When subjects see the novel 
clay object depicted at left 
rotated 90 degrees (shown at 
right), their recognition of it as 
the same object is little better 
than chance.

In our laboratory when novel 
three-dimensional objects 
(such as that pictured at left) 
are seen rotated by 90 degrees 
about their vertical axis, 
recognition is little better than 
chance. Failure of recognition 
here can be regarded as failure 
of shape constancy. However, 
the matter is still controversial 
and some research points in 
the other direction. Of course 
in daily life we generally do 
recognize objects from virtually 
any perspective; the question is 
why we do—–Because we have 
seen them from many angles 
and thus built up a three-
dimensional representation in 
our minds, or because we 
recognize some distinct part 
which leads on to recognition 
of the entire object? This line 
of research is just in its 
infancy.