Cite as:
Martelli M, Baweja G, Mishra A, Chen I, Fox J, JMajaj N, Pelli D G, 2002, "How efficiency for identifying objects improves with age" Perception 31 ECVP Abstract Supplement

How efficiency for identifying objects improves with age

M Martelli, G Baweja, A Mishra, I Chen, J Fox, N JMajaj, D G Pelli

We studied the development of object recognition from the age of 2 years to 60 years. We measured contrast threshold in noise for human and ideal observers and calculated the human efficiency. We asked observers to identify the expression of a face (see figure 1 at web address above), or the identity of a letter or a line drawing of an object. We presented the stimuli both right-side-up and upside-down. We find that observers reach adult performance at the age of 12 years with all these stimuli. However, faces, letters, and objects improve by different factors. Efficiency for identifying a facial expression improves only 2-fold (starting at 2.5% and reaching 6%). Efficiency for object recognition improves 5-fold (from 2% to 10%), and the efficiency for identifying a letter improves 75-fold (from 0.2% to 15%). Exposure seems to be the main factor in accounting for the dramatic difference.

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