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Intermediate, Wholistic Shape Representation in Object Recognition: A Pre-Attentive Stage of Processing?
Jarrod Hollis1, Glyn W Humphreys2, Peter M Allen1
1Vision and Hearing Sciences Research Centre, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|January 10, 2022
Summary
Visual processing rapidly computes holistic shape representations, aiding object recognition. This occurs online and independently of attention, influencing subsequent visual perception.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Computational Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Object recognition involves complex visual processing.
- The role of holistic shape representations and attention is debated.
- Understanding intermediate stages of visual processing is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the online computation of intermediate visual representations.
- To determine if these representations are attention-independent.
- To examine the role of holistic shape in visual priming.
Main Methods:
- Short-term visual priming paradigm using visually similar shapes.
- Manipulated prime-target location validity (valid vs. invalid).
- Measured object decision latencies for objects and non-objects.
Main Results:
- Priming effects observed for similar overall shapes, regardless of location validity.
- Holistic shape similarity facilitated object decision latencies.
- Effects were based on outline form and low spatial frequencies, not local features.
- Priming occurred for both attended and unattended stimuli.
Conclusions:
- Wholistic shape representations are computed rapidly and online during object recognition.
- These representations are independent of visual attention.
- Activation of common wholistic representations primes subsequent object and non-object processing.
- Rapid derivation of wholistic form is a key intermediate stage in object recognition.
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