title: Repetition blindness: the survival of the grouped.
abstract: The repetition blindness (RB) effect demonstrates that people often fail to detect the second presentation of an identical object (e.g., Kanwisher, 1987). Grouping of identical items is a well-documented perceptual phenomenon, and this grouping generally facilitates perception. These two effects pose a puzzle: RB impairs perception, while perceptual grouping improves it. Here, we combined these two effects and studied how they interact. In a series of three experiments, we presented repeated items in a simultaneous string, while manipulating the organization of the repeated items in groups within a string. We observed an interaction between RB and grouping that we summarize with a rule that we call "the survival of the grouped": In essence, the ability to group repeated elements protects them from RB. These findings are discussed within the framework of the object file theory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. lgoldfar@princeton.edu
authors.forename: Liat
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goldfarb
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Treisman
mesh_terms: D003118:Color Perception; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012033:Refractory Period, Psychological