Measuring object recognition ability: Reliability, validity, and the aggregate z-score approach.

Measurement of domain-general object recognition ability (o) requires minimization of domain-specific variance. One approach is to model o as a latent variable explaining performance on a battery of tests which differ in task demands and stimuli; however, time and sample requirements may be prohibitive. Alternatively, an aggregate measure of o can be obtained by averaging z-scores across tests. Using data from Sunday et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 676-694, (2022), we demonstrated that aggregate scores from just two such object recognition tests provide a good approximation (r = .79) of factor scores calculated from a model using a much larger set of tests. Some test combinations produced correlations of up to r = .87 with factor scores. We then revised these tests to reduce testing time, and developed an odd one out task, using a unique object category on nearly every trial, to increase task and stimuli diversity. To validate our measures, 163 participants completed the object recognition tests on two occasions, one month apart. Providing the first evidence that o is stable over time, our short aggregate o measure demonstrated good test-retest reliability (r = .77). The stability of o could not be completely accounted for by intelligence, perceptual speed, and early visual ability. Structural equation modeling suggested that our tests load significantly onto the same latent variable, and revealed that as a latent variable, o is highly stable (r = .93). Aggregation is an efficient method for estimating o, allowing investigation of individual differences in object recognition ability to be more accessible in future studies.

Distinct but related abilities for visual and haptic object recognition.

People vary in their ability to recognize objects visually. Individual differences for matching and recognizing objects visually is supported by a domain-general ability capturing common variance across different tasks (e.g., Richler et al., Psychological Review, 126, 226-251, 2019). Behavioral (e.g., Cooke et al., Neuropsychologia, 45, 484-495, 2007) and neural evidence (e.g., Amedi, Cerebral Cortex, 12, 1202-1212, 2002) suggest overlapping mechanisms in the processing of visual and haptic information in the service of object recognition, but it is unclear whether such group-average results generalize to individual differences. Psychometrically validated measures are required, which have been lacking in the haptic modality. We investigate whether object recognition ability is specific to vision or extends to haptics using psychometric measures we have developed. We use multiple visual and haptic tests with different objects and different formats to measure domain-general visual and haptic abilities and to test for relations across them. We measured object recognition abilities using two visual tests and four haptic tests (two each for two kinds of haptic exploration) in 97 participants. Partial correlation and confirmatory factor analyses converge to support the existence of a domain-general haptic object recognition ability that is moderately correlated with domain-general visual object recognition ability. Visual and haptic abilities share about 25% of their variance, supporting the existence of a multisensory domain-general ability while leaving a substantial amount of residual variance for modality-specific abilities. These results extend our understanding of the structure of object recognition abilities; while there are mechanisms that may generalize across categories, tasks, and modalities, there are still other mechanisms that are distinct between modalities.

Evidence for an amodal domain-general object recognition ability.

A general object recognition ability predicts performance across a variety of high-level visual tests, categories, and performance in haptic recognition. Does this ability extend to auditory recognition? Vision and haptics tap into similar representations of shape and texture. In contrast, features of auditory perception like pitch, timbre, or loudness do not readily translate into shape percepts related to edges, surfaces, or spatial arrangement of parts. We find that an auditory object recognition ability correlates highly with a visual object recognition ability after controlling for general intelligence, perceptual speed, low-level visual ability, and memory ability. Auditory object recognition was a stronger predictor of visual object recognition than all control measures across two experiments, even though those control variables were also tested visually. These results point towards a single high-level ability used in both vision and audition. Much work highlights how the integration of visual and auditory information is important in specific domains (e.g., speech, music), with evidence for some overlap of visual and auditory neural representations. Our results are the first to reveal a domain-general ability, o, that predicts object recognition performance in both visual and auditory tests. Because o is domain-general, it reveals mechanisms that apply across a wide range of situations, independent of experience and knowledge. As o is distinct from general intelligence, it is well positioned to potentially add predictive validity when explaining individual differences in a variety of tasks, above and beyond measures of common cognitive abilities like general intelligence and working memory.

Absence of a mere-exposure effect in older and younger adults.

The mere-exposure effect, in which repeated stimuli are liked more than novel stimuli, is a well-known effect. However, little research has studied adult age differences in mere-exposure effects, despite possible applications in helping older adults transition to new living environments. Here, we report four experiments assessing mere-exposure to neutral-face stimuli in groups of older and younger adult participants tested online. In each experiment, repeated face exposure did not increase liking within either age group; rather, Bayesian evidence favored the null hypothesis of no effect. Older adults reported higher overall liking ratings relative to younger adults, and both groups preferred younger faces, though this tendency was stronger in the younger group. Further exploratory analysis considering factors such as gender or race of the faces and participants did not reveal any consistent results for the mere-exposure effect. We discuss these findings in relation to other recent studies reporting mixed evidence for mere-exposure effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual object recognition ability is not related to experience with visual arts.

Visual arts require the ability to process, categorize, recognize, and understand a variety of visual inputs. These challenges may engage and even influence mechanisms that are also relevant for visual object recognition beyond visual arts. A domain-general object recognition ability that applies broadly across a range of visual tasks was recently discovered. Here, we ask whether experience with visual arts is correlated with this domain-general ability. We developed a new survey to measure general visual arts experience and use it to measure arts experience in 142 individuals in whom we also estimated domain-general object recognition ability. Despite our measures demonstrating high reliability in a large sample size, we found substantial evidence (BF01 = 9.52) for no correlation between visual arts experience and general object recognition ability. This suggests that experience in visual arts has little influence on object recognition skills or vice versa, at least in our sample ranging from low to moderately high levels of arts experience. Our methods can be extended to other populations and our results should be replicated, as they suggest some limitations for the generalization of programs targeting visual literacy beyond the visual arts.

Revealing a competitive dynamic in rapid categorization with object substitution masking.

Categorization at different levels of abstraction have distinct time courses, but the different levels are often considered separately. Superordinate-level categorization is typically faster than basic-level categorization at ultra-rapid exposure durations (< 33 ms) while basic-level categorization is faster than superordinate-level categorization at longer exposure durations. This difference may be due to a competitive dynamic between levels of categorization. By leveraging object substitution masking, we found a distinct time course of masking effects for each level of categorization. Superordinate-level categorization showed a masking effect earlier than basic-level categorization. However, when basic-level categorization first showed a masking effects, superordinate-level categorization was spared despite its earlier masking effect. This unique pattern suggests a trade-off between the two levels of categorization over time. Such an effect supports an account of categorization that depends on the interaction of perceptual encoding, selective attention, and competition between levels of category representation.

Haptic object recognition based on shape relates to visual object recognition ability.

Visual object recognition depends in large part on a domain-general ability (Richler et al. Psychol Rev 126(2): 226-251, 2019). Given evidence pointing towards shared mechanisms for object perception across vision and touch, we ask whether individual differences in haptic and visual object recognition are related. We use existing validated visual tests to estimate visual object recognition ability and relate it to performance on two novel tests of haptic object recognition ability (n = 66). One test includes complex objects that participants chose to explore with a hand grasp. The other test uses a simpler stimulus set that participants chose to explore with just their fingertips. Only performance on the haptic test with complex stimuli correlated with visual object recognition ability, suggesting a shared source of variance across task structures, stimuli, and modalities. A follow-up study using a visual version of the haptic test with simple stimuli shows a correlation with the original visual tests, suggesting that the limited complexity of the stimuli did not limit correlation with visual object recognition ability. Instead, we propose that the manner of exploration may be a critical factor in whether a haptic test relates to visual object recognition ability. Our results suggest a perceptual ability that spans at least across vision and touch, however, it may not be recruited during just fingertip exploration.

Low-dose subcutaneous alemtuzumab is a safe and effective treatment for chronic acquired pure red cell aplasia.

Three patients with pure red cell aplasia, with or without co-existing large granular lymphocytic leukaemia, who remained transfusion-dependent despite treatment with established first-line therapy, were treated with low-dose subcutaneous alemtuzumab 15 mg twice to thrice per week, for 3 to 4 weeks. The mean response time was 17 days compared with a response time of at least 61 days on standard first-line therapy. There were no serious side-effects and the mean duration of remission was 13 months. Low-dose subcutaneous alemtuzumab is a safe and effective treatment for pure red cell aplasia and further trials should be conducted to compare the long-term effectiveness of this treatment with conventional therapy.