Congruency effects on object recognition persist when objects are placed in the wild: An AR and mobile EEG study

Abstract

Objects in expected locations are recognised faster and more accurately than objects in incongruent environments. This congruency effect has a neural component, with increased activity for objects in incongruent environments. Studies have increasingly shown differences between neural processes in realistic environments and tasks, and neural processes in the laboratory. To what extent do findings obtained from a laboratory setting translate to neural processes elicited in real-world environments? We investigated how object recognition is modulated when objects are placed in real environments using augmented reality while recording mobile EEG. Participants approached, viewed, and rated how congruent they found the objects with the environment. We found significantly higher theta-band power for objects in incongruent contexts than objects in congruent contexts. This demonstrates that real-world contexts impact on how we recognize objects, and that mobile brain imaging and augmented reality are effective tools to study cognition in the wild.TeaserCombining augmented reality with mobile brain imaging to show that real-world contexts modulate object recognition processes.