Topological change disturbs object continuity in attentive tracking

Abstract

The question of what is a perceptual object is one of the most central and also controversial issues in cognitive science. According to the topological approach to perceptual organization, the core intuitive notion of an object--the holistic identity preserved over shape-changing transformations--may be characterized precisely as topological invariance. Here we show that, across a series of multiple-object tracking tasks, performance was not disrupted when the moving items underwent massive featural changes. However, performance was significantly impaired when the items changed their topological properties of holes, demonstrating that topological invariance constrains what counts as an object in the first place. Consistent with previous findings, fMRI studies indicated that the anterior temporal lobe may be involved in the formation of object representation defined by topological constraints.