenic Bersch, Timothy Schaumlöffel, Michela Proietti, Antonia Franaszek-Traczewska, Hannah Elisabeth Zwad, Siying Xie, Marlena Baldauf, Teresa Sylvester, Christina Maria Schätz, Bert Turtleton, Moritz Köster, Stefanie Höhl, Radoslaw Cichy, Gemma Roig. 2026-10-12. Vision Models Capture Complementary Representations in Children That Converge in Adults. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16860

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