title: Affective and contextual values modulate spatial frequency use in object recognition.
abstract: Visual object recognition is of fundamental importance in our everyday interaction with the environment. Recent models of visual perception emphasize the role of top-down predictions facilitating object recognition via initial guesses that limit the number of object representations that need to be considered. Several results suggest that this rapid and efficient object processing relies on the early extraction and processing of low spatial frequencies (LSF). The present study aimed to investigate the SF content of visual object representations and its modulation by contextual and affective values of the perceived object during a picture-name verification task. Stimuli consisted of pictures of objects equalized in SF content and categorized as having low or high affective and contextual values. To access the SF content of stored visual representations of objects, SFs of each image were then randomly sampled on a trial-by-trial basis. Results reveal that intermediate SFs between 14 and 24 cycles per object (2.3-4 cycles per degree) are correlated with fast and accurate identification for all categories of objects. Moreover, there was a significant interaction between affective and contextual values over the SFs correlating with fast recognition. These results suggest that affective and contextual values of a visual object modulate the SF content of its internal representation, thus highlighting the flexibility of the visual recognition system.
authors.affiliation: Département de Psychologie, CERNEC, Université de Montréal Montréal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Caplette
authors.affiliation: Département de Psychologie, CERNEC, Université de Montréal Montréal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: West
authors.affiliation: INSERM U930 Imagerie et Cerveau, Université François-Rabelais de Tours CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gomot
authors.affiliation: Département de Psychologie, CERNEC, Université de Montréal Montréal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gosselin
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 7289, Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wicker
keywords: affective value; context; internal representations; object recognition; spatial frequencies