Parallel processing in high-level categorization of natural images.
Models of visual processing often include an initial parallel stage that is restricted to relatively low-level features, whereas activation of higher-level object descriptions is generally assumed to require attention. Here we report that even high-level object representations can be accessed in parallel: in a rapid animal versus non-animal categorization task, both behavioral and electrophysiological data show that human subjects were as fast at responding to two simultaneously presented natural images as they were to a single one. The implication is that even complex natural images can be processed in parallel without the need for sequential focal attention.
Rousselet
Guillaume A
GA
Centre de Recherche Cerveau and Cognition, UMR 5549, CNRS-UPS, Faculté de Médecine de Rangueil, 133 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France. guillau@cerco.ups-tlse.fr
Fabre-Thorpe
Michèle
M
Thorpe
Simon J
SJ
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology