Effects of distinctive features on recognition of incomplete pictures.

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of distinctive features on recognition of incomplete pictures. Two sets of fragmented picture stimuli were designed: Set A preserved 75% and Set B preserved 25% of the distinctive features of the objects pictured. Within each set of stimuli, a complete (C), an intermediate (I), and a most incomplete (MI) representation of the objects was constructed. In the first experiment, 60 subjects of three different age groups were tested on the MI representations of either Set A or Set B. Results indicate significant differences in the age groups and in stimulus sets. In the second experiment, 36 children were trained on either the C or the I Set A or the I Set B representations. After a day's delay, the children were tested on Set A or Set B MI representations of the objects and to novel representations. Results showed significant differences among training conditions and in the test of the stimulus sets. The concepts of filtering and abstraction of distinctive features as discussed in 1969 by Gibson are mainly used in interpreting the results of the experiments.

Degree of fragmentations and number of distinctive features in the recognition of pictured objects by children and adults

“…The nursery school children identi- This analysis also revealed a significant effect of distinctive features [F(3 ,80) The results of this study extend and support previous results reported in this area (Gollin, 1960(Gollin, , 1961(Gollin, , 1962Murray & Szymczyk, 1978). These studies also reported differences in recognitions of incomplete pictures between children and adults.…”

“…The present study was similar to Murray and Szymczyk's (1978) study , but included three degrees of fragmentation and four degrees of distinctive features for each pictorial representation. In this way, a more detailed analysis of the effects of fragmentations and distinctive features on perceptual recognition by children and adults could be obtained .…”

“…However, even with training, only a mean of 7.5 out of the 20 most incomplete representations were identified by adults, and only an average of lout of 20 were identified by young children. Murray and Szymczyk (1978) varied the distinctive features of incomplete pictures and found a difference in recognition when 75 %versus 25 %of the distinctive fea-nondistinctive features were made in a previous study by having 10 students of Randolph -Macon 's Woman 's College list the three most defining , distinctive, or salient features of each object. A consensus list was completed by rank order; for example, the most distinctive features of an airplane ranked by 9 of 10 students were the wings , propeller, and vertical stabilizer (Murray & Szymczyk, 1978) .…”

“…As the fidelity of the representation decreases , greater perceptual skills are required to recognize the object. One technique that is used to study the perception of impoverished representations of objects is incomplete pictures (Gollin, 1960(Gollin, , 1961(Gollin, , 1962(Gollin, , 1966Leeper, 1935;Mooney, 1957;Murray & Szymczyk, 1978;Street, 1931). The studies of Gollin (1961) and Murray and Szymcyk (1978) are most relevant to the present paper and are briefly described.…”

“…However, even with training, only a mean of 7.5 out of the 20 most incomplete representations were identified by adults, and only an average of lout of 20 were identified by young children. Murray and Szymczyk (1978) varied the distinctive features of incomplete pictures and found a difference in recognition when 75 %versus 25 %of the distinctive fea-121 …”