Real-world Object Location and Object Size Parallelly Facilitate Perceptual Awareness

Kaiser and Cichy (2018b) found that objects can overcome inter-ocular suppression more efficiently when objects are displayed in typical visual locations than in atypical visual locations. However, Kaiser and Cichy (2018b) have neglected a fact in their results that the suppression time of objects is also modulated by the typical real-world size of the object. We hypothesize that the consistency between the object size depicted in the image and its real-world size may affect object perception. To examine this hypothesis, 16 participants were asked to rate the size consistency on the stimulus set from Kaiser and Cichy (2018b). Results showed that the size consistency influenced the access to awareness for objects. Moreover, the effects of location typicality and size consistency are independent. Such finding suggests the importance of real-world object size in object perception. Object size should always be considered when using object images in psychological research.