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Updated: Jul 15, 2026
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A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss
Published on: April 11, 2025
The path of least persistence: object status mediates visual updating
Cathleen M Moore1, J Toby Mordkoff, James T Enns
1Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16870, USA. cmm15@psu.edu
Vision Research
|April 25, 2007
Summary
The visual system updates world representations using object-based units, not just location-based replacements. Disrupting an object
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- The visual system must continuously update world representations with new sensory information.
- Two models exist: point-for-point location-based updating vs. object-based unit updating.
- Understanding this process is key to explaining visual perception and memory.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the basis of visual representation updating in the human brain.
- To test whether updating relies on object-based units or location-based processes.
- To explore the phenomenon of visible persistence and its relation to updating mechanisms.
Main Methods:
- Experimentally modulated visible persistence using moving visual stimuli.
- Introduced abrupt, transient changes in stimulus size to test persistence.
- Manipulated scene context to provide object-based or location-based explanations for size changes.
Main Results:
- Visible persistence was observed when a moving stimulus changed size abruptly.
- This persistence effect was significantly reduced when a scene-based reason (occlusion) was provided for the size change.
- Stimuli without size change did not elicit significant visible persistence.
Conclusions:
- The findings support an object-based model for visual representation updating.
- Visible persistence arises from disruptions in object-based updating due to discontinuities.
- Scene context can maintain object representation, preventing updating disruption.
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