| Rebecca Lawson's research My research investigates diverse aspects of processing in the human visual object recognition system. I am particularly interested in how we achieve visual object constancy and how we categorise visual stimuli in order to discriminate between different shapes. I conduct empirical research which measures the speed and accuracy of human performance at recognising familiar and novel objects in the face of disruptive object transformations such as plane and depth rotation and image fragmentation. I also manipulate memory, context and attentional demands on participants, for example in investigating performance on dual processing (psychological refractory period) tasks. |
ESRC Fellowship: How do people recognise, categorise and know how to use everyday objects? I have been very fortunate in having been awarded a three year ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Fellowship allowing me to spend all of my time doing research from October 2005 until September 2008. An important part of this research will involve continuing my collaboration with Professor Heinrich Bulthoff at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. in Tubingen, Germany. During my Fellowship I will investigate how humans recognise, categorise and understand the function of everyday objects, concentrating on three areas. First, I will examine how our visual system achieves view generalisation for similar and dissimilar objects by comparing performance with novel objects to everyday, familiar objects and for 2D images relative to 3D objects. A 3D ABS-plastic printer will be used to create 3D morphed objects. Second, I will investigate whether theories of visual object recognition can be extended to predict performance at haptic object recognition and if objects presented visually or haptically activate bi-modal (visual-haptic) representations. Third, I will probe what people understand about how objects function and the limitations of their knowledge. My initial studies in this field examined when and why people overestimate their explanatory knowledge relative to other types of knowledge and why there are large individual differences in people's understanding of how objects work. This research investigates what factors contribute to effective learning and how accurately people apply their knowledge. Together this research will provide converging evidence about how people process information about familiar objects. The aim is to establish a coherent theoretical framework for understanding the perceptual and conceptual processes involved in object recognition and understanding. |
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Peer-reviewed publications (with links to abstracts and to PDF files) and submitted papers
Bertamini, M., & Lawson, R. (2005a). Testing inbuilt assumptions about convexity using a depth discrimination task. Submitted .
Bertamini, M., & Lawson, R. (2005b). Visual search for a circular region perceived as a figure versus as a hole: Evidence of the importance of part structure. Submitted .
Lawson, R. (2005). The science of cycology: Failures to understand how everyday objects work. Submitted.
Lawson, R., & Bulthoff, H. H. (2005). View changes do not have exactly the same effect as shape changes. Submitted.
Lawson, R. (2004a). Recognising a plane-rotated view of a familiar object is not influenced by the ease of specifying the main axis of elongation of that object. Perception and Psychophysics, 66, 234-248. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R. (2004b). Depth rotation and mirror-image reflection reduce affective preference as well as recognition memory for pictures of novel objects. Memory and Cognition, 32, 1170-1181 . Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R. (2004c). View-sensitivity increases for same shape matches if mismatches show pairs of more similar shapes. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 11 896-902. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R. (2003). The effects of context on learning to identify plane-misoriented views of familiar objects. Visual Cognition, 10, 795-821. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., Bulthoff, H. H., & Dumbell, S. (2003). Interactions between view changes and shape changes in picture-picture matching. Perception, 32, 1465-1498. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., & Jolicoeur, P. (2003). Recognition thresholds for plane-rotated pictures of familiar objects. Acta Psychologica, 112, 17-41. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., Humphreys, G. W., & Jolicoeur, P. (2000). The combined effects of plane disorientation and foreshortening on picture naming: one manipulation or two? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 568-581. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R. (1999). Achieving visual object constancy over plane rotation and depth rotation. Acta Psychologica, 102, 221-245. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., & Humphreys, G. W. (1999). The effects of view in depth on the identification of line drawings and silhouettes of familiar objects: normality and pathology. Visual Cognition, 6, 165-195. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., & Jolicoeur, P. (1999). The effect of prior experience on recognition thresholds for plane-disoriented pictures of familiar objects. Memory and Cognition, 27, 751-758. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Jolicoeur, P., Corballis, M. C., & Lawson, R. (1998). The influence of perceived rotary motion on the recognition of rotated objects. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 5, 140-146. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., & Humphreys, G. W. (1998a). View-specific effects of depth rotation and foreshortening on the initial recognition and priming of familiar objects. Perception and Psychophysics, 60, 1052-1066. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., & Humphreys, G. W. (1998b). The neuropsychology of visual object constancy. In V. Walsh & J. Kulikowski (Eds.), Perceptual Constancies: Why things look as they do. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lawson, R. & Jolicoeur, P. (1998). The effects of plane rotation on the recognition of brief masked pictures of familiar objects. Memory and Cognition, 26, 791-803. Click here to download PDF of paper. or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., & Humphreys, G. W. (1996). View-specificity in object processing: Evidence from picture matching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22, 395-416. Click here to download PDF file of paper or you can click here for text of the abstract only.
Lawson, R., Humphreys, G. W., & Watson, D. G. (1994). Object recognition under sequential viewing conditions: evidence for viewpoint-specific recognition procedures. Perception, 23, 595-614. click here for text of the abstract only.
Valentine, T., Bredart, S., Lawson, R., & Ward, G. (1991). What’s in a name? Access to information from people’s names. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 3, 147-176.
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