Recognition of changes in the dimensions and categories of visual objects

The aim of the present work is a comparison between recognition with changes in the dimensions of the objects and recognition with changes in the category of the objects. After preliminary training under tachistoscopic ocnditions, to a control set of different contour drawings are added: (1) the same drawings increased or desreased several times; (2) different new drawings with the same size. The percentage of recognized drawings is determined for such exposure time which is needed for the recognition of 60--80 per cent of the drawings in the control set. Recognition is found to be deteriorated in the case of changes both in the dimensions and in the category of the objects, the deterioration being double for the objects with changed category. This fact serves as a basis for rejecting the hypothesis that considerable changes in the dimensions could create new objects for the visual system. It was also found that recognition of pre-trained drawings is either not influenced or comparatively least influenced by the changes in the dimensions and categories. This result is probably due to the specificity of recognition of long trained objects. The results obtained do not contradict the assumption of the participation of spatial consecutive scanning of the iconic memory in the recognition of the spatial properties of visual objects.