Categorization and Expertise in Human Visual Cognition

人类视觉认知的分类和专业知识

• 批准号: 9615819
• 负责人: Michael Tarr
• 金额: $ 23.36万
• 依托单位: Brown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-05-01 至 2001-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9615819&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Categorization; Expertise; Human; Visual; Cognition

9615819 TARR This research will investigate visual recognition mechanisms employed by human observers across different levels of categorization and expertise, with particular reference to the difference between faces and non-face objects. Earlier studies making claims for face-specific recognition mechanisms include a number of experimental confounds. Addressing these concerns will first require the use of computer graphics to create carefully controlled three-dimensional objects for presentation in psychophysical, neuropsychological, and functional neuroimaging experiments. These objects will include a set of non-face control objects that will combine several properties of faces (such as a fixed configuration of parts and homogeneity across the class) but none of their superficial characteristics. A first set of psychophysical experiments will use these novel stimuli, as well as familiar classes of objects, to assess which of the several "face-specific" behavioral effects described in the literature can be obtained for a) individual as opposed to more categorical judgments for the same objects and, b) with experts as opposed to novice participants. New expertise training procedures will provide methods for manipulating participants' experience with the novel object class as well as a better understanding of the reorganization of recognition mechanisms that may occur during expertise acquisition. A second set of experiments will test brain-lesioned patients traditionally classified as having a face-specific disorder in neuropsychological experiments with the same object class to test whether face-recognition deficits may be better described as an impairment of exemplar-level processing mechanisms. Testing of these patients will be performed in a manner closer to what is standard in the testing of normal participants, by improving the control of object presentation and of response measurements, in particular using reaction times and signal detection measure s. Other experiments will use methods developed for studying the creation of expertise in normals to explore the plasticity of the visual system of patients with recognition deficits. A third set of experiments will study the neural substrate of exemplar vs. categorical level visual judgments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While the importance of comparing face processing to exemplar-level processing of non-face objects has been acknowledged, few studies have compared recognition judgments at different levels of abstraction for the same objects, in particular, under conditions where participants begin as novices and then gain experience with an object class. Longitudinal fMRI studies will assess the neural changes underlying expertise acquisition at multiple levels of categorization. Overall, these experiments should shed some light on the issue of face-specificity in the visual system, provide data about the role of categorization level and expertise for object recognition, explore rehabilitation possibilities for patients with visual form recognition deficits, and extend our understanding of the plasticity of the human visual system. ***

9615819 TARR本研究将调查人类观察者在不同层次的分类和专业知识中采用的视觉识别机制，特别是人脸和非人脸物体之间的差异。 早期的研究声称面部特异性识别机制包括一些实验混淆。 解决这些问题首先需要使用计算机图形学来创建精心控制的三维对象，用于心理物理学，神经心理学和功能性神经成像实验。 这些对象将包括一组非面部控制对象，这些对象将联合收割机面部的几个属性（例如部件的固定配置和类中的同质性），但不包含其表面特征。 第一组心理物理学实验将使用这些新的刺激，以及熟悉的物体类别，以评估文献中描述的几种“面部特异性”行为效应中的哪一种可以获得：a）个体，而不是对相同物体的更明确的判断; B）专家，而不是新手参与者。 新的专门知识培训程序将提供操纵参与者的经验与新的对象类的方法，以及更好地了解重组的识别机制，可能会发生在专业知识的收购。 第二组实验将测试传统上被归类为具有面部特异性障碍的脑损伤患者，以测试面部识别缺陷是否可以更好地描述为范例级处理机制的损伤。 这些患者的测试将以更接近于正常参与者测试中的标准的方式进行，通过改善对对象呈现和响应测量的控制，特别是使用反应时间和信号检测测量。 其他实验将使用为研究正常人的专业知识创造而开发的方法，以探索识别缺陷患者视觉系统的可塑性。 第三组实验将使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）研究样例与分类水平视觉判断的神经基质。 虽然人脸处理的重要性进行比较，非人脸对象的范例级处理已被承认，很少有研究比较识别判断在不同层次的抽象相同的对象，特别是，在参与者开始作为新手，然后获得经验的对象类的条件下。 纵向功能磁共振成像研究将评估神经的变化，在多个层次的分类专业知识的收购。 总的来说，这些实验应该阐明视觉系统中的面部特异性问题，提供有关分类水平和物体识别专业知识的作用的数据，探索视觉形式识别缺陷患者的康复可能性，并扩展我们对人类视觉系统可塑性的理解。 ***