Object recognition: view-specificity and motion-specificity

This paper describes an experiment to distinguish between two theories of human visual object recognition. According to the view-specificity hypothesis, object recognition is based on particular learned views, whereas the motion-specificity hypothesis states that object recognition depends on particular directed view-sequences. Both hypotheses imply a degree of view-bias (i.e. recognition of a given object is associated with a small number of views). Whereas the view-specificity hypothesis attributes this view-bias to a preference for particular views, the motion-specificity hypothesis attributes view-bias to a preference for particular directed view-sequences. Results presented here suggest that recognition of 3D rotating objects involves significant view-bias. This view-bias appears to be associated with an underlying bias for particular directed view-sequences, and not for particular views.