两种时空线索条件下表面颜色特征线索对客体保持的作用*

采用客体回溯范式,以客体预览利化效应(object specific previewing benefit, OSPB)作为指标,考察表面特征线索对客体保持的作用。实验1使用双向隧道创建时空线索不明确的条件,研究表面颜色特征线索的作用。实验2使用单向隧道使时空线索明确,研究表面颜色特征线索与时空线索一致、冲突情境下的客体保持。实验1和实验2均出现了OSPB效应,且实验2冲突情境的OSPB效应低于一致情境。研究结果表明在时空线索不明确的条件下,仅凭表面颜色特征线索就能实现客体保持；在时空线索明确的条件下,时空线索是客体保持的主要线索,同时表面颜色特征线索也起一定的作用。

The Role of Surface Color Feature Cue in Object Persistence under Two Different Spatiotemporal Conditions

Whether surface feature information could become a cue in object persistence has been a controversial issue. According to the object file theory by Kahneman, Treisman and Gibbs (1992), spatiotemporal information, rather than surface feature information, is the key cue in object persistence. This viewpoint was supported by Mitroff and Alvarez’ (2007) experiments using an object-reviewing paradigm. They found that participants could not establish object correspondence based on surface feature cues. However, Moore, Stephens and Hein (2010) exchanged the features of two objects abruptly in their experiments and found that the object correspondence operation could be established on the basis of surface feature cues. In the present study, the role of surface feature cues in object persistence was examined under two different conditions. In one condition, the spatiotemporal cue was ambiguous; in another condition, the spatiotemporal cue and the surface color feature cue were either congruent or conflicting. The present study used an object-reviewing paradigm and added a “tunnel” stimulus in order to control the role of spatiotemporal cues. Each “tunnel” stimulus was composed of a large circle with rectangles located at four points around the circle, to the left and right of the circle and above and below it. The left and right rectangles were entrances and the upper and lower rectangles were exits. On each trial, two objects entered the tunnel at same time from the left and right entrances, and then exited from the upper and lower exits respectively. The objects were not visible when they were in the tunnel. There were two kinds of tunnels. One was “dual-route tunnel”; another was “single-route tunnel”. When the dual-route tunnel was used, the two objects moving into the tunnel would leave the tunnel from the upper and lower exits at random, therefore the spatiotemporal cue was ambiguous. When the single-route tunnel was used, each object would leave the tunnel from one specific exit. Several unfamiliar figures were used as the test stimuli to minimize the possibility of verbal encoding of the stimuli by participants. Participants were instructed to judge whether the two figures on the objects after they left the tunnel were the same as the two figures on the objects before they entered the tunnel. Object specific previewing benefit was calculated to estimate the role of the surface feature in object persistence. Two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, the dual-route tunnel was used and evidence for OSPB was found when the spatiotemporal cue was ambiguous. In experiment 2, the single-route tunnel was used and evidence for OSPB was also found, but the size of the effect was smaller in the conflicting condition than in the congruent condition. These results suggest that object persistence could be based on the surface feature cue when the spatiotemporal cue is ambiguous, and that the surface feature cue could also play a role in object persistence when the spatiotemporal cue was present.