Abstract
-
Detecting changes to our visual environment is an important skill. To this end, numerous studies have
measured our ability to detect changes to 2- and 3-D objects, as well as entire scenes. Investigations of
object change detection have shown that changes involving more object parts are detected more easily
than smaller changes involving fewer parts. However, whether these larger changes improved detection
by guiding the observer attention to the change location is still subject to debate. In the present study,
participants were cued (valid, no cue, invalid) to the location of one of three objects in a one-shot change
detection task. Changes involved the addition or deletion of 1, 2 or 3 parts to one of the three objects.
Results showed: (i) that part additions were detected more accurately than deletions, and (ii) a strong
effect of change magnitude for both these types of changes. Change detection performance was much
better in valid and no cue conditions than the invalid cue condition and the effect of valid cues was
stronger for deletions than additions. The pattern of results is discussed in regards to the role of attention
in change detection.