VIEWER-CENTERED AND OBJECT-CENTERED REPRESENTATIONS IN THE RECOGNITION OF NATURALISTIC LINE DRAWINGS

Although most recent research on visual object recognition suggests that shape is represented in a viewer-centered reference frame, Tarr and Pinker (Psychological Science, 1990) propose that object-centered representations exist, but can code the spatial relations among the parts of an object along only one dimension. This hypothesis was formulated on the basis of research with novel abstract shapes. We tested and confirmed the generality of this hypothesis for the recognition of realistic line drawings of familiar objects. The results also allow us to rule out previous hypotheses concerning the shift from orientation dependence to orientation independence in the recognition of repeatedly viewed drawings. © 1991, Association for Psychological Science. All rights reserved.