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Journal Article 5.1: Gold, J. M. (2014). A perceptually completed whole is less than the sum of its parts. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1206-1217. doi:10.1177/0956797614530725

Abstract: How efficiently do people integrate the disconnected image fragments that fall on their eyes when they view partly occluded objects? In the present study, the author used a psychophysical summation-at-threshold technique to address this question by measuring discrimination performance with both isolated and combined features of physically fragmented but perceptually complete objects. If visual completion promotes superior integration efficiency, performance with a visually completed object should exceed what would be expected from performance with the individual object parts shown in isolation. Contrary to this prediction, results showed that discrimination performance with both static and moving versions of physically fragmented but perceptually complete objects was significantly worse than would be expected from performance with their constituent parts. These results present a challenge for future theories of visual completion.

Journal Article 5.2: Grill-Spector, K., & Sayres, R. (2008). Object recognition: Insights from advances in fMRI methods. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(2), 73-79. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00552.x

Abstract: Recent advancements in imaging methods and analysis approaches have provided important insights about the neural bases of object recognition. We address the potential limitations of standard functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and discuss methodological advancements, including fMRI-adaptation, pattern analyses, and high-resolution fMRI, that may be more appropriate for studying object and face representations. fMRI-adaptation and high-resolution fMRI measure responses of neural subpopulations within standard fMRI voxels, and pattern analyses examine the information in the distributed activations across voxels, which may differ from the mean response across these voxels. These methods have provided evidence for a multitude of representations across the human ventral stream that provide empirical constraints for cognitive theories of recognition.

Journal Article 5.3: Smith, L. B. (2009). From fragments to geometric shape: Changes in visual object recognition between 18 and 24 months. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(5), 290-294. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01654.x

Abstract: Visual object recognition is foundational to processes of categorization, tool use, and real-world problem solving. Despite considerable effort across many disciplines and many specific advances, there is no comprehensive or well-accepted account of this ability. Moreover, none of the extant approaches consider how human object recognition develops. New evidence indicates a period of rapid change in toddlers' visual object recognition between 18 and 24 months that is related to the learning of object names and to goal-directed action. Children appear to shift from recognition based on piecemeal fragments to recognition based on geometric representations of three-dimensional shape. These findings may lead to a more unified understanding of the processes that make human object recognition as impressive as it is.