Visual experience consists of more than just individual snapshots of the world; we must bind these discrete snapshots over time into a coherent experience. Not only must we perceive objects, but we must see them as the same, persisting objects over time and motion. While much research has explored object representations, surprisingly little has focused on the factors underlying the representation of persisting objects. These proposed studies systematically explore this issue by merging approaches and techniques from two distinct literatures.-infant cognition and object-based attention in adults. In each of these literatures I examine the influence of trajectory information and the role of boundedness over time, asking questions such as: If an object passes behind an occluder and emerges along an unexpected path, will it still e considered the same object? When two objects ambiguously cross paths, what factors influence the perception of what went where? If an object suddenly divides into two new object, in what senses do they retain the identity of the original? In addressing such issues of persisting objecthood I will offer new insights into how the visual system works to represent our complex, ever-changing visual world.
| Fleck, Mathias S; Samei, Ehsan; Mitroff, Stephen R (2010) Generalized ""satisfaction of search"": adverse influences on dual-target search accuracy. J Exp Psychol Appl 16:60-71 |
| Mitroff, Stephen R; Scholl, Brian J; Noles, Nicholaus S (2007) Object files can be purely episodic. Perception 36:1730-5 |
| Mitroff, Stephen R; Sobel, David M; Gopnik, Alison (2006) Reversing how to think about ambiguous figure reversals: spontaneous alternating by uninformed observers. Perception 35:709-15 |
| Mitroff, Stephen R; Scholl, Brian J (2005) Forming and updating object representations without awareness: evidence from motion-induced blindness. Vision Res 45:961-7 |
| Noles, Nicholaus S; Scholl, Brian J; Mitroff, Stephen R (2005) The persistence of object file representations. Percept Psychophys 67:324-34 |
| Mitroff, Stephen R; Scholl, Brian J; Wynn, Karen (2005) The relationship between object files and conscious perception. Cognition 96:67-92 |
| Mitroff, Stephen R; Scholl, Brian J; Wynn, Karen (2004) Divide and conquer: how object files adapt when a persisting object splits into two. Psychol Sci 15:420-5 |
| Mitroff, Stephen R; Scholl, Brian J (2004) Seeing the disappearance of unseen objects. Perception 33:1267-73 |
| Mitroff, Stephen R; Simons, Daniel J; Levin, Daniel T (2004) Nothing compares 2 views: change blindness can occur despite preserved access to the changed information. Percept Psychophys 66:1268-81 |
