Roles of Object-File Review and Type Priming in Visual Identification Within and Across Eye Fixations

Dynamic visual identification was investigated in 4 experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, 2 perceptual objects (2 frames, each containing a letter or 1 containing a letter and the other a plus sign) were previewed in the periphery. A saccade brought these objects to central vision. During the saccade the display was changed so that 1 frame contained a letter and the other a plus sign, and the subject identified the letter by naming it aloud as rapidly as possible. In Experiment 3, the retinal events of Experiments 1 and 2 were simulated. In Experiment 4, both the preview and the target were presented centrally within a single fixation. In all experiemnts both object-specific and nonspecific preview benefits were observed. These results support a theory in which the preview benefits observed during visual identification arise from 2 processes, object file review and type priming.