OSCR

Perceiving animacy in 'identical' images.

Code ↔ Paper

The paper beside its authors' code: matches between them have not been computed for this paper yet.

Paper

Loaded from Europe PMC by your browser, not stored by OSCR: doi.org · Europe PMC

The paper is loaded when this pane is shown.

The authors' code

Markdown · 21 lines · 2.1 KB · no license

  1. # How to use these files
  3. This is an archive of the data, analyses, and experiment materials for: *Perceiving animacy in 'identical' images* by Tal Boger and Chaz Firestone.
  5. Unzip the `archive.zip` file and inside you will find all our materials. The archive has one folder for each experiment that appears in the paper.
  7. In each of the experiment folders, you will find the following:
  9. - `preregistration.pdf`: our pre-registered analysis plans for the given experiment
  10. - `experiment/`: a folder containing all scripts and stimuli necessary to run the experiment; this will include the following:
  11. - `index.html`: the file used to run the experiment
  12. - `stimuli/`: a folder containing all the stimuli for that experiment. These often repeat across experiments, but still appear in each folder such that each experiment can be run in a self-contained manner. Experiment 7 has two stimuli folders, one called `anagrams` and one called `silhouettes`.
  13. - `logTrial.py`: a python file that is called by the experiment script to write out the data into a `.txt` file
  14. - `data_and_analysis/`: a folder containing all our anonymized subject data and analysis; this will include the following:
  15. - `raw_data.csv`: a `.csv` file containing all, pre-exclusion, anonymized participant data.
  16. - `cleaned_data.csv`: a `.csv` file of participant data with our pre-registered exclusion criteria applied. This file is then used in our analyses
  17. - `data_column_details.md`: a text file that describes the the columns in the data files. Some experiments have multiple kinds of `raw_data` files (e.g., if two tasks were performed); the differences between each file when present are explained here
  18. - `analysis.ipynb`: an R Jupyter notebook that applies our exclusion criteria and performs our pre-registered analyses
  19. - `analysis.html`: an `.html` output of the `analysis.ipynb` file
  21. All our experiments are also available online [here](https://perceptionresearch.org/anagrams_animacy/). For inquiries, please contact Tal Boger ([[email hidden]](mailto:[email hidden])) or Chaz Firestone ([[email hidden]](mailto:[email hidden])).

README.md, no license · at the source

Overview

Authors: Tal Boger1, Chaz Firestone1
ORCID iDs: Tal Boger, Chaz Firestone
  1. Johns Hopkins University Baltimore United States
Institutions: Johns Hopkins University (United States)
Journal: eLife, volume 15, article RP111179
Dates: published online 26 August 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.7554/elife.111179 · PMID 42647064 · PMCID PMC13516682 · OpenAlex W7164502564
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code verified
Categories: behavior only (modality), human (organism), cognitive (subfield)
Methods: Preprocessing, Single-unit activity, calcium imaging
Keywords: perception, animacy, high-level vision, visual search, visual working memory, None
MeSH: Pattern Recognition, Visual*, Visual Perception*, Attention, Humans, Memory, Short-Term, Photic Stimulation (* major topic)
Journal subjects: Neuroscience
Topic: Child and Animal Learning Development (Developmental and Educational Psychology, Psychology), according to OpenAlex
Citations: cited by 1 paper (Europe PMC); 18 references in the paper

Abstract

Some objects appear ‘animate’ (e.g. dogs and elephants) while others do not (e.g. boots and sofas). This distinction pervades human cognition, with an expansive literature reporting striking effects of animacy on vision, memory, social perception, and neural organization. But studies of perceived animacy face a persistent challenge: Objects that differ in animacy tend to differ in many lower-level visual features (e.g. shape, texture, spatial frequency). Thus, it remains controversial whether animacy per se – as opposed to its lower-level correlates – drives visual processing. Here, we achieve previously unattainable levels of experimental control to demonstrate that the visual system represents animacy itself, beyond its lower-level covariates. We vary animacy while holding nearly all lower-level features constant by exploiting ‘visual anagrams’ – a diffusion-based technique for generating static images whose interpretations change radically with orientation. Eight pre-registered experiments leverage this approach to demonstrate that representations of animacy structure visual working memory and guide visual attention. Thus, the visual system extracts animacy itself, beyond its lower-level correlates.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Repository

Its files are read in the Code ↔ Paper reader above.

OSF rw8tu

License: none: the authors keep all their rights
State: the link answers, verified on 27 September 2026
Evidence: files inventoried
Size: 2 files
Software Heritage: not checked
Found in: “Open science practices”
Holds: README
Not found: license file, CITATION.cff, environment file, tests, continuous integration, documentation
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 27 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
  • 27 September 2026: the link answers (HTTP 200)
1 file
At the source: osf.io/rw8tu/

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

Proposed by the machine: these links were found in the paper and verified at the source, without human review. The map will receive a Zenodo DOI once one of the paper's authors has validated it with their ORCID.

What the map holds:

  • 1 repository of the authors' code, each at its verified commit, with its license and how the link was found in the paper;
  • 0 scripts, each with its path and the digest of its content;
  • no match between paragraphs and code yet;
  • neither the text of the paper nor the code itself.

Its JSON (tracing-map.json) is deposited on Zenodo with its DOI once the map is validated.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability

All anonymized data, analysis scripts, pre-registrations, and stimuli are available at: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RW8TU.

The following dataset was generated:

BogerT 2026Perceiving animacy in ‘identical’ imagesOpen Science Framework10.17605/OSF.IO/RW8TUPMC1351668242647064

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 2 authors, 6 keywords, 6 MeSH terms, 18 references.

Cite

This paper

Boger, T., & Firestone, C. (2026). Perceiving animacy in 'identical' images. eLife, 15, RP111179. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.111179

BibTeX

@article{boger2026perceiving,
author = {Boger, Tal and Firestone, Chaz},
title = {{Perceiving animacy in 'identical' images}},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
volume = {15},
pages = {RP111179},
publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd},
issn = {2050-084X},
doi = {10.7554/elife.111179},
url = {https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.111179},
pmid = {42647064},
pmcid = {PMC13516682}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Boger, Tal
AU - Firestone, Chaz
TI - Perceiving animacy in 'identical' images
T2 - eLife
J2 - Elife
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/26
VL - 15
SP - RP111179
SN - 2050-084X
PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
DO - 10.7554/elife.111179
UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.111179
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

{
"id": "10.7554/elife.111179",
"type": "article-journal",
"title": "Perceiving animacy in 'identical' images",
"container-title": "eLife",
"author": [
{
"family": "Boger",
"given": "Tal"
},
{
"family": "Firestone",
"given": "Chaz"
}
],
"container-title-short": "Elife",
"volume": "15",
"page": "RP111179",
"DOI": "10.7554/elife.111179",
"PMID": "42647064",
"PMCID": "PMC13516682",
"ISSN": "2050-084X",
"publisher": "eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd",
"URL": "https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.111179",
"language": "en",
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
2026,
8,
26
]
]
}
}

The tracing map gets a citation of its own once an author has validated it and it has a DOI.

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.3390/brainsci16070668
Animate Categories Show Higher Cross-Duration Representational Selectivity in Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex Under Brief Visual Input.
Journal: Brain sciences
In common: 4 references
[2] doi:10.1038/s42003-026-10843-3 [code]
Self-supervised learning yields representational signatures of category-selective cortex.
Journal: Communications biology
In common: 4 references
[3] doi:10.1167/jov.26.8.1 [code]
MAME: Multidimensional adaptive metamer exploration with human perceptual feedback.
Journal: Journal of vision
In common: behavior only, cognitive, 1 reference
[4] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1207 [code]
Investigating the temporal dynamics and modeling of mid-level feature representations in humans.
Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)
In common: cognitive, 1 reference
[5] doi:10.1126/sciadv.aec0518 [code]
Hybrid spatial organization and evidence for magnitude-independent neural coding of linguistic information during sentence production.
Journal: Science advances
In common: 1 reference
[6] doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0038-26.2026 [code]
Multidimensional Feature Tuning in Category Selective Areas of Human Visual Cortex.
Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
In common: 1 reference
[7] doi:10.7554/elife.105482 [code]
Principles of gamma synchrony predict figure-ground perception in texture stimuli.
Journal: eLife
In common: 1 reference
[8] doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101777
Neural systems supporting cognitive reappraisal in young children: An fMRI study.
Journal: Developmental cognitive neuroscience
In common: 1 reference
[9] doi:10.7554/elife.110770 [code]
Retinal curl as a functional signal for heading estimation beyond the focus of expansion.
Journal: eLife
In common: behavior only, cognitive
[10] doi:10.1002/brb3.71684
Evaluating the 8-Year Association Between Cognition and Beta Amyloid in the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study Cohort.
Journal: Brain and behavior
In common: behavior only, cognitive

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Sign in with ORCID to claim this paper as one of its authors, correct its record or validate its tracing map: when the paper's metadata lists your ORCID iD, you are recognized at once. Maintainers of its code: sign in with GitHub, then claim the repository on your account page.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion, reproductions, activity

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.