Abstract

The role of objects in perception can be examined by comparing judgments of objects and parts. In our task, observers viewed two figures sequentially, and made same-different judgments. The comparisons were either between two whole objects or between a whole object and a part. A whole advantage was found. Observers were faster and more accurate on whole comparisons than on partial comparisons. We investigated three hypotheses that may account for this effect. One hypothesis is that the whole advantage is because of an encoding strategy that favors a representation of the whole over representations of the parts. This encoding hypothesis can be contrasted with a second hypothesis that postulates no favoritism in representation but an advantage in retrieval for whole objects over their parts. The third alternative is that the whole advantage may occur due to emergent features present in the whole object that are disturbed in partial comparisons.

© 1991 Optical Society of America