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Updated: Aug 22, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
Published on: November 2, 2012
Computational approaches to the development of perceptual expertise
Thomas J Palmeri1, Alan C-N Wong, Isabel Gauthier
1Department of Psychology and Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, 301 Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA. thomas.j.palmeri@vanderbilt.edu <thomas.j.palmeri@vanderbilt.edu>
Abstract:
Dog experts, ornithologists, radiologists and other specialists are noted for their remarkable abilities at categorizing, identifying and recognizing objects within their domain of expertise. A complete understanding of the development of perceptual expertise requires a combination of thorough empirical research and carefully articulated computational theories that formalize specific hypotheses about the acquisition of expertise. A comprehensive computational theory of the development of perceptual expertise remains elusive, but we can look to existing computational models from the object-recognition, perceptual-categorization, automaticity and related literatures for possible starting points. Arguably, hypotheses about the development of perceptual expertise should first be explored within the context of existing computational models of visual object understanding before considering the creation of highly modularized adaptations for particular domains of perceptual expertise.
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