The use of word-picture verification to study entry-level object recognition: further support for view-invariant...

There are substantial logical and empirical reasons for rejecting the popular view that plane-misoriented objects are identified after normalization of global orientation. Our subjects determined the entry-level identity of common objects (line drawings) before determining basic orientation (upright vs. rotated)--as they must if they are to begin to know how to restore the image to the canonical upright. We used a description-picture matching procedure in which 7596 of the trials involved a mismatch in identity, orientation, or both, so that comparisons could be based on one response (no). Times to verify identity were faster than times to verify orientation and did not increase with rotations in the picture plane. That mismatch objects were positively identified at the entry level was shown both in a surprise recognition test for object names and through the transfer of priming from the matching task to a subsequent object-naming task. We conclude that classic mental rotation-like effects on naming times do not reflect early object encoding and recognition processes, which are view invariant, but may stem from double-checking at a postrecognition verification stage.