We argue that task requirements can be the determinant in generating differ
ent results in studies on visual object recognition. We investigated primin
g for novel visual objects in three implicit memory tasks. A study-test des
ign was employed in which participants first viewed line drawings of unfami
liar objects and later made different decisions about structural aspects of
the objects. Priming for both symmetric and asymmetric possible objects wa
s observed in a task requiring a judgment of structural possibility. Howeve
r, when the task was changed to one requiring a judgment of structural symm
etry, only symmetric possible objects showed priming. Finally, in a matchin
g task in which participants made a same-different judgment, only symmetric
possible objects exhibited priming. These results suggest that an understa
nding of object representation will be most fruitful if it is based on care
ful analyses of both the task demands and their interaction(s) with encodin
g and retrieval processes.