greeble

English

A greeble (invented novel object used as a stimulus in psychology).

Etymology

• A neologism that was originally coined and used by the prop-makers from Industrial Light & Magic while working on production of the original Star Wars film. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
• The objects in psychology were named by the American psychologist Robert Abelson.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹiːbliː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: gree‧ble

Noun

greeble (plural greebles)

1. A small piece of detailing added to break up the surface of an object and add visual interest, particularly in movie special effects.

   Synonym: nurnie

2. (psychology) Any of a set of invented novel objects used as stimuli in psychological studies of object and face recognition.
   • 2005, Hugh W. Catts, Alan G. Kamhi, The Connections Between Language and Reading Disabilities, page 93:

     Because, compared to other objects, face recognition seems to be especially sensitive to stimulus orientation, Gauthier had subjects perform a matching task with upright or inverted faces and greebles in the scanner, hypothesizing that greeble expertise would be specific to viewing them in the trained, upright orientation.

Translations

A small piece of detailing added to break up the surface of an object

Verb

greeble (third-person singular simple present greebles, present participle greebling, simple past and past participle greebled)

1. (transitive) To add greebles to a surface.

   We're going to greeble the surface of the model to give it a more convincing look.

Further reading

• greeble on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• greeble (psychology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia