Basic Mechanisms Underlying Object and Word Identification in Complex Displays: An Embodied Approach

复杂显示中物体和文字识别的基本机制：一种具体化方法

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-04532
• 负责人: Risko, Evan
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=566580
• 关键词: Basic; Mechanisms; Underlying; Object; Word

The visual world rarely comes neatly pre-packaged into orderly snapshots fitting for a perceptual system rigid in its operation. Rather, the retinal image projected by the words and objects in our visual environment can vary considerably (e.g., in size, shape, orientation) from encounter to encounter. Nevertheless, we identify these items with seeming ease. Understanding how the perceptual system achieves this perceptual constancy will provide fundamental insight into human cognition. As such, much research has been devoted to this question; in particular, to understanding how individuals identify words and objects rotated away from their canonical orientation. However, almost all of this latter research has focused on understanding the identification of disoriented words and objects in displays with only a single item. Critically, our visual environments are rarely so simple. Thus, we need a deeper understanding of the basic mechanisms that enable our ability to identify disoriented words and objects embedded in complex multi-item displays. Research on the identification of disoriented words and objects has also concentrated almost exclusively on internal means of solving this perceptual challenge (e.g., transformations of mental representations). However, outside of the laboratory, individuals often use simple physical actions (i.e., external means) to facilitate perceptual and cognitive processing. This is also true in the context of attempting to identify disoriented words and objects. Specifically, when individuals encounter a complex rotated stimulus, they often physically rotate their body to approximate the orientation of the stimulus. We have argued (Risko et al., in press) that the use of action in this context represents a kind of cognitive offloading where people subvert the need to engage in effortful internal processing by physically manipulating their bodies (i.e., external processing). These types of behaviours are common in our day-to-day lives. Indeed, our ability to flexibly deploy internal processes and ad hoc mixtures of internal and external processes in pursuit of our cognitive goals likely represents a defining feature of what it means to be a successful cognitive agent in a complex environment. This strategy of using an action to facilitate information processing has begun to attract a great deal of attention with the emerging popularity of embodied approaches to human cognition. Nevertheless, we have a very limited understanding, from a basic science viewpoint, of this fundamental aspect of human cognition. My program of research will provide a deeper understanding of (1) the internal mechanisms underlying rotated word and object identification in complex multi-item displays and (2) the interaction between internal and external processes in that context. This research will move us closer to an understanding of the basic mechanisms that underlie cognition in complex naturalistic contexts. As such, this program of research can directly inform application, for example, the design of visual information displays. In addition, through a better understanding of how we use external means to aid cognition, this program of research can inform the development of strategies for improving cognitive performance in a range of settings. For example, recent trends suggest that person-technology integration (a common case of the integration of internal with external processes) is becoming an increasingly prominent part of Canadian’s lives, thus understanding how we use external resources to help us think will become increasingly important to our society’s future needs.

视觉世界很少被整齐地预先打包成有序的快照，以适应在运作中僵化的感知系统。相反，在我们的视觉环境中，单词和物体所投射的视网膜图像在不同的情况下会有很大的变化（例如，在大小、形状、方向上）。然而，我们似乎很容易地识别出这些项目。理解感知系统是如何实现这种感知稳定性的，将为人类认知提供基本的见解。因此，很多研究都致力于这个问题；特别是，了解个人如何识别偏离其规范方向的单词和物体。然而，几乎所有这些后期的研究都集中在理解在只有一个项目的展示中迷失方向的单词和物体的识别上。关键是，我们的视觉环境很少如此简单。因此，我们需要更深入地了解基本机制，使我们能够识别嵌入在复杂的多项目显示中的迷失方向的单词和对象。对迷失方向的单词和物体的识别研究也几乎完全集中在解决这一感知挑战的内部方法上（例如，心理表征的转换）。然而，在实验室之外，个体经常使用简单的身体动作（即外部手段）来促进感知和认知加工。在试图识别迷失方向的单词和物体的情况下也是如此。具体来说，当个体遇到复杂的旋转刺激时，他们通常会物理地旋转身体以接近刺激的方向。我们认为（Risko et al., in press），在这种情况下，行动的使用代表了一种认知卸载，在这种情况下，人们通过身体操纵他们的身体（即外部处理）来颠覆参与努力的内部处理的需要。这些行为在我们的日常生活中很常见。事实上，我们在追求认知目标的过程中灵活部署内部过程和内部和外部过程的特殊混合的能力，可能代表了在复杂环境中成为一个成功的认知主体的定义特征。随着人类认知的具身方法的日益流行，这种使用动作来促进信息处理的策略已经开始引起人们的极大关注。然而，从基础科学的角度来看，我们对人类认知的这一基本方面的理解非常有限。我的研究项目将提供一个更深入的理解：(1)在复杂的多项目显示中旋转单词和物体识别的内部机制；(2)在这种情况下内部和外部过程之间的相互作用。这项研究将使我们更接近于理解复杂自然情境下认知的基本机制。因此，该研究方案可以直接为应用提供信息，例如视觉信息显示的设计。此外，通过更好地了解我们如何使用外部手段来帮助认知，这个研究项目可以为在一系列环境中提高认知表现的策略的发展提供信息。例如，最近的趋势表明，人与技术的整合（内部与外部流程整合的常见案例）正在成为加拿大人生活中越来越重要的一部分，因此了解我们如何利用外部资源来帮助我们思考对我们社会未来的需求将变得越来越重要。