Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Barenholtz, Elan
Abstract
Most of the human visual field falls in the periphery, and peripheral processing is important for normal visual functioning. Yet, little is known about peripheral object recognition in naturalistic scenes and factors that modulate this ability. We propose that a critical function of scene and object memory is in order to facilitate visual object recognition in the periphery. In the first experiment, participants identified objects in scenes across different levels of familiarity and contextual information within the scene. We found that familiarity with a scene resulted in a significant increase in the distance that objects were recognized. Furthermore, we found that a semantically consistent scene improved the distance that object recognition is possible, supporting the notion that contextual facilitation is possible in the periphery. In the second experiment, the preview duration of a scene was varied in order to examine how a scene representation is built and how memory of that scene and the objects within it contributes to object recognition in the periphery. We found that the closer participants fixated to the object in the preview, the farther on average they recognized that target object in the periphery. However, only a preview duration of the scenes for 5000 ms produced significantly farther peripheral object recognition compared to not previewing the scene. Overall, these experiments introduce a novel research paradigm for object recognition in naturalistic scenes, and demonstrates multiple factors that have systematic effects on peripheral object recognition.
Extent
75 p.
Recommended Citation
Schlangen, Derrick, "Peripheral Object Recognition in Naturalistic Scenes" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019. 1533.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_6/1533
Identifier
FA00004669
Comments
Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.