What was that object? On the role of identity information in the formation of object files and conscious object perception

Does the construction retrieval account apply to cross‐modal inhibition of return in semantic context?

“…The interaction between semantic feature congruency and location congruency influenced by attentional sets also indicated that higher‐level semantic features were integrated into the object file and bound to location information in the present study. Unlike other surface features, such as color and shape (Goodhew et al, 2015; Hollingworth & Franconeri, 2009; Moore et al, 2010; Richard et al, 2008), semantic features are not necessarily included in the object file (Goodhew, 2020; Gordon & Irwin, 1996). By using the semantic priming paradigm, researchers found that regardless of whether the prime words and target words had related semantics, related semantics but different physical forms, or were from the same conceptual category, the semantic priming effect generated by the prime words did not have object specificity (Gordon & Irwin, 1996).…”

“…This may indicate that semantic information is not integrated into a particular object or location. Similarly, Goodhew (2020) used color words with the same meaning but different features to isolate the influence of abstract identity information on the formation of object files from that of surface features. The results showed that individuals can only form a unified object file from the surface features of stimuli, rather than from abstract identity information, and seemed to indicate that semantic features were not integrated into the object file (Goodhew, 2020; Gordon & Irwin, 1996).…”

“…Therefore, the semantic feature and location information of the prime stimulus are more closely bound to the object file in the present study. In the study of Goodhew (2020), the researcher adopted a modified spatial repetition blindness paradigm, in which four color words were presented simultaneously and the participants were asked to report the identities of the presented color words after the stimuli disappeared. To improve the accuracy of the report, a more effective strategy was to integrate the color words based on their surface features rather than on their abstract information.…”

“…These features are integrated into object file and bound to spatial location and also induce confusions when interpreting the results; that is, does the physical identity of these features, or more abstract identity information, get integrated into object files? One possibility is that only the physical identity of these features is integrated into object files (Goodhew, 2020), while more abstract information is not (Gordon & Irwin, 1996). Therefore, the present study used semantic features to explore whether abstract semantic information is integrated into object files, and whether it interacts with spatial location to jointly influence the behavioral performance of participants.…”