The Structure and Correlates of Domain-General Object Recognition Ability

Abstract

Telling apart very similar objects is challenging and individuals differ greatly in how well they can perform this task. Importantly, how well a person can perform this task with one kind of object is closely related to how well that person can perform it with other kinds of objects. The capacity that explains performance across object categories is a domain-general ability (o). The studies in this dissertation explore how o relates to other perceptual and cognitive abilities using multivariate latent variable approaches. Study I suggests that o measured using visual tasks is strongly related to an auditory equivalent. This strong relationship survives when general intelligence is controlled for. Study I also suggests that o’s strong relationship with spatial ability is explained by a shared relationship with general intelligence. These results suggest that o is not specific to the visual modality. Study II tests assumptions about the measurement of o, finding that o tests that are especially perceptually challenging measure an ability that is strongly related to the ability measured by o tests that especially challenge memory. This strong relationship survives when low-level visual perception, working memory, and general intelligence are controlled. This study provides the strongest evidence yet found that o cannot be wholly explained by other constructs. Study III suggests that o and other high-level visual abilities can uniquely predict memory for the locations in which visual stimuli were seen. Further, they also predict how much of a memory boost a visual stimulus receives when the depth of processing is experimentally manipulated. This result suggests that high-level visual discrimination abilities, including o, interact with memory abilities, even when those memory abilities do not directly concern the identity of the visual stimulus. Taken together, these three studies provide evidence that o exists as a unique ability but also provide evidence about the ways in which this ability relates to other perceptual and cognitive abilities.