Public Articles

Dr. Gauthier writes for The Conversation, making research in psychology and vision science accessible to general audiences. These articles translate complex findings into engaging stories for the public.

View all articles on The Conversation →

Research Tests

Downloadable materials for tests designed and validated by the Vanderbilt Object Perception Lab for use in individual differences research. These tests are freely available to promote research in this area.

Please cite the reference provided for each test.

Tests Using jsPsych

Tests to measure visual and auditory object recognition ability using jsPsych (GitHub)

Vanderbilt Holistic Processing Tests for Novel Objects (VHPT-NO)

Designed to measure holistic processing for three categories of novel objects (asymmetric Greebles, Sheinbugs and one type of Ziggerins).

Reference: Chua, K.-W., & Gauthier, I. (2019). Domain-Specific Experience Determines Individual Differences in Holistic Processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. pdf | materials

Vanderbilt Chest Radiograph Test (VCRT)

A reliable measure of individual differences in perceptual abilities for radiograph-related decision-making in novices.

Reference: Sunday, M. A., Donnelly, E., & Gauthier, I. (2017). Individual differences in perceptual abilities in medical imaging: the Vanderbilt Chest Radiograph Test. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2(1), 36. materials

Vanderbilt Car Matching Test / Vanderbilt Face Matching Tests (VCMT/VFMT)

Tests designed to measure face and object recognition without any stimulus repetition.

Reference: Sunday, M. A., Lee, W.-Y., & Gauthier, I. (in press). Age-related differential item functioning in tests of face and car recognition ability. Journal of Vision. materials

Novel Object Memory Tests (NOMTs)

Three reliable tests to measure object recognition ability with novel objects.

Reference: Richler, J.J., Wilmer, J.B., Gauthier, I. (2017). General object recognition is specific: evidence from novel and familiar objects. Cognition, 166: 42-55. pdf | materials

Vanderbilt Holistic Processing Test - Faces (VHPT-F 2.1)

A reliable test of holistic processing of faces, operationalized as a failure of selective attention.

Reference: Richler, J.J., Floyd, R.J., & Gauthier, I. (2014). The Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test: A short and reliable measure of holistic face processing. Journal of Vision, 14, 1-14. pdf | materials

Vanderbilt Expertise Test (VET)

VET 1.0

The Vanderbilt Expertise Test is a battery of tests for object recognition abilities that uses a learning task.

Reference: McGugin, R.W., Richler, J.J., Herzmann, G., Speegle, M. & Gauthier, I. (2012). The Vanderbilt Expertise Test Reveals Domain-General and Domain-Specific Sex Effects in Object Recognition. Vision Research, 69:10-22. pdf | materials

VET 2.0

An improved version with different object categories.

References:

• Van Gulick, A.B. (2014) Measurement of Semantic Knowledge and Its Contribution to Object Recognition Performance. Doctoral Dissertation, Vanderbilt University. pdf
• Van Gulick, A., & Gauthier, I. (2014). Measurement of semantic knowledge of object categories: Creating the Semantic Vanderbilt Expertise Test (SVET). Journal of Vision, 14(10), 821. link | materials

VET House from Richler et al. (2019)

These trials are provided in a PPT file that can be used to save individual images for all trials (see notes for details).

Semantic Vanderbilt Expertise Test (SVET 1.0)

A measure of semantic knowledge based on nomenclature, for the same categories as the VET 2.0.

Reference: Van Gulick, A. E., McGugin, R. W., & Gauthier, I. (2016). Measuring nonvisual knowledge about object categories: the semantic vanderbilt expertise test. Behavior research methods, 48(3), 1178-1196. pdf | materials