The neural correlates of domain-general visual ability.

People vary in their general ability to compare, identify, and remember objects. Research using latent variable modeling identifies a domain-general visual recognition ability (called o) that reflects correlations among different visual tasks and categories. We measure associations between a psychometrically-sensitive measure of o and a neurometrically-sensitive measure of visual sensitivity to shape. We report evidence for distributed neural correlates of o using functional and anatomical regions-of-interest (ROIs) as well as whole brain analyses. Neural selectivity to shape is associated with o in several regions of the ventral pathway, as well as additional foci in parietal and premotor cortex. Multivariate analyses suggest the distributed effects in ventral cortex reflect a common mechanism. The network of brain areas where neural selectivity predicts o is similar to that evoked by the most informative features for object recognition in prior work, showing convergence of 2 different approaches on identifying areas that support the best object recognition performance. Because o predicts performance across many visual tasks for both novel and familiar objects, we propose that o could predict the magnitude of neural changes in task-relevant areas following experience with specific task and object category.

Novel and familiar object recognition rely on the same ability.

There is recent evidence for a domain-general object recognition ability, called O, which is distinct from general intelligence and other cognitive and personality constructs. We extend the study of O by characterizing how it generalizes to the ability to recognize familiar objects and to the ability to make judgments of the average identity of ensembles of objects. We applied latent variable modeling to data collected from a sample of adults (N = 284) in three different tasks and for six different object domains (three novel and three familiar). The results replicated prior work in finding that on average 88% of the variance of lower-order factors could be accounted by O for novel objects. The latent constructs recruited by the higher-order factor for novel objects and for familiar objects were almost perfectly correlated and therefore functionally identical. A latent factor for ensemble perception shared about 42% of the variance with O, suggesting at least strong overlap between abilities supporting judgments about individual objects and ensemble of objects. This work extends the theoretical reach of O by showing generalization across two dimensions (familiar vs. novel objects; individual vs. ensemble object perception). With respect to the structure of individual differences in high-level vision, researchers would benefit from accounting for the contribution of O when seeking to understand various domain-specific abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Gender and hometown population density interact to predict face recognition ability.

Several studies have found that individuals from small hometowns show diminished face recognition ability as compared with individuals from larger hometowns. We further this line of research by relating six measures of face recognition ability to hometown density. We predicted that the three face recognition ability measures which included a learning component would relate to hometown density whereas the three measures which did not include such a learning component would not. Instead, we found that none of the six measures related to hometown density. Interestingly, we found interactions between gender and hometown population density on many of these measures and on a general index of face recognition, with females from small hometowns outperforming males from small hometowns but no such differences in the large hometown group. In a follow-up re-analysis of a previous study, we found a similar interaction in one of two face recognition ability measures. Together, these results reveal a pattern of gender differences modulated by hometown population density. If indeed experience with faces in one's hometown influences face recognition ability, understanding these effects may require more than a quantification of the environment. Men and women growing up in the same environment likely have different experiences, which likely modulates effects on visual abilities.

Individual differences in object recognition.

There is substantial evidence for individual differences in personality and cognitive abilities, but we lack clear intuitions about individual differences in visual abilities. Previous work on this topic has typically compared performance with only 2 categories, each measured with only 1 task. This approach is insufficient for demonstration of domain-general effects. Most previous work has used familiar object categories, for which experience may vary between participants and categories, thereby reducing correlations that would stem from a common factor. In Study 1, we adopted a latent variable approach to test for the first time whether there is a domain-general object recognition ability, o. We assessed whether shared variance between latent factors representing performance for each of 5 novel object categories could be accounted for by a single higher-order factor. On average, 89% of the variance of lower-order factors denoting performance on novel object categories could be accounted for by a higher-order factor, providing strong evidence for o. Moreover, o also accounted for a moderate proportion of variance in tests of familiar object recognition. In Study 2, we assessed whether the strong association across categories in object recognition is due to third-variable influences. We find that o has weak to moderate associations with a host of cognitive, perceptual, and personality constructs and that a clear majority of the variance in and covariance between performance on different categories is independent of fluid intelligence. This work provides the first demonstration of a reliable, specific, and domain-general object recognition ability, and suggest a rich framework for future work in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

How faces (and cars) may become special.

Recent reports have shown that individuals from small hometowns show relatively poor face recognition ability as measured by the Cambridge Face Memory Test or CFMT (Balas & Saville, 2015, 2017), suggesting that the number of faces present in an individual's visual environment relates to that individual's face recognition ability. We replicate this finding in a sample from a different region (Nebraska) and with more variable age distribution. We extend the study by using another test of face recognition ability that does not require learning over trials, and with non-face object recognition tests that share the learning format with the CFMT. We find no hometown effect in these other tests, although more power would be required to show the CFMT effect is significantly larger. We use the same dataset to explore whether experience with more faces and cars in larger hometowns leads to specialization of these abilities. We find strong and substantial support for the hypothesis that the recognition abilities for faces and for cars are more independent from general object recognition in people from larger hometowns. This suggests that experience may be critical to the specialization of these abilities.

Visual imagery of faces and cars in face-selective visual areas.

Neuroimaging provides a unique tool to investigate otherwise difficult-to-access mental processes like visual imagery. Prior studies support the idea that visual imagery is a top-down reinstatement of visual perception, and it is likely that this extends to object processing. Here we use functional MRI and multi-voxel pattern analysis to ask if mental imagery of cars engages the fusiform face area, similar to what is found during perception. We test only individuals who we assumed could imagine individual car models based on their above-average perceptual abilities with cars. Our results provide evidence that cars are represented differently from common objects in face-selective visual areas, at least in those with above-average car recognition ability. Moreover, pattern classifiers trained on data acquired during imagery can decode the neural response pattern acquired during perception, suggesting that the tested object categories are represented similarly during perception and visual imagery. The results suggest that, even at high-levels of visual processing, visual imagery mirrors perception to some extent, and that face-selective areas may in part support non-face object imagery.

Age-related differential item functioning in tests of face and car recognition ability.

The presence of differential item functioning (DIF) in a test suggests bias that could disadvantage members of a certain group. Previous work with tests of visual learning abilities found significant DIF related to age groups in a car test (Lee, Cho, McGugin, Van Gulick, & Gauthier, 2015), but not in a face test (Cho et al., 2015). The presence of age DIF is a threat to the validity of the test even for studies where aging is not of interest. Here, we assessed whether this pattern of age DIF for cars and not faces would also apply to new tests targeting the same abilities with a new matching task that uses two studied items per trial. We found evidence for DIF in matching tests for faces and for cars, though with encouragingly small effect sizes. Even though the age DIF was small enough at the test level to be acceptable for most uses, we also asked whether the specific format of our matching tasks may induce some age-related DIF regardless of domain. We decomposed the face matching task into its components, and using new data from subjects performing these simpler tasks, found evidence that the age DIF was driven by the similarity of the two faces presented at study on each trial. Overall, our results suggest that using a matching format, especially for cars, reduces age-related DIF, and that a simpler matching task with only one study item per trial could reduce age DIF further.

Individual differences in perceptual abilities in medical imaging: the Vanderbilt Chest Radiograph Test.

Radiologists make many important decisions when detecting nodules on chest radiographs. While training can result in high levels of performance of this task, there could be individual differences in relevant perceptual abilities that are present pre-training. A pre-requisite to address this question is a valid and reliable measure of such abilities. The present work introduces a new measure, the Vanderbilt Chest Radiograph Test (VCRT), which aims to quantify individual differences in perceptual abilities for radiograph-related decision-making in novices. We validate the relevance of the test to diagnostic imaging by verifying radiologists' superior performance on the test compared to novices'. The final VCRT version produces scores with acceptable internal consistency. Then, we investigate how the VCRT can be used in future research by evaluating how the test relates to extant measures of face and object recognition ability. We find that the VCRT shares a small but significant portion of its variance with a measure of novel object recognition, suggesting that some aspect of VCRT performance is driven by a domain-general visual ability.

Limited evidence of individual differences in holistic processing in different versions of the part-whole paradigm.

The part-whole paradigm was one of the first measures of holistic processing and it has been used to address several topics in face recognition, including its development, other-race effects, and more recently, whether holistic processing is correlated with face recognition ability. However the task was not designed to measure individual differences and it has produced measurements with low reliability. We created a new holistic processing test designed to measure individual differences based on the part-whole paradigm, the Vanderbilt Part Whole Test (VPWT). Measurements in the part and whole conditions were reliable, but, surprisingly, there was no evidence for reliable individual differences in the part-whole index (how well a person can take advantage of a face part presented within a whole face context compared to the part presented without a whole face) because part and whole conditions were strongly correlated. The same result was obtained in a version of the original part-whole task that was modified to increase its reliability. Controlling for object recognition ability, we found that variance in the whole condition does not predict any additional variance in face recognition over what is already predicted by performance in the part condition.

Detection of the number of changes in a display in working memory.

Here we examine a new task to assess working memory for visual arrays in which the participant must judge how many items changed from a studied array to a test array. As a clue to processing, on some trials in the first 2 experiments, participants carried out a metamemory judgment in which they were to decide how many items were in working memory. Trial-to-trial fluctuations in these working memory storage judgments correlated with performance fluctuations within an individual, indicating a need to include trial-to-trial variation within capacity models (through either capacity fluctuation or some other attention parameter). Mathematical modeling of the results achieved a good fit to a complex pattern of results, suggesting that working memory capacity limits can apply even to judgments that involve an entire array rather than just a single item that may have changed, thus providing the expected conscious access to at least some of the contents of working memory.