Outline shape is a mediator of object recognition that is particularly important for living things

We assess the importance of outline shape in mediating the recognition of living and nonliving things. Natural objects were presented as shaded line drawings or silhouettes, and were living and nonliving things. For object decision (deciding whether an object may be encountered in real life) there were longer response times (RTs) to nonliving than to living things. Importantly, this category difference was greater for silhouettes than for shaded line drawings. For naming, similar category and stimulus differences were evident, but were not as pronounced. We also examined effects of prior naming on subsequent object decision performance. Repetition priming was equivalent for nonliving and living things. However, prior presentation of silhouettes (but not shaded line drawings) reduced the longer RT to nonliving things relative to living things in silhouette object decision. We propose that outline contour benefits recognition of living things more than nonliving things: For nonliving things, there may be greater 2-D/3-D interpretational ambiguity, and/or they may possess fewer salient features.