title: A formal theory of feature binding in object perception.
abstract: Visual objects are perceived correctly only if their features are identified and then bound together. Illusory conjunctions result when feature identification is correct but an error occurs during feature binding. A new model is proposed that assumes feature binding errors occur because of uncertainty about the location of visual features. This model accounted for data from 2 new experiments better than a model derived from A. M. Treisman and H. Schmidt's (1982) feature integration theory. The traditional method for detecting the occurrence of true illusory conjunctions is shown to be fundamentally flawed. A reexamination of 2 previous studies provided new insights into the role of attention and location information in object perception and a reinterpretation of the deficits in patients who exhibit attentional disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106, USA.
authors.forename: F G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Ashby
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Prinzmetal
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ivry
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Maddox
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009903:Optical Illusions; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics