Bs. Gibson, VISUAL-ATTENTION AND OBJECTS - ONE VERSUS 2 OR CONVEX VERSUS CONCAVE, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 20(1), 1994, pp. 203-207
According to object-based theories of visual attention, attention can
be divided within a single object more efficiently than between separa
te objects (J. Duncan, 1984). Recently, G. C. Baylis and J. Driver (19
93) provided a theoretical framework for interpreting this single-obje
ct advantage within the domain of spatial organization. Using their hi
erarchical coding of location hypothesis, they showed that the latency
to compare the location of 2 vertices was significantly faster for ve
rtices that were seen as parts of a single (convex) object than for ve
rtices that were seen as parts of separate (concave) objects. This art
icle reports the replication of this finding, as well as new evidence
that shows that latency is affected by the convexity of the contour, a
nd not by the number of objects.