Shifting Resources To Recognize a Forming Object: Dependencies Involving Object Properties.

These experiments indicate that when the eyes and attention are allowed to shift to identify a newly appearing object, the success of the shift depends on properties of the object. Observers attempted to identify a parafoveal target that was followed by a mask. On many trials a prime (cue) was presented immediately before the target. The prime was a group of elements (vertices) that could trigger ocular or attentional shifts. Success of the shifts was measured by increases in identification accuracy relative to a no-prime condition (facilitation effects). Facilitation was high for many primes, but decreased systematically toward zero when the prime-elements were not easily related to form a convex object and were located outside the boundaries of the subsequent target.