Vision is a dynamic process involving continuous changes to the proximal stimulus. Objects move, disappear behind occluding surfaces and then reappear, and are displaced across the retina due to eye, head, and body movements. The purpose of the proposed research is to investigate the nature of the maintenance and combination of information over time and space during dynamic visual object identification. The main focus is to test the hypothesis that the maintenance and combination of object information is a product of two processes, the construction and reviewing of temporary episodic representations (object tokens), and the activation of prestored long-term representations (object types). A secondary focus is to determine whether the maintenance and combination of object information over time and space operates similarly across saccadic eye movements and within a single eye fixation. In order to investigate these issues, three paradigms will be employed. The transsaccadic preview paradigm will provide data concerning the maintenance and combination of object information across saccades. The simulated-saccade preview paradigm will provide data concerning the degree to which the results from the transsaccadic paradigm are contingent on the execution of an eye movement. The within-fixation preview paradigm will provide data concerning the issue of information maintenance and combination in central vision during a single eye fixation. Together, the proposed studies will provide data with which to constrain models of dynamic visual object identification.
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