Our visual worlds are filled with multiple objects. However, because the visual system has a limited processing capacity, we do not process all of the objects. We have objected-based attentional mechanisms that restrict our processing to a subset of visual objects. Research on object-based has investigated only how humans attend to entire projects. But, objects are composed of parts, a point neglected by studies of object-based attention. Can attention select the individual parts of objects? My previous research has addressed this question, and in the present proposal I outline a series of experiments aimed at understanding the relationship between part- based attentional processes and object recognition processes. Recent object recognition theories propose that there are at least two recognition processes, one in which objects are decomposed into parts and instead are recognized as complex wholes. To determine if part-based attention arises from object recognition processes or is separate from recognition, I will study the effects of part-based attention on objects that are recognized with the non-decomposition process. Thus, if part-based attention arises from the part-decomposition recognition system, then faces should not show part-based effects. In contrast, if part-based attention is separate from recognition processes, then part attention may allow a face to be decomposed into its parts, even though faces do not decomposed for recognition processes, I will conduct control experiments to determine (1) if part-based effects hold for other complex objects (e.g., houses) and (2) if face recognition indeed does not require decomposition. Finally, experiments investigating part attention to upside down faces and the effect of part-based attention on encoding faces into memory will allow me to elucidate further the relationship between attentional processes and object recognition processes. The proposed research is relevant for several mental health issues. For example, different neurological disorders afflict attentional processing (i.e., neglect) and object recognition (i.e., agnosia). Integrating the object attention and object recognition literatures could provide an understanding of the relationships between the neural regions damaged in these syndromes, information which may be useful for rehabilitation.
| Vecera, Shaun P; Flevaris, Anastasia V (2005) Attentional control parameters following parietal-lobe damage: evidence from normal subjects. Neuropsychologia 43:1189-203 |
| Vecera, Shaun P (2004) The reference frame of figure-ground assignment. Psychon Bull Rev 11:909-15 |
| Vecera, Shaun P; Flevaris, Anastasia V; Filapek, Joseph C (2004) Exogenous spatial attention influences figure-ground assignment. Psychol Sci 15:20-6 |
| Vecera, Shaun P; Rizzo, Matthew (2004) What are you looking at? Impaired 'social attention' following frontal-lobe damage. Neuropsychologia 42:1657-65 |
| Vecera, Shaun P; Rizzo, Matthew (2003) Spatial attention: normal processes and their breakdown. Neurol Clin 21:575-607 |
| Woodman, Geoffrey F; Vecera, Shaun P; Luck, Steven J (2003) Perceptual organization influences visual working memory. Psychon Bull Rev 10:80-7 |
| Vecera, Shaun P; Vogel, Edward K; Woodman, Geoffrey F (2002) Lower region: a new cue for figure-ground assignment. J Exp Psychol Gen 131:194-205 |
| Vecera, S P (2002) Dissociating 'what' and 'how' in visual form agnosia: a computational investigation. Neuropsychologia 40:187-204 |
