Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects

Abstract Previous research has shown that the context in which objects are located significantly influences how efficiently they are categorized. However, less is known about whether scene consistency can also affect the processing of finer object features, such as the state of an object (e.g., the...

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Main Authors: Yuri A. Markov, Melissa Lê-Hoa Võ
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-05-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01662-3
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author Yuri A. Markov
Melissa Lê-Hoa Võ
author_facet Yuri A. Markov
Melissa Lê-Hoa Võ
author_sort Yuri A. Markov
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Previous research has shown that the context in which objects are located significantly influences how efficiently they are categorized. However, less is known about whether scene consistency can also affect the processing of finer object features, such as the state of an object (e.g., the angle of a Swiss army knife or the fill level of a bottle). Therefore, across three experiments, we presented a subset of the JURICS stimulus set, in which each object exists in 20 continuously varying states (e.g., from fully closed to fully open) in scenes that were either contextually consistent or inconsistent. Participants were asked to report the specific state of the object using a continuous report task. Our results showed that scene consistency enhanced the precision of state judgments; that is, participants made significantly larger errors in reporting object states when objects were presented in inconsistent compared to consistent scenes. These findings suggest that scene context exhibits its effect already at the level of fine-grained perceptual processing of objects, affecting not only object categorization but also the accuracy of its perceived features.
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spelling doaj-art-532f2ff90ef846f098314093759f23872025-08-20T01:59:56ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-05-0115111210.1038/s41598-025-01662-3Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objectsYuri A. Markov0Melissa Lê-Hoa Võ1Department of Psychology, Goethe University FrankfurtDepartment of Psychology, Goethe University FrankfurtAbstract Previous research has shown that the context in which objects are located significantly influences how efficiently they are categorized. However, less is known about whether scene consistency can also affect the processing of finer object features, such as the state of an object (e.g., the angle of a Swiss army knife or the fill level of a bottle). Therefore, across three experiments, we presented a subset of the JURICS stimulus set, in which each object exists in 20 continuously varying states (e.g., from fully closed to fully open) in scenes that were either contextually consistent or inconsistent. Participants were asked to report the specific state of the object using a continuous report task. Our results showed that scene consistency enhanced the precision of state judgments; that is, participants made significantly larger errors in reporting object states when objects were presented in inconsistent compared to consistent scenes. These findings suggest that scene context exhibits its effect already at the level of fine-grained perceptual processing of objects, affecting not only object categorization but also the accuracy of its perceived features.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01662-3Object recognitionScene contextConsistency effectReal-world objectsObjects states
spellingShingle Yuri A. Markov
Melissa Lê-Hoa Võ
Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects
Scientific Reports
Object recognition
Scene context
Consistency effect
Real-world objects
Objects states
title Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects
title_full Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects
title_fullStr Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects
title_full_unstemmed Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects
title_short Scene consistency enhances state representations of real-world objects
title_sort scene consistency enhances state representations of real world objects
topic Object recognition
Scene context
Consistency effect
Real-world objects
Objects states
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01662-3
work_keys_str_mv AT yuriamarkov sceneconsistencyenhancesstaterepresentationsofrealworldobjects
AT melissalehoavo sceneconsistencyenhancesstaterepresentationsofrealworldobjects