Check out this sample code that demonstrates the feature. It's a RecyclerView that calls notifyItemChanged(position, payload) when the item at position position is clicked. You can verify that onBindViewHolder(holder, position, payload) was called by looking for the logcat statement.
Make sure you are using at least version 23.1.1 of the support libraries, like so:
dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:23.1.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:cardview-v7:23.1.1'
}
HelloActivity.java
package com.formagrid.hellotest;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.widget.CardView;
import android.support.v7.widget.DefaultItemAnimator;
import android.support.v7.widget.LinearLayoutManager;
import android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.TextView;
import java.util.List;
public class HelloActivity extends Activity {
    private RecyclerView mRecyclerView;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        mRecyclerView = (RecyclerView) findViewById(R.id.recycler_view);
        mRecyclerView.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(this, LinearLayoutManager.VERTICAL, false));
        mRecyclerView.setAdapter(new HelloAdapter());
        DefaultItemAnimator animator = new DefaultItemAnimator() {
            @Override
            public boolean canReuseUpdatedViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder viewHolder) {
                return true;
            }
        };
        mRecyclerView.setItemAnimator(animator);
    }
    private static class HelloAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<HelloAdapter.HelloViewHolder> {
        public class HelloViewHolder extends RecyclerView.ViewHolder {
            public TextView textView;
            public HelloViewHolder(CardView cardView) {
                super(cardView);
                textView = (TextView) cardView.findViewById(R.id.text_view);
            }
        }
        @Override
        public HelloViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) {
            CardView cardView = (CardView) LayoutInflater.from(parent.getContext()).inflate(
                    R.layout.card_item, parent, false);
            return new HelloViewHolder(cardView);
        }
        @Override
        public void onBindViewHolder(HelloViewHolder holder, int position) {
            bind(holder);
        }
        @Override
        public void onBindViewHolder(HelloViewHolder holder, int position, List<Object> payload) {
            Log.d("butt", "payload " + payload.toString());
            bind(holder);
        }
        @Override
        public int getItemCount() {
            return 20;
        }
        private void bind(final HelloViewHolder holder) {
            holder.textView.setText("item " + holder.getAdapterPosition());
            holder.itemView.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onClick(View v) {
                    final int position = holder.getAdapterPosition();
                    Log.d("butt", "click " + position);
                    HelloAdapter.this.notifyItemChanged(position, "payload " + position);
                }
            });
        }
    }
}
activity_main.xml
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".HelloActivity">
    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/recycler_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
</RelativeLayout>
card_item.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v7.widget.CardView
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:card_view="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="100dip"
    android:layout_margin="5dip"
    card_view:cardElevation="5dip">
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
</android.support.v7.widget.CardView>