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Abstract

In this chapter we will review experiments using both explicit and implicit tasks to investigate object recognition using familiar objects (faces), unusual renderings of familiar objects (point-light walker), and novel scenes. While it is unlikely that participants would have already seen the particular renderings of familiar objects used in an experiment, they have definitely seen similar objects. For this reason, unfamiliar objects are used in many experiments to circumvent the problem of uncontrolled variations in prior exposure to objects. Another reason for using unfamiliar objects is that they allow us precise control over the types of features that are available for discrimination. How our visual system represents familiar and unfamiliar three-dimensional objects for the purpose of recognition is a difficult and passionately discussed issue. At the theoretical level a key question that any representational scheme has to address is how much the internal model depends on the viewing parameters. We will present 2 types of models regarding this issue and also address the question of whether the recognition process is more analytic or more holistic.