Visual and auditory object correspondence

• Applicant: Dr. Anja Fiedler
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2013 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235082372

Object perception involves parsing of sensory information into distinct and meaningful object representations. Furthermore, since an object and his observer are part of a dynamic scene, the perceptual system has to periodically decide whether changes in sensory input reflect changes of already encoded objects (i.e. object correspondence) or whether this input reflects a novel object which entered the scene. There are two important types of cue which can either support the perception of object correspondence or enforce the establishment of a new object representation. These two cues are on the one hand the predicted spatiotemporal trajectory of the object and on the other hand surface features (like for instance color and shape). It is assumed that the perceptual system flexibly weights both types of cues when computing object correspondence. Another important type of cue for object correspondence constitutes the scene-based context. That is, objects are usually not perceived in isolation but embedded within structured context. The context provides causal explanations for the arrangement and appearance of objects as well as reasons for possible changes of objects. Since scene context can affect object perception, it is necessary to examine the specific influence of context on object correspondence. To this end, the present research project has been designed. It will evaluate the role of scene context as cues for object correspondence and examine their interplay with spatiotemporal and surface feature cues. The project consists of several behavioral and electrophysiological studies which investigate first and foremost whether (a) new object representations can be established merely due to context information and whether (b) there is a preattentive influence of scene context on object correspondence. Evidence for an important role of context for the perception of object correspondence will then be integrated into existing theories of object perception. A remarkable aspect of the proposed project is the parallel investigation of visual and auditory object correspondence. Previous research on object correspondence mainly focused on the visual modality. Therefore it is necessary to demonstrate whether existent evidence for object correspondence can be transferred to audition. Thereby, it will be possible to either identify modality-specific differences or generalize existing theories of object correspondence which would strengthen their explanatory and predictive value.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professorin Dr. Cathleen M. Moore