Object identification is isolated from scene semantic constraint: evidencefrom object type and token discrimination

Two models of the interaction between scene meaning and object identificati on were tested: the description enhancement model and the criterion modulat ion model. The former proposes that the early activation of a scene schema facilitates the initial perceptual analysis of schema-consistent objects, t he latter that schema activation modulates the amount of information necess ary to indicate the presence of an object of a particular perceptual type. In Experiment 1, we employed a forced-choice, type-discrimination paradigm. Participants were asked to determine which of two semantically consistent objects or which of two semantically inconsistent objects had appeared in a briefly presented scene. Contrary to the prediction derived from both of t hese models, discrimination performance was better for semantically inconsi stent versus consistent objects. In Experiments 2 and 3 we introduced a for ced-choice, token-discrimination paradigm to further test the description e nhancement model. Contrary to the prediction of that model, discrimination performance was no better for semantically consistent versus inconsistent t okens. These results suggest that both the initial perceptual analysis of a n object and the matching of an object's constructed visual description to stored descriptions are isolated from stored knowledge about real-world con tingencies between scenes and objects. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All r ights reserved. PsycINFO classification: 2323.