Abstract: Three experiments were conducted to investigate the influences of object representation on its identification, especially the relationship between the whole and the components. Experiment one dealt with how the components and the whole impact on the identification of an object The second experiment investigated on the role of relative distances and parting methods in identifying an object. Finally, the representation of objects was studied when they were naturally and non-naturally parted. The results indicated that : (1) when an object was separated into parts, mental operations were used to merge them during identification; (2) the object could be identified through either the components or the whole; (3) representation of different components were independent of each other, an object could be figured out regardless of its familiarity. The objects could be identified if their components and their space relationships were obtained. However, identification of components was not the absolute condition for identifying an object.

Key words: object , picture, identification, parting, familiarity