Surface Feature Change Affect Visual Object Persistence

Preserving the persisting representation of same objects is one of the basic functions of human visual cognition. Object files theory had became a main theoretical framework to explore this issue in recent years. Researchers who used Object reviewing paradigm viewed the Object Specific Preview Benefits (OSPBs) as an index of object persistence. The theory believed that temporal and spatial information instead of feature information guided the object persistence, and relevant studies in the field of object files failed to find evidences that feature affect OSPBs. However, previous studies only consider the role of static feature while neglecting the role of dynamic feature change.Within the framework of object files theory, the role of surface feature change during object moving in preserving persisting object representation was explored in this study. Experiment 1 verified the basic OSPBs in the condition of object preserving its size. Experiment 2 explored the OSPBs in the condition of object's size changing abruptly at the end of motion. Experiment 3 explored the OSPBs in the condition of object's size changing gradually during the motion. With revised object reviewing paradigm, the following 3 experiments investigated the role of object's shape. Experiment 4 aimed to verify the OSPBs in the condition of no change. Experiment 5 and Experiment 6 examined the OSPBs in the condition of object changing gradually and abruptly during motion.The results showed that: (1) There were significant OSPBs in both Experiment 1 (no change in size) and Experiment 4(no change in shape); (2) There were significant OSPBs in Experiment 2(abrupt change in size); (3) No significant OSPBs was found in Experiment 3 (gradual change in size), Experiment 4 (gradual change in shape) and Experiment 5 (abrupt change in shape). (4) No significant location specific preview benefits was found in Experiment 4, 5 and 6. This study got the preliminary evidence that feature change affect the persisting representation of visual object. Following studies in the future should select surface feature systematically to verify the conclusion thoroughly.