← Search

Psychological Science 1990

When does Human Object Recognition use a Viewer-Centered Reference Frame?

Michael J. Tarr1; Steven Pinker2,3

1 Yale University · 2 Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences · 3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract

How do people recognize an object in different orientations? One theory is that the visual system describes the object relative to a reference frame centered on the object, resulting in a representation that is invariant across orientations. Chronometric data show that this is true only when an object can be identified uniquely by the arrangement of its parts along a single dimension. When an object can only be distinguished by an arrangement of its parts along more than one dimension, people mentally rotate it to a familiar orientation. This finding suggests that the human visual reference frame is tied to egocentric coordinates.

DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9280.1990.tb00209.x
Sources
openalex

Cite