Object-based visual selection: Evidence from perceptual completion

A large body of evidence suggests that visual attention selects objects as well as spatial locations. If attention is to be regarded as truly object based, then it should operate not only on object representations that are explicit in the image, but also on representations that are the result of earlier perceptual completion processes. Reporting the results of two experiments, we show that when attention is directed to part of a perceptual object, other parts of that object enjoy an attentional advantage as well. In particular; we show that this object-specific attentional advantage accrues to partly occluded objects and to objects defined by subjective contours. The results corroborate the claim that perceptual completion precedes object-based attentional selection.