Encoding Features of Complex and Unfamiliar Objects

• Published in: The American journal of psychology Vol. 111; no. 2; pp. 215 - 239
• Main Authors: Modigliani, Vito, Loverock, David S., Kirson, S. Ruth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States University of Illinois Press 1998; University of Illinois Press, etc
• Subjects: Adult; Attention; Cognition; Cognitive psychology; Discrimination Learning; Eyes & eyesight; Female; Humans; Leaves; Male; Memory; Memory, Short-Term; Mental objects; Mental Recall; Orientation; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Psychology; Reaction Time; Recognition (Memory); Recognition (Psychology); Saliency; Sensory perception; Size Perception; Spatial perception; Standard error; Visual perception
• ISSN: 0002-9556; 1939-8298
• DOI: 10.2307/1423487

This study explored the acquisition of features from complex, unfamiliar objects. It tested the principle of top-down encoding, which predicts that the time needed to detect a difference between stimuli that differ in only one critical feature increases and recognition decreases as the level of that feature decreases. Results of Experiment 1 supported these hypotheses. Experiment 2 eliminated retroactive interference as an explanation for the results of Experiment 1. Experiment 3 showed that top-down encoding can be altered by explicit instructions to attend the relevant feature. It also showed that discriminability due to size was not a factor in Experiments 1-3. Experiment 4 showed that the top-down principle can account for how people encode features as a function of task demands. Overall, the results indicate that under normal attention conditions, the probability of encoding a feature decreases with its structural level. However, this tendency can be altered by explicit instructions or other factors.