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1. The Vanderbilt Holistic Processing Tests for Novel Objects: Validation in Novice Participants

   Chua, K.W. ; Gauthier, I. ( January 2020 , Journal of expertise)

   null (Ed.)

   In recent work, the Vanderbilt Holistic Processing Tests for novel objects (VHPT-NOs), were used to show that holistic processing for artificial objects increased as a function of parametric variation of experience. Here, novices are tested on the VHPT-Nos to address two questions. First, does the test detect any level of holistic processing for novel objects in novices? Second, how is part matching performance on this test related to object recognition ability, as measured by the Novel Object Memory Test (NOMT)? In a high-powered study, we provide substantial evidence of no holistic processing on the VHPT-NO in novices, including for arguably facelike symmetrical Greebles. Evidence of no correlations between measures of holistic processing suggests that these indices can be considered free of influences from domain-general selective attention. In contrast, overall performance in part matching in the VHPT-NO shows shared variance across categories, which we postulate is related to object recognition. A second study provides direct evidence that part matching measures to a large extent the same ability as whole object learning on the NOMT. Our results suggest that any holistic processing measured in the VHPT-NOs will not be contaminated by domain-general effects and can be considered entirely due to experience with a category. The VHPT-NO will therefore be useful in further examination of how different aspects of experience contribute to the development of holistic processing. 

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2. What We Could Learn About Holistic Face Processing Only From Nonface Objects

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420920620  

   Gauthier, Isabel ( August 2020 , Current Directions in Psychological Science)

   null (Ed.)

   Holistic processing is inferred from a number of effects, many of which suggest that people generally find it difficult to process face parts independently. The study of holistic processing using faces has revealed many failures of convergence across different measures, as well as very poor reliability. New tasks designed for individual-differences measurement of holistic processing are more reliable. But other challenges to the study of individual differences in holistic processing require a different approach, in particular the use of nonface objects. Observers’ experiences with faces may be so extensive that it cannot be quantified. In addition, it is difficult to manipulate experience with faces to study causes and mechanisms underlying holistic effects. Recent work has combined an individual-differences approach with a parametric manipulation of experience to reveal that holistic processing arises from domain-specific experience. Other work has revealed that learned attention to parts is sufficient to result in holistic processing, consistent with a mechanism rooted in category-specific learned attention. 

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3. Thickness of deep layers in FFA predicts face recognition performance

   Gauthier, I ; McGugin, R.W. ; Tamber-Rosenau, B. ; Newton, A. ( January 2017 , Journal of vision)

   Individual differences in expertise with non-face objects has been positively related to neural selectivity for these objects in several brain regions, including in the fusiform face area (FFA). Recently, we reported that FFA’s cortical thickness is also positively correlated with expertise for non-living objects, while FFA’s cortical thickness is negatively correlated with face recognition ability. These opposite relations between structure and visual abilities, obtained in the same subjects, were postulated to reflect the earlier experience with faces relative to cars, with different mechanisms of plasticity operating at these different developmental times. Here we predicted that variability for faces, presumably reflecting pruning, would be found selectively in deep cortical layers. In 13 men selected to vary in their performance with faces, we used ultra-high field imaging (7 Tesla), we localized the FFA functionally and collected and averaged 6 ultra-high resolution susceptibility weighed images (SWI). Voxel dimensions were 0.194x0.194x1.00mm, covering 20 slices with 0.1mm gap. Images were then processed by two operators blind to behavioral results to define the gray matter/white matter (deep) and gray matter/CSF (superficial) cortical boundaries. Internal boundaries between presumed deep, middle and superficial cortical layers were obtained with an automated method based on image intensities. We used an extensive battery of behavioral tests to quantify both face and object recognition ability. We replicate prior work with face and non-living object recognition predicting large and independent parts of the variance in cortical thickness of the right FFA, in different directions. We also find that face recognition is specifically predicted by the thickness of the deep cortical layers in FFA, whereas recognition of vehicles relates to the thickness of all cortical layers. Our results represent the most precise structural correlate of a behavioral ability to date, linking face recognition ability to a specific layer of a functionally-defined area. 

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4. The role of category- and exemplar-specific experience in ensemble processing of objects

   https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02162-4  

   Cha, Oakyoon ; Blake, Randolph ; Gauthier, Isabel ( January 2020 , Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics)

   null (Ed.)

   People can relatively easily report summary properties for ensembles of objects, suggesting that this information can enrich visual experience and increase the efficiency of perceptual processing. Here, we ask whether the ability to judge diversity within object arrays improves with experience. We surmised that ensemble judgments would be more accurate for commonly experienced objects, and perhaps even more for objects of expertise like faces. We also expected improvements in ensemble processing with practice with a novel category, and perhaps even more with repeated experience with specific exemplars. We compared the effect of experience on diversity judgments for arrays of objects, with participants being tested with either a small number of repeated exemplars or with a large number of exemplars from the same object category. To explore the role of more prolonged experience, we tested participants with completely novel objects (random-blobs), with objects familiar at the category level (cars), and with objects with which observers are experts at subordinate-level recognition (faces). For objects that are novel, participants showed evidence of improved ability to distribute attention. In contrast, for object categories with long-term experience, i.e., faces and cars, performance improved during the experiment but not necessarily due to improved ensemble processing. Practice with specific exemplars did not result in better diversity judgments for all object categories. Considered together, these results suggest that ensemble processing improves with experience. However, the role of experience is rapid, does not rely on exemplar-level knowledge and may not benefit from subordinate-level expertise. 

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5. Developmental emergence of holistic processing in word recognition

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13372  

   Nischal, Roshni Pushpa ; Behrmann, Marlene ( January 2023 , Developmental Science)

   Holistic processing (HP) of faces refers to the obligatory, simultaneous processing of the parts and their relations, and it emerges over the course of development. HP is manifest in a decrement in the perception of inverted versus upright faces and a reduction in face processing ability when the relations between parts are perturbed. Here, adopting the HP framework for faces, we examined the developmental emergence of HP in another domain for which human adults have expertise, namely, visual word processing. Children, adolescents, and adults performed a lexical decision task and we used two established signatures of HP for faces: the advantage in perception of upright over inverted words and nonwords and the reduced sensitivity to increasing parts (word length). Relative to the other groups, children showed less of an advantage for upright versus inverted trials and lexical decision was more affected by increasing word length. Performance on these HP indices was strongly associated with age and with reading proficiency. Also, the emergence of HP for word perception was not simply a result of improved visual perception over the course of development as no group differences were observed on an object decision task. These results reveal the developmental emergence of HP for orthographic input, and reflect a further instance of experience-dependent tuning of visual perception. These results also add to existing findings on the commonalities of mechanisms of word and face recognition. 

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