objectcentered

Object-centered is an adjective used across multiple disciplines to describe approaches, models, or representations in which objects are treated as the central units of analysis or design. The exact emphasis varies by field, but common threads include focusing on the properties, states, and interactions of objects rather than on agents, processes, or contexts.

In software engineering and design, object-centered or object-oriented design foregrounds objects as the primary building blocks of a system. Objects encapsulate data and behavior, and the system is modeled as a network of interacting objects. In this usage, object-centered highlights the primacy of object abstractions for analysis, implementation, and maintenance.

In cognitive science and vision research, object-centered representations refer to spatial or perceptual frameworks anchored to the object itself, rather than to the observer’s viewpoint. This contrasts with egocentric or viewer-centered representations and is used to explain how people perceive and remember object locations and relations.

In philosophy and ontology, an object-centered perspective treats objects as fundamental entities around which properties and relations are organized. This contrasts with subject-centered or process-centered viewpoints that center observers or events.

In linguistics and discourse analysis, object-centered approaches may focus on the object of action or the role objects play within sentences or narratives, emphasizing how objects structure meaning and information flow.

Overall, object-centered is a descriptive label indicating that objects are the central referents in a given theory, design method, or interpretation, rather than agents, processes, or contexts. The term is not tightly standardized and is used variably across disciplines.