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

视觉世界很少被整齐地预先包装成有序的快照，以适应一个僵化的感知系统。相反，在我们的视觉环境中，由单词和物体投射的视网膜图像可以有很大的变化（例如，在大小、形状、方向上）从遭遇到遭遇。然而，我们似乎很容易就能确定这些项目。理解感知系统如何实现这种感知恒定性将为人类认知提供基本的见解。因此，许多研究都致力于这个问题;特别是，了解个人如何识别旋转远离其规范方向的单词和物体。然而，几乎所有的后者的研究都集中在理解识别迷失方向的单词和物体显示只有一个项目。重要的是，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的研究也几乎完全集中在解决这种感知挑战的内部手段上（例如，心理表征的转换）。然而，在实验室之外，人们经常使用简单的身体动作（即，外部手段）以促进感知和认知处理。在试图识别迷失方向的单词和物体的上下文中也是如此。具体地说，当个体遇到复杂的旋转刺激时，他们通常在身体上旋转他们的身体以近似刺激的方向。我们认为（Risko et al.，在这种情况下使用动作代表了一种认知卸载，其中人们通过物理操纵他们的身体来颠覆参与努力的内部处理的需要（即，外部处理）。这些行为在我们的日常生活中很常见。事实上，我们灵活部署内部流程以及内部和外部流程的临时混合以追求我们的认知目标的能力可能代表了在复杂环境中成为成功的认知主体的定义特征。随着人类认知的具身化方法的兴起，这种使用行动来促进信息处理的策略开始吸引大量的关注。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。我的研究计划将提供（1）在复杂的多项显示中旋转单词和物体识别的内部机制和（2）在这种情况下内部和外部过程之间的相互作用的更深入的理解。这项研究将使我们更接近于理解复杂自然主义背景下认知的基本机制。因此，这项研究计划可以直接通知应用程序，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，这项研究计划可以为在一系列环境中改善认知表现的策略的制定提供信息。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情况）正在成为加拿大人生活中日益突出的一部分，因此了解我们如何使用外部资源来帮助我们思考将对我们社会的未来需求变得越来越重要。

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.