Developmental dissociation of analytical and holistic object recognition in adolescence

M Jüttner1, E Wakui2, D Petters1, J Hummel3, J Davidoff2

1Psychology, School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom
2Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, Univ. of London, United Kingdom
3Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, IL, United States

Contact: m.juttner@aston.ac.uk

Previous research (e.g., Jüttner et al, 2013, Developmental Psychology, 49, 161-176) has shown that object recognition may develop well into late childhood and adolescence. The present study extends that research and reveals novel differences in holistic and analytic recognition performance in 7-11 year olds compared to that seen in adults. We interpret our data within Hummel’s hybrid model of object recognition (Hummel, 2001, Visual Cognition, 8, 489-517) that proposes two parallel routes for recognition (analytic vs. holistic) modulated by attention. Using a repetition-priming paradigm, we found in Experiment 1 that children showed no holistic priming, but only analytic priming. Given that holistic priming might be thought to be more ‘primitive’, we confirmed in Experiment 2 that our surprising finding was not because children’s analytic recognition was merely a result of name repetition. Our results suggest a developmental primacy of analytic object recognition. By contrast, holistic object recognition skills appear to emerge with a much more protracted trajectory extending into late adolescence.

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