Interaction between perceptual and cognitive processing well acknowledged in perceptual expertise research

An early perceptual locus of absolute pitch

Absolute pitch (AP) refers to the naming of musical tone without external reference. The influential two-component model states that AP is limited by the late-emerging pitch labeling process only and not the earlier perceptual and memory processes. Over the years, however, support for this model at the neural level has been mixed with various methodological limitations. Here, the electroencephalography responses of 27 AP possessors and 27 non-AP possessors were recorded. During both name verification and passive listening, event-related potential analyses showed a difference between AP and non-AP possessors at about 200 ms in their response toward tones compared with noise stimuli. Multivariate pattern analyses suggested that pitch naming was subserved by a series of transient processes for the first 250 ms, followed by a stage-like process for both AP and non-AP possessors with no group differences between them. These findings are inconsistent with the predictions of the two-component model, and instead suggest the existence of an early perceptual locus of AP.

Holistic processing of faces and words predicts reading accuracy and speed in dyslexic readers

We compared the performance of dyslexic and typical readers on two perceptual tasks, the Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Task and the Holistic Word Processing Task. Both yield a metric of holistic processing that captures the extent to which participants automatically attend to information that is spatially nearby but irrelevant to the task at hand. Our results show, for the first time, that holistic processing of faces is comparable in dyslexic and typical readers but that dyslexic readers show greater holistic processing of words. Remarkably, we show that these metrics predict the performance of dyslexic readers on a standardized reading task, with more holistic processing in both tasks associated with higher accuracy and speed. In contrast, a more holistic style on the words task predicts less accurate reading of both words and pseudowords for typical readers. We discuss how these findings may guide our conceptualization of the visual deficit in dyslexia.

What is special about expertise? Visual expertise reveals the interactive nature of real-world object recognition

Ever since Diamond and Carey (1986. J. Exp. Psychol.: Gen., vol. 115, pp. 107-117) seminal work, the main model for studying expertise in visual object recognition ("visual expertise") has been face perception. The underlying assumption was that since faces may be considered the ultimate domain of visual expertise, any face-processing signature might actually be a general characteristic of visual expertise. However, while humans are clearly experts in face recognition, visual expertise is not restricted to faces and can be observed in a variety of domains. This raises the question of whether face recognition is in fact the right model to study visual expertise, and if not, what are the common cognitive and neural characteristics of visual expertise. The current perspective article addresses this question by revisiting past and recent neuroimaging and behavioural works on visual expertise. The view of visual expertise that emerges from these works is that expertise is a unique phenomenon, with distinctive neural and cognitive characteristics. Specifically, visual expertise is a controlled, interactive process that develops from the reciprocal interactions between the visual system and multiple top-down factors, including semantic knowledge, top-down attentional control, and task relevance. These interactions enable the ability to flexibly access domain-specific information at multiple scales and levels guided by multiple recognition goals. Extensive visual experience with a given object category culminates in the recruitment of these multiple systems, and is reflected in widespread neural activity, extending well beyond visual cortex, to include higher-level cortical areas.