For the love of Objects

A main line of research in our lab is exploring what role ‘objects’ play in visual perception. More and more research has demonstrated that priority is given to parts of the visual world that are bound together into objects and that once such representations are formed, they can persist over time and through motion. We are currently exploring the limits of this system to determine what properties or rules determine objecthood.

One tool we use for our explorations is the object-reviewing paradigm, wherein a 'preview' of information on a specific object speeds the recognition of that information at a later point when it appears again on the same object (compared to when it reappears on a different object), beyond display-wide priming. Using stimuli like the ones demonstrated below, we found that object representations (or ‘object files’) were attenuated when an object split apart into two, compared to when it just changed its trajectory.

Find out more about our Object File research here:

When perception and awareness diverge. Mitroff, Wynn, & Scholl, 2005

Related papers

Mitroff, S. R., Scholl, B. J., Noles, N. S. (under review). Object files can be purely episodic.

Noles, N. S., Scholl, B. J., & Mitroff, S. R. (2005). The persistence of object file representations. Perception & Psychophysics, 67, 324 - 334.

 Mitroff, S. R., Scholl, B. J., & Wynn, K. (2005). The relationship between object files and conscious perception. Cognition, 96(1), 67 - 92.

Mitroff, S. R., Scholl, B. J., & Wynn, K. (2004). Divide and Conquer: How object files adapt when an object splits into two. Psychological Science, 15(6), 420 - 425.