Elsevier

Vision Research

Volume 37, Issue 1, January 1997, Pages 25-43
Vision Research

Preattentive Object Files: Shapeless Bundles of Basic Features

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989(96)00111-3Get rights and content
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Abstract

A considerable body of recent evidence shows that preattentive processes can carve visual input into candidate objects. Borrowing and modifying terminology from Kahneman and Treisman (1984), this paper investigates the properties of these preattentive object files. Experiments 1–3 show that preattentive object files are loose collections of basic features. Thus, we can know preattentively that an object has the attributes “red” and “vertical” and yet have no idea if any part of the object is red and vertical. Experiment 4 shows that some information about the structure of an object is available preattentively, but Experiments 5–12 search for and fail to find any preattentive representation of overall shape. Appreciation of the overall shape of an object appears to require the binding together of local form features—a process that requires attention. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

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