Active exploration improves perceptual sensitivity for virtual 3D objects in visual recognition tasks.

Several studies demonstrated that active exploration as compared to passive observation of a variety of objects leads to improved performance concerning these actively studied objects later on. These results may be specifically due to an improvement in perceptual recognition but in principle they may also be due to a speeding up of responses to actively studied objects. Recently, however, it was suggested that the benefit of active exploration on perceptual recognition may be restricted to a specific class of (biologically relevant) stimuli. By employing measures derived from signal detection theory we were able to show in all our three experiments that active exploration of virtual 3D objects leads to improved perceptual sensitivity in a subsequent test phase. The improvement with these objects means that the benefit of active exploration is not restricted to a specific class of biologically relevant stimuli. The results of our second experiment further demonstrate that the benefit of active exploration is even strong enough to fully compensate for the effect of perceptual degradation, thereby emphasizing the major impact of active exploration. In our third experiment, we explored the possibility that effects of active exploration might be due to major changes in attentional strategies rather than to the action-related aspect. Results revealed that an attentional requirement left the active-passive difference by and large intact supporting the view that the advantage of active object exploration lies in the action itself.