1
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Hagen S, Vuong QC, Jung L, Chin MD, Scott LS, Tanaka JW. A perceptual field test in object experts using gaze-contingent eye tracking. Sci Rep 2023; 13:11437. [PMID: 37454134 PMCID: PMC10349839 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37695-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
A hallmark of expert object recognition is rapid and accurate subordinate-category recognition of visually homogenous objects. However, the perceptual strategies by which expert recognition is achieved is less known. The current study investigated whether visual expertise changes observers' perceptual field (e.g., their ability to use information away from fixation for recognition) for objects in their domain of expertise, using a gaze-contingent eye-tracking paradigm. In the current study, bird experts and novices were presented with two bird images sequentially, and their task was to determine whether the two images were of the same species (e.g., two different song sparrows) or different species (e.g., song sparrow and chipping sparrow). The first study bird image was presented in full view. The second test bird image was presented fully visible (full-view), restricted to a circular window centered on gaze position (central-view), or restricted to image regions beyond a circular mask centered on gaze position (peripheral-view). While experts and novices did not differ in their eye-movement behavior, experts' performance on the discrimination task for the fastest responses was less impaired than novices in the peripheral-view condition. Thus, the experts used peripheral information to a greater extent than novices, indicating that the experts have a wider perceptual field to support their speeded subordinate recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simen Hagen
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.
- CNRS, CRAN, Université de Lorraine, F-54000 Nancy, France.
| | - Quoc C Vuong
- Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
| | - Liandra Jung
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
- Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of California, Berkeley, USA
| | - Michael D Chin
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
| | - Lisa S Scott
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - James W Tanaka
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
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2
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Kutlu E, Barry-Anwar R, Pestana Z, Keil A, Scott LS. A label isn't just a label: Brief training leads to label-dependent visuo-cortical processing in adults. Neuropsychologia 2023; 178:108443. [PMID: 36481257 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108443] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2022] [Revised: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The current study examines the extent to which hearing individual-level names (e.g., Jimmy) and category-level labels (e.g., Hitchel) paired with novel objects impacts neural responses across a brief (6 min) learning period. Event-related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded while adult participants (n = 44) viewed and heard exemplars of two different species of named novel objects. ERPs were examined for each labeling condition and compared across the first and second half of the learning trials (∼3 min/half). Mean amplitude decreased for the P1 and increased for the N170 from the first to the second half of trials. The decrease in P1 was right lateralized. In addition, the P1 amplitude recorded over right occipitotemporal regions was greater than left occipitotemporal areas, but only for objects paired with individual-level labels. Category-level labels did not show regional P1 differences. The N250 component was greatest over the right occipitotemporal region and was enhanced for objects labeled with individual-level relative to category-level names during the second half of trials. Overall, these findings highlight the unfolding of label-dependent visual processing across a short training period in adults. The results suggest that linguistic labels have an important, top-down impact, on visual processing and that label specificity shapes visuo-cortical responses within a 6-min learning period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan Kutlu
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, USA
| | | | | | - Andreas Keil
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, USA
| | - Lisa S Scott
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, USA.
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3
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The structure of prior knowledge enhances memory in experts by reducing interference. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2204172119. [PMID: 35737844 PMCID: PMC9245613 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2204172119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The influence of prior knowledge on memory is ubiquitous, making the specific mechanisms of this relationship difficult to disentangle. Here, we show that expert knowledge produces a fundamental shift in the way that interitem similarity (i.e., the perceived resemblance between items in a set) biases episodic recognition. Within a group of expert birdwatchers and matched controls, we characterized the psychological similarity space for a set of well-known local species and a set of less familiar, nonlocal species. In experts, interitem similarity was influenced most strongly by taxonomic features, whereas in controls, similarity judgments reflected bird color. In controls, perceived episodic oldness during a recognition memory task increased along with measures of global similarity between items, consistent with classic models of episodic recognition. Surprisingly, for experts, high global similarity did not drive oldness signals. Instead, for local birds memory tracked the availability of species-level name knowledge, whereas for nonlocal birds, it was mediated by the organization of generalized conceptual space. These findings demonstrate that episodic memory in experts can benefit from detailed subcategory knowledge, or, lacking that, from the overall relational structure of concepts. Expertise reshapes psychological similarity space, helping to resolve mnemonic separation challenges arising from high interitem overlap. Thus, even in the absence of knowledge about item-specific details or labels, the presence of generalized knowledge appears to support episodic recognition in domains of expertise by altering the typical relationship between psychological similarity and memory.
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4
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Elhamiasl M, Silva G, Cataldo AM, Hadley H, Arnold E, Tanaka JW, Curran T, Scott LS. Dissociations between performance and visual fixations after subordinate- and basic-level training with novel objects. Vision Res 2021; 191:107971. [PMID: 34826750 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.107971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2021] [Revised: 10/08/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Previous work suggests that subordinate-level object training improves exemplar-level perceptual discrimination over basic-level training. However, the extent to which visual fixation strategies and the use of visual features, such as color and spatial frequency (SF), change with improved discrimination was not previously known. In the current study, adults (n = 24) completed 6 days of training with 2 families of computer-generated novel objects. Participants were trained to identify one object family at the subordinate level and the other object family at the basic level. Before and after training, discrimination accuracy and visual fixations were measured for trained and untrained exemplars. To examine the impact of training on visual feature use, image color and SF were manipulated and tested before and after training. Discrimination accuracy increased for the object family trained at the subordinate-level, but not for the family trained at the basic level. This increase was seen for all image manipulations (color, SF) and generalized to untrained exemplars within the trained family. Both subordinate- and basic-level training increased average fixation duration and saccadic amplitude and decreased the number of total fixations. Collectively, these results suggest a dissociation between discrimination accuracy, indicative of recognition, and the associated pattern of changes present for visual fixations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mina Elhamiasl
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, United States
| | - Gabriella Silva
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, United States
| | - Andrea M Cataldo
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States
| | - Hillary Hadley
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States
| | - Erik Arnold
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States
| | - James W Tanaka
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Canada
| | - Tim Curran
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, United States
| | - Lisa S Scott
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, United States.
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5
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Hagen S, Vuong QC, Chin MD, Scott LS, Curran T, Tanaka JW. Bird expertise does not increase motion sensitivity to bird flight motion. J Vis 2021; 21:5. [PMID: 33951142 PMCID: PMC8107655 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.5.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
While motion information is important for the early stages of vision, it also contributes to later stages of object recognition. For example, human observers can detect the presence of a human, judge its actions, and judge its gender and identity simply based on motion cues conveyed in a point-light display. Here we examined whether object expertise enhances the observer's sensitivity to its characteristic movement. Bird experts and novices were shown point-light displays of upright and inverted birds in flight, or upright and inverted human walkers, and asked to discriminate them from spatially scrambled point-light displays of the same stimuli. While the spatially scrambled stimuli retained the local motion of each dot of the moving objects, it disrupted the global percept of the object in motion. To estimate a detection threshold in each object domain, we systematically varied the number of noise dots in which the stimuli were embedded using an adaptive staircase approach. Contrary to our predictions, the experts did not show disproportionately higher sensitivity to bird motion, and both groups showed no inversion cost. However, consistent with previous work showing a robust inversion effect for human motion, both groups were more sensitive to upright human walkers than their inverted counterparts. Thus, the result suggests that real-world experience in the bird domain has little to no influence on the sensitivity to bird motion and that birds do not show the typical inversion effect seen with humans and other terrestrial movement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simen Hagen
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,
| | - Quoc C Vuong
- Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.,
| | - Michael D Chin
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.,
| | - Lisa S Scott
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.,
| | - Tim Curran
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.,
| | - James W Tanaka
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.,
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6
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Wong YK, Tong CKY, Lui M, Wong ACN. Perceptual expertise with Chinese characters predicts Chinese reading performance among Hong Kong Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0243440. [PMID: 33481782 PMCID: PMC7822259 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2020] [Accepted: 11/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
This study explores the theoretical proposal that developmental dyslexia involves a failure to develop perceptual expertise with words despite adequate education. Among a group of Hong Kong Chinese children diagnosed with developmental dyslexia, we investigated the relationship between Chinese word reading and perceptual expertise with Chinese characters. In a perceptual fluency task, the time of visual exposure to Chinese characters was manipulated and limited such that the speed of discrimination of a short sequence of Chinese characters at an accuracy level of 80% was estimated. Pair-wise correlations showed that perceptual fluency for characters predicted speeded and non-speeded word reading performance. Exploratory hierarchical regressions showed that perceptual fluency for characters accounted for 5.3% and 9.6% variance in speeded and non-speeded reading respectively, in addition to age, non-verbal IQ, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN) and perceptual fluency for digits. The findings suggest that perceptual expertise with words plays an important role in Chinese reading performance in developmental dyslexia, and that perceptual training is a potential remediation direction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yetta Kwailing Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | | | - Ming Lui
- Department of Education Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China
| | - Alan C.-N. Wong
- Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
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7
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Zhou X, Fu Q, Rose M. The Role of Edge-Based and Surface-Based Information in Incidental Category Learning: Evidence From Behavior and Event-Related Potentials. Front Integr Neurosci 2020; 14:36. [PMID: 32792919 PMCID: PMC7387683 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2020.00036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2019] [Accepted: 06/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Although it has been demonstrated that edge-based information is more important than surface-based information in incidental category learning, it remains unclear how the two types of information play different roles in incidental category learning. To address this issue, the present study combined behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) techniques in an incidental category learning task in which the categories were defined by either edge- or surface-based features. The results from Experiment 1 showed that participants could simultaneously learn both edge- and surface-based information in incidental category learning, and importantly, there was a larger learning effect for the edge-based category than for the surface-based category. The behavioral results from Experiment 2 replicated those from Experiment 1, and the ERP results further revealed that the stimuli from the edge-based category elicited larger anterior and posterior P2 components than those from the surface-based category, whereas the stimuli from the surface-based category elicited larger anterior N1 and P3 components than those from the edge-based category. Taken together, the results suggest that, although surface-based information might attract more attention during feature detection, edge-based information plays more important roles in evaluating the relevance of information in making a decision in categorization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyan Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,The Research Center for Psychological Education, University of International Relations, Beijing, China
| | - Qiufang Fu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Michael Rose
- NeuroImage Nord, Department for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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8
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Examining the neural correlates of within-category discrimination in face and non-face expert recognition. Neuropsychologia 2019; 124:44-54. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2018] [Revised: 01/09/2019] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
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9
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Devillez H, Mollison MV, Hagen S, Tanaka JW, Scott LS, Curran T. Color and spatial frequency differentially impact early stages of perceptual expertise training. Neuropsychologia 2019; 122:62-75. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 10/19/2018] [Accepted: 11/20/2018] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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10
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Rossion B. Damasio's error - Prosopagnosia with intact within-category object recognition. J Neuropsychol 2018; 12:357-388. [PMID: 29845731 DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2017] [Revised: 03/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The sudden inability to recognize individual faces following brain damage was first reported in a scientific journal 150 years ago and termed 'prosopagnosia' 70 years ago. While the term originally identified a face-selective neurological condition, it is now obscured by a sequence of imprecisions. First, prosopagnosia is routinely used to define symptoms of individual face recognition (IFR) difficulties in the context of visual object agnosia or other neurological conditions, or even in the normal population. Second, this over-expansive definition has lent support to a long-standing within-category recognition account of prosopagnosia, that is, that the impairment of IFR reflects a general impairment in recognizing within-category objects. However, stringent experimental studies of classical cases of prosopagnosia following brain damage show that their core impairment is not in recognizing physically similar exemplars within non-face object categories. Instead, the impairment presents specifically for recognizing exemplars of the category of faces. Moreover, compared to typical observers, the impairment appears even more severe for recognizing individual faces against physically dissimilar than similar distractors. Here, I argue that we need to limit accordingly our definition of prosopagnosia to a clinical (i.e., neurological) condition in which there is no basic-level object recognition impairment. Other criteria for prosopagnosia are proposed, with the hope that this conservative definition enables the study of human IFR processes in isolation, and supports progress in understanding the nature of these processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Rossion
- CNRS, CRAN, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-5400, France
- Institute of Research in Psychological Science, Institute of Neuroscience, Université de Louvain, Belgium
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11
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Jones T, Hadley H, Cataldo AM, Arnold E, Curran T, Tanaka JW, Scott LS. Neural and behavioral effects of subordinate-level training of novel objects across manipulations of color and spatial frequency. Eur J Neurosci 2018; 52:4468-4479. [PMID: 29499088 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2017] [Revised: 02/22/2018] [Accepted: 02/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Perceptual expertise is marked by subordinate-level recognition of objects in the expert domain. In this study, participants learned one family of full-color, artificial objects at the subordinate (species) level and another family at the basic (family) level. Discrimination of trained and untrained exemplars was tested before and after training across several image manipulations [full-color, grayscale, low spatial frequency (LSF) and high spatial frequency (HSF)] while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Regardless of image manipulation, discrimination (indexed by d') of trained and of untrained exemplars was enhanced after subordinate-level training, but not after basic-level training. Enhanced discrimination after subordinate-level training generalized to untrained exemplars and to grayscale images and images in which LSF or HSF information was removed. After training, the N170 and N250, recorded over occipital and occipitotemporal brain regions, were both more enhanced after subordinate-level training than after basic-level training. However, the topographic distribution of enhanced responses differed across components. The N170 latency predicted reaction time after both basic-level training and subordinate-level training, highlighting an association between behavioral and neural responses. These findings further elucidate the role of the N170 and N250 as ERP indices of subordinate-level expert object processing and demonstrate how low-level manipulations of color and spatial frequency impact behavior and the N170 and N250 components independent of training or expertise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Travis Jones
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, 945 Center Drive, PO Box 112250, Gainesville, FL, 32611-2250, USA
| | - Hillary Hadley
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Andrea M Cataldo
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Erik Arnold
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Tim Curran
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - James W Tanaka
- Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
| | - Lisa S Scott
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, 945 Center Drive, PO Box 112250, Gainesville, FL, 32611-2250, USA
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Abstract
In the present study, we report naming latencies and norms for 327 photos of objects in Dutch. We provide norms for eight psycholinguistic variables: age of acquisition, familiarity, imageability, image agreement, objective and subjective visual complexity, word frequency, word length in syllables and letters, and name agreement. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses revealed that the significant predictors of photo-naming latencies were name agreement, word frequency, imageability, and image agreement. The naming latencies, norms, and stimuli are provided as supplemental materials.
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13
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Xu B, Rourke L, Robinson JK, Tanaka JW. Training Melanoma Detection in Photographs Using the Perceptual Expertise Training Approach. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Buyun Xu
- Department of Psychology; University of Victoria; Canada
| | - Liam Rourke
- Department of Medicine; University of Alberta; Canada
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14
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The interplay of holistic shape, local feature and color information in object categorization. Biol Psychol 2015; 109:120-31. [PMID: 25981947 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2014] [Revised: 04/09/2015] [Accepted: 05/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Although it is widely accepted that colors facilitate object and scene recognition under various circumstances, several studies found no effects of color removal in tasks requiring categorization of briefly presented animals in natural scenes. In this study, three experiments were performed to test the assumption that the discrepancy between empirical data is related to variations of the available meaningful global information such as object shapes and contextual cues. Sixty-one individuals categorized chromatic and achromatic versions of intact and scrambled images containing either cars or birds. While color removal did not affect the classification of intact stimuli, the recognition of moderately scrambled achromatic images was more difficult. This effect was accompanied by amplitude modulations of occipital event-related potentials emerging from approximately 150ms post-stimulus. Our results indicate that colors facilitate stimulus classification, but this effect becomes prominent only in cases when holistic processing is not sufficient for stimulus recognition.
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