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Related Experiment Videos

Getting "fumpered": Classifying objects by what has been done to them.

Roland W Fleming1, Filipp Schmidt1

  • 1Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, General Psychology, Gießen, Germany.

Journal of Vision
|April 6, 2019
PubMed
Summary

Humans can classify unfamiliar objects by their shape, inferring the generative processes that formed them. This ability relies on recognizing distinct statistical shape features, not just visual similarity.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Perception
  • Shape Analysis

Background:

  • Objects acquire shape through generative processes like growth or manufacture.
  • Inferring these processes from shape is challenging due to varied outcomes and multiple causes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if humans can classify objects based on their generative processes.
  • To identify the perceptual features enabling this classification.

Main Methods:

  • An eight-alternative forced-choice classification task was used.
  • Experiments tested classification based on generative transformations versus Euclidean similarity.

Main Results:

  • Observers rapidly and accurately classified unfamiliar objects by their shaping processes.

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  • The underlying shape features are distinct from standard Euclidean similarity.
  • Observers could independently process shape similarity and generative process information.

    • Conclusions:

    • Perceptual organization identifies statistical shape features diagnostic of generative processes.
    • This allows classification of novel objects based on their history of formation.