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Unraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: Bridging brain activity and behavior.

Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & PerformancePublished 1 January 2002
L. Gauthier, Michael J. Tarr
Citations301
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.20
SNIP1.22

TL;DR

The authors found that holistic-configural effects can arise from object representations that are differentiated in terms of features or parts, and found that a holistic-inclusive effect was correlated with changes in the right FFA.

Abstract

Behavioral sensitivity to object transformations and the response to novel objects (Greebles) in the fusiform face area (FFA) was measured several times during expertise training. Sensitivity to 3 transformations increased with expertise: (a) configural changes in which halves of objects were misaligned, (b) configural changes in which some of the object parts were moved, and (c) the substitution of an object part with a part from a different object. The authors found that holistic-configural effects can arise from object representations that are differentiated in terms of features or parts. Moreover, a holistic-inclusive effect was correlated with changes in the right FFA. Face recognition may not be unique in its reliance on holistic processing, measured in terms of both behavior and brain activation.

Keywords

PsychologyNeuroscience