Journal article
Evidence of fixed capacity in visual object categorization
Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol.18(4), pp.713-721
08/2011
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-011-0101-1
PMCID: PMC6999811
PMID: 21538202
Abstract
How is visual object perception limited by divided attention? Whereas some theories have proposed that it is not limited at all (unlimited capacity), others have proposed that divided attention introduces restrictive capacity limitations or serial processing (fixed capacity). We addressed this question using a task in which observers searched for instances of particular object categories, such as a moose or squirrel. We applied an extended simultaneous-sequential paradigm to test the fixed-capacity and unlimited-capacity models (
Experiment 1
). The results were consistent with fixed capacity and rejected unlimited capacity. We ascertained that these results were due to attention, and not to sensory interactions such as crowding, by repeating the experiment using a cuing paradigm with physically identical displays (
Experiment 2
). The results from both experiments were consistent with theories of object perception that have fixed capacity, and they rejected theories with unlimited capacity. Both serial and parallel models with fixed capacity remain viable alternatives.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Evidence of fixed capacity in visual object categorization
- Creators
- Alec ScharffJohn PalmerCathleen M Moore - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol.18(4), pp.713-721
- DOI
- 10.3758/s13423-011-0101-1
- PMID
- 21538202
- PMCID
- PMC6999811
- NLM abbreviation
- Psychon Bull Rev
- ISSN
- 1069-9384
- eISSN
- 1531-5320
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2011
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Injury Prevention Research Center
- Record Identifier
- 9984002363002771
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