Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Charles E. Schmidt College of Science

Abstract

Recent research in visual object recognition has shown that context can facilitate object recognition. This study assessed the effect of self-relevant familiarity of context in object recognition. Participants performed a task in which they had to recognize degraded objects shown under varying levels of contextual information. The level of degradation at which they could successfully recognize the target object was used as a measure of performance. There were five contextual conditions: (1) no context, (2) context, (3) context and size, (4) context and location, (5) context, size and location. Within each contextual condition, we compared the performance of "Expert" participants who viewed objects in the context of their own house and "Novice" participants who viewed those particular settings for the first time. Ratings were performed to assess each object's consistency, frequency, position consistency, typicality and shape distinctiveness. Object's size was the only contextual info rmation that did not affect performance. Contextual information significantly reduced the amount of bottom-up visual information needed for object identification for both experts and novices. An interaction (Contextual Information x Level of Familiarity) was observed. Expert participants' performance improved significantly more than novice participants' performance by the presence of contextual information. Location information affected the performance of expert participants, only when objects that occupied stable positions were considered. Both expert and novice participants performed better with objects that rated high in typicality and shape distinctiveness. Object's consistency, frequency and position consistency did not seem to affect expert participants' performance but did affect novice participants' performance.

Extent

viii, 78 p. : ill. (some col.)

Comments

by Evangelie Daskagianni.|Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.|by Evangelie Daskagianni.

Identifier

FADT3332183

Format

pdf

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