Semantic informativeness mediates the detection of changes in natural scenes

Three experiments investigated whether the semantic informativeness of a sc ene region (object) influences its representation between successive views. In Experiment 1, a scene and a modified version of that scene were present ed in alternation, separated by a brief retention interval. A changed objec t was either semantically consistent with the scene (non-informative) or in consistent (informative). Change detection latency was shorter in the seman tically inconsistent versus consistent condition. In Experiment 2, eye move ments were eliminated by presenting a single cycle of the change sequence. Detection accuracy was higher for inconsistent versus consistent objects. T his inconsistent object advantage was obtained when the potential strategy of selectively encoding inconsistent objects was no longer advantageous (Ex periment 3). These results indicate that the semantic properties of an obje ct influence whether the representation of that object is maintained betwee n views of a scene, and this influence is not caused solely by the differen tial allocation of eye fixations to the changing region. The potential cogn itive mechanisms supporting this effect are discussed.