1
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Alexander RG, Venkatakrishnan A, Chanovas J, Ferguson S, Macknik SL, Martinez-Conde S. Why did Rubens add a parrot to Titian's The Fall of Man? A pictorial manipulation of joint attention. J Vis 2024; 24:1. [PMID: 38558160 PMCID: PMC10996941 DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.4.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Almost 400 years ago, Rubens copied Titian's The Fall of Man, albeit with important changes. Rubens altered Titian's original composition in numerous ways, including by changing the gaze directions of the depicted characters and adding a striking red parrot to the painting. Here, we quantify the impact of Rubens's choices on the viewer's gaze behavior. We displayed digital copies of Rubens's and Titian's artworks-as well as a version of Rubens's painting with the parrot digitally removed-on a computer screen while recording the eye movements produced by observers during free visual exploration of each image. To assess the effects of Rubens's changes to Titian's composition, we directly compared multiple gaze parameters across the different images. We found that participants gazed at Eve's face more frequently in Rubens's painting than in Titian's. In addition, gaze positions were more tightly focused for the former than for the latter, consistent with different allocations of viewer interest. We also investigated how gaze fixation on Eve's face affected the perceptual visibility of the parrot in Rubens's composition and how the parrot's presence versus its absence impacted gaze dynamics. Taken together, our results demonstrate that Rubens's critical deviations from Titian's painting have powerful effects on viewers' oculomotor behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert G Alexander
- Department of Psychology & Counseling, New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ashwin Venkatakrishnan
- Department of Ophthalmology, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Jordi Chanovas
- Department of Ophthalmology, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA
- Graduate Program in Neural and Behavioral Science, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Sophie Ferguson
- Department of Ophthalmology, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Stephen L Macknik
- Department of Ophthalmology, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Susana Martinez-Conde
- Department of Ophthalmology, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA
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2
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Phelps AM, Alexander RG, Schmidt J. Negative cues minimize visual search specificity effects. Vision Res 2022; 196:108030. [PMID: 35313163 PMCID: PMC9090971 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2022.108030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2021] [Revised: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Prior target knowledge (i.e., positive cues) improves visual search performance. However, there is considerable debate about whether distractor knowledge (i.e., negative cues) can guide search. Some studies suggest the active suppression of negatively cued search items, while others suggest the initial capture of attention by negatively cued items. Prior work has used pictorial or specific text cues but has not explicitly compared them. We build on that work by comparing positive and negative cues presented pictorially and as categorical text labels using photorealistic objects and eye movement measures. Search displays contained a target (cued on positive trials), a lure from the target category (cued on negative trials), and four categorically-unrelated distractors. Search performance with positive cues resulted in stronger attentional guidance and faster object recognition for pictorial relative to categorical cues (i.e., a pictorial advantage, suggesting specific visual details afforded by pictorial cues improved search). However, in most search performance metrics, negative cues mitigate the pictorial advantage. Given that the negatively cued items captured attention, generated target guidance but mitigated the pictorial advantage, these results are partly consistent with both existing theories. Specific visual details provided in positive cues produce a large pictorial advantage in all measures, whereas specific visual details in negative cues only produce a small pictorial advantage for object recognition but not for attentional guidance. This asymmetry in the pictorial advantage suggests that the down-weighting of specific negatively cued visual features is less efficient than the up-weighting of specific positively cued visual features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley M Phelps
- Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
| | - Robert G Alexander
- Departments of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology & Pharmacology, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Joseph Schmidt
- Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
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3
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Ramzaoui H, Faure S, Spotorno S. EXPRESS: Age-related differences when searching in a real environment: The use of semantic contextual guidance and incidental object encoding. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2021; 75:1948-1958. [PMID: 34816760 DOI: 10.1177/17470218211064887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Visual search is a crucial, everyday activity that declines with aging. Here, referring to the environmental support account, we hypothesized that semantic contextual associations between the target and the neighboring objects (e.g., a teacup near a tea bag and a spoon), acting as external cues, may counteract this decline. Moreover, when searching for a target, viewers may encode information about the co-present distractor objects, by simply looking at them. In everyday life, where viewers often search for several targets within the same environment, such distractor objects may often become targets of future searches. Thus, we examined whether incidentally fixating a target during previous trials, when it was a distractor, may also modulate the impact of aging on search performance. We used everyday object arrays on tables in a real room, where healthy young and older adults had to search sequentially for multiple objects across different trials within the same array. We showed that search was quicker: (1) in young than older adults, (2) for targets surrounded by semantically associated objects than unassociated objects, but only in older adults, and (3) for incidentally fixated targets than for targets that were not fixated when they were distractors, with no differences between young and older adults. These results suggest that older viewers use both environmental support based on object semantic associations and object information incidentally encoded to enhance efficiency of real-world search, even in relatively simple environments. This reduces, but does not eliminate, search decline related to aging.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Sara Spotorno
- School of Psychology, Keele University, United Kingdom 4212
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4
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Hardiess G, Weissert C. Interaction between image and text during the process of biblical art reception. J Eye Mov Res 2021; 13. [PMID: 33828797 PMCID: PMC8019328 DOI: 10.16910/jemr.13.2.14] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In our exploratory study, we ask how naive observers, without a distinct religious background,
approach biblical art that combines image and text. For this purpose, we choose the
book ‘New biblical figures of the Old and New Testament’ published in 1569 as source of
the stimuli. This book belongs to the genre of illustrated Bibles, which were very popular
during the Reformation. Since there is no empirical knowledge regarding the interaction
between image and text during the process of such biblical art reception, we selected four
relevant images from the book and measured the eye movements of participants in order to
characterize and quantify their scanning behavior related to such stimuli in terms of i) looking
at text (text usage), ii) text vs. image interaction measures (semantic or contextual relevance
of text), and iii) narration. We show that texts capture attention early in the process
of inspection and that text and image interact. Moreover, semantics of texts are used to guide
eye movements later through the image, supporting the formation of the narrative.
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5
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Yamauchi K, Kawahara JI. Inhibitory template for visual marking with endogenous spatial cueing. VISUAL COGNITION 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2020.1842834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kenji Yamauchi
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Jun I. Kawahara
- Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
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6
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Cajar A, Engbert R, Laubrock J. How spatial frequencies and color drive object search in real-world scenes: A new eye-movement corpus. J Vis 2020; 20:8. [PMID: 38755794 PMCID: PMC7424126 DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.7.8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2019] [Accepted: 03/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
When studying how people search for objects in scenes, the inhomogeneity of the visual field is often ignored. Due to physiological limitations, peripheral vision is blurred and mainly uses coarse-grained information (i.e., low spatial frequencies) for selecting saccade targets, whereas high-acuity central vision uses fine-grained information (i.e., high spatial frequencies) for analysis of details. Here we investigated how spatial frequencies and color affect object search in real-world scenes. Using gaze-contingent filters, we attenuated high or low frequencies in central or peripheral vision while viewers searched color or grayscale scenes. Results showed that peripheral filters and central high-pass filters hardly affected search accuracy, whereas accuracy dropped drastically with central low-pass filters. Peripheral filtering increased the time to localize the target by decreasing saccade amplitudes and increasing number and duration of fixations. The use of coarse-grained information in the periphery was limited to color scenes. Central filtering increased the time to verify target identity instead, especially with low-pass filters. We conclude that peripheral vision is critical for object localization and central vision is critical for object identification. Visual guidance during peripheral object localization is dominated by low-frequency color information, whereas high-frequency information, relatively independent of color, is most important for object identification in central vision.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jochen Laubrock
- University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
- Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane, Neuruppin, Germany
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7
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Revankar GS, Hattori N, Kajiyama Y, Nakano T, Mihara M, Mori E, Mochizuki H. Ocular fixations and presaccadic potentials to explain pareidolias in Parkinson's disease. Brain Commun 2020; 2:fcaa073. [PMID: 32954309 PMCID: PMC7425388 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcaa073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2019] [Revised: 03/27/2020] [Accepted: 05/04/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
In Parkinson's disease, a precursor phenomenon to visual hallucinations presents as 'pareidolias' which make ambiguous forms appear meaningful. To evoke and detect pareidolias in patients, a noise pareidolia test was recently developed, although its task-dependent mechanisms are yet to be revealed. When subjected to this test, we hypothesized that patients exhibiting pareidolias would show altered top-down influence of visual processing allowing us to demonstrate the influence of pareidolic illusionary behaviour in Parkinson's disease patients. To that end, we evaluated eye-movement strategies and fixation-related presaccadic activity on scalp EEG when participants performed the test. Twelve healthy controls and 21 Parkinson's disease patients, evaluated for cognitive, visuo-spatial and executive functions, took a modified computer-based version of the noise pareidolia test in a free-viewing EEG eye-tracking experiment. Eye-tracking metrics (fixation-related durations and counts) documented the eye movement behaviour employed in correct responses (face/noise) and misperceptions (pareidolia/missed) during early and late visual search conditions. Simultaneously, EEG recorded the presaccadic activity in frontal and parietal areas of the brain. Based on the noise pareidolia test scores, we found certain Parkinson's disease patients exhibited pareidolias whereas others did not. ANOVA on eye-tracking data showed that patients dwelled significantly longer to detect faces and pareidolias which affected both global and local search dynamics depending on their visuo-perceptual status. Presaccadic activity in parietal electrodes for the groups was positive for faces and pareidolias, and negative for noise, though these results depended mainly on saccade size. However, patients sensitive to pareidolias showed a significantly higher presaccadic potential on frontal electrodes independent of saccade sizes, suggesting a stronger frontal activation for pareidolic stimuli. We concluded with the following interpretations (i) the noise pareidolia test specifically characterizes visuo-perceptual inadequacies in patients despite their wide range of cognitive scores, (ii) Parkinson's disease patients dwell longer to converge attention to pareidolic stimuli due to abnormal saccade generation proportional to their visuo-perceptual deficit during early search, and during late search, due to time-independent alteration of visual attentional network and (iii) patients with pareidolias show increased frontal activation reflecting the allocation of attention to irrelevant targets that express the pareidolic phenomenon. While the disease per se alters the visuo-perceptual and oculomotor dynamics, pareidolias occur in Parkinson's disease due to an abnormal top-down modulation of visual processing that affects visual attention and guidance to ambiguous stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gajanan S Revankar
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan
| | - Noriaki Hattori
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan.,Endowed Research Department of Clinical Neuroengineering, Global Center for Medical Engineering and Informatics, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan
| | - Yuta Kajiyama
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan
| | - Tomohito Nakano
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan
| | - Masahito Mihara
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan
| | - Etsuro Mori
- Department of Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan
| | - Hideki Mochizuki
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan
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8
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Changing perspectives on goal-directed attention control: The past, present, and future of modeling fixations during visual search. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MOTIVATION 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.plm.2020.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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9
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Alexander RG, Nahvi RJ, Zelinsky GJ. Specifying the precision of guiding features for visual search. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 2019; 45:1248-1264. [PMID: 31219282 PMCID: PMC6706321 DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Visual search is the task of finding things with uncertain locations. Despite decades of research, the features that guide visual search remain poorly specified, especially in realistic contexts. This study tested the role of two features-shape and orientation-both in the presence and absence of hue information. We conducted five experiments to describe preview-target mismatch effects, decreases in performance caused by differences between the image of the target as it appears in the preview and as it appears in the actual search display. These mismatch effects provide direct measures of feature importance, with larger performance decrements expected for more important features. Contrary to previous conclusions, our data suggest that shape and orientation only guide visual search when color is not available. By varying the probability of mismatch in each feature dimension, we also show that these patterns of feature guidance do not change with the probability that the previewed feature will be invalid. We conclude that the target representations used to guide visual search are much less precise than previously believed, with participants encoding and using color and little else. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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10
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Nuthmann A, de Groot F, Huettig F, Olivers CNL. Extrafoveal attentional capture by object semantics. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0217051. [PMID: 31120948 PMCID: PMC6532879 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2018] [Accepted: 05/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
There is ongoing debate on whether object meaning can be processed outside foveal vision, making semantics available for attentional guidance. Much of the debate has centred on whether objects that do not fit within an overall scene draw attention, in complex displays that are often difficult to control. Here, we revisited the question by reanalysing data from three experiments that used displays consisting of standalone objects from a carefully controlled stimulus set. Observers searched for a target object, as per auditory instruction. On the critical trials, the displays contained no target but objects that were semantically related to the target, visually related, or unrelated. Analyses using (generalized) linear mixed-effects models showed that, although visually related objects attracted most attention, semantically related objects were also fixated earlier in time than unrelated objects. Moreover, semantic matches affected the very first saccade in the display. The amplitudes of saccades that first entered semantically related objects were larger than 5° on average, confirming that object semantics is available outside foveal vision. Finally, there was no semantic capture of attention for the same objects when observers did not actively look for the target, confirming that it was not stimulus-driven. We discuss the implications for existing models of visual cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antje Nuthmann
- Psychology Department, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Institute of Psychology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Floor de Groot
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology & Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Falk Huettig
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Christian N. L. Olivers
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology & Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- * E-mail:
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11
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Rothkegel LOM, Schütt HH, Trukenbrod HA, Wichmann FA, Engbert R. Searchers adjust their eye-movement dynamics to target characteristics in natural scenes. Sci Rep 2019; 9:1635. [PMID: 30733470 PMCID: PMC6367441 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37548-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2018] [Accepted: 12/07/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
When searching a target in a natural scene, it has been shown that both the target's visual properties and similarity to the background influence whether and how fast humans are able to find it. So far, it was unclear whether searchers adjust the dynamics of their eye movements (e.g., fixation durations, saccade amplitudes) to the target they search for. In our experiment, participants searched natural scenes for six artificial targets with different spatial frequency content throughout eight consecutive sessions. High-spatial frequency targets led to smaller saccade amplitudes and shorter fixation durations than low-spatial frequency targets if target identity was known. If a saccade was programmed in the same direction as the previous saccade, fixation durations and successive saccade amplitudes were not influenced by target type. Visual saliency and empirical fixation density at the endpoints of saccades which maintain direction were comparatively low, indicating that these saccades were less selective. Our results suggest that searchers adjust their eye movement dynamics to the search target efficiently, since previous research has shown that low-spatial frequencies are visible farther into the periphery than high-spatial frequencies. We interpret the saccade direction specificity of our effects as an underlying separation into a default scanning mechanism and a selective, target-dependent mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lars O M Rothkegel
- Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknechtstraße 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.
| | - Heiko H Schütt
- Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknechtstraße 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany
- Neural Information Processing Group, University of Tübingen, Sand 6, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hans A Trukenbrod
- Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknechtstraße 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Felix A Wichmann
- Neural Information Processing Group, University of Tübingen, Sand 6, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Max-Planck-Ring 4, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ralf Engbert
- Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknechtstraße 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany
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12
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Huang H, Lin NC, Barrett L, Springer D, Wang HC, Pomplun M, Yu LF. Automatic Optimization of Wayfinding Design. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS 2018; 24:2516-2530. [PMID: 29028200 DOI: 10.1109/tvcg.2017.2761820] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Wayfinding signs play an important role in guiding users to navigate in a virtual environment and in helping pedestrians to find their ways in a real-world architectural site. Conventionally, the wayfinding design of a virtual environment is created manually, so as the wayfinding design of a real-world architectural site. The many possible navigation scenarios, as well as the interplay between signs and human navigation, can make the manual design process overwhelming and non-trivial. As a result, creating a wayfinding design for a typical layout can take months to several years. In this paper, we introduce the Way to Go! approach for automatically generating a wayfinding design for a given layout. The designer simply has to specify some navigation scenarios; our approach will automatically generate an optimized wayfinding design with signs properly placed considering human agents' visibility and possibility of making mistakes during a navigation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in generating wayfinding designs for different layouts such as a train station, a downtown and a canyon. We evaluate our results by comparing different wayfinding designs and show that our optimized wayfinding design can guide pedestrians to their destinations effectively and efficiently. Our approach can also help the designer visualize the accessibility of a destination from different locations, and correct any "blind zone" with additional signs.
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13
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Flechsenhar A, Rösler L, Gamer M. Attentional Selection of Social Features Persists Despite Restricted Bottom-Up Information and Affects Temporal Viewing Dynamics. Sci Rep 2018; 8:12555. [PMID: 30135443 PMCID: PMC6105690 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30736-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2018] [Accepted: 08/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown an attentional bias towards social features during free-viewing of naturalistic scenes. This social attention seems to be reflexive and able to defy top-down demands in form of explicit search tasks. However, the question remains whether social features continue to be prioritized when peripheral information is limited, thereby reducing the influence of bottom-up image information on gaze orienting. Therefore, we established a gaze-contingent viewing paradigm, in which the visual field was constrained and updated in response to the viewer's eye movements. Participants viewed social and non-social images that were randomly allocated to a free and a gaze-contingent viewing condition while their eye movements were tracked. Our results revealed a strong attentional bias towards social features in both conditions. However, gaze-contingent viewing altered temporal and spatial dynamics of viewing behavior. Additionally, recurrent fixations were more frequent and closer together in time for social compared to non-social stimuli in both viewing conditions. Taken together, this study implies a predominant selection of social features when bottom-up influences are diminished and a general influence of social content on visual exploratory behavior, thus highlighting mechanisms of social attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleya Flechsenhar
- Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Lara Rösler
- Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Matthias Gamer
- Department of Psychology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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14
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Bahle B, Matsukura M, Hollingworth A. Contrasting gist-based and template-based guidance during real-world visual search. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 2017; 44:367-386. [PMID: 28795834 DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Visual search through real-world scenes is guided both by a representation of target features and by knowledge of the sematic properties of the scene (derived from scene gist recognition). In 3 experiments, we compared the relative roles of these 2 sources of guidance. Participants searched for a target object in the presence of a critical distractor object. The color of the critical distractor either matched or mismatched (a) the color of an item maintained in visual working memory for a secondary task (Experiment 1), or (b) the color of the target, cued by a picture before search commenced (Experiments 2 and 3). Capture of gaze by a matching distractor served as an index of template guidance. There were 4 main findings: (a) The distractor match effect was observed from the first saccade on the scene, (b) it was independent of the availability of scene-level gist-based guidance, (c) it was independent of whether the distractor appeared in a plausible location for the target, and (d) it was preserved even when gist-based guidance was available before scene onset. Moreover, gist-based, semantic guidance of gaze to target-plausible regions of the scene was delayed relative to template-based guidance. These results suggest that feature-based template guidance is not limited to plausible scene regions after an initial, scene-level analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Affiliation(s)
- Brett Bahle
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa
| | - Michi Matsukura
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa
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15
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Wilming N, Kietzmann TC, Jutras M, Xue C, Treue S, Buffalo EA, König P. Differential Contribution of Low- and High-level Image Content to Eye Movements in Monkeys and Humans. Cereb Cortex 2017; 27:279-293. [PMID: 28077512 PMCID: PMC5942390 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2016] [Accepted: 12/13/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Oculomotor selection exerts a fundamental impact on our experience of the environment. To better understand the underlying principles, researchers typically rely on behavioral data from humans, and electrophysiological recordings in macaque monkeys. This approach rests on the assumption that the same selection processes are at play in both species. To test this assumption, we compared the viewing behavior of 106 humans and 11 macaques in an unconstrained free-viewing task. Our data-driven clustering analyses revealed distinct human and macaque clusters, indicating species-specific selection strategies. Yet, cross-species predictions were found to be above chance, indicating some level of shared behavior. Analyses relying on computational models of visual saliency indicate that such cross-species commonalities in free viewing are largely due to similar low-level selection mechanisms, with only a small contribution by shared higher level selection mechanisms and with consistent viewing behavior of monkeys being a subset of the consistent viewing behavior of humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Niklas Wilming
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.,Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.,Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.,Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA
| | - Tim C Kietzmann
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.,Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Megan Jutras
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.,Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA
| | - Cheng Xue
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center - Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Stefan Treue
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center - Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany.,Faculty of Biology and Psychology, Goettingen University, Goettingen, Germany.,Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Elizabeth A Buffalo
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.,Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA
| | - Peter König
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.,Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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Idiosyncratic Patterns of Representational Similarity in Prefrontal Cortex Predict Attentional Performance. J Neurosci 2016; 37:1257-1268. [PMID: 28028199 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1407-16.2016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2016] [Revised: 11/08/2016] [Accepted: 12/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The efficiency of finding an object in a crowded environment depends largely on the similarity of nontargets to the search target. Models of attention theorize that the similarity is determined by representations stored within an "attentional template" held in working memory. However, the degree to which the contents of the attentional template are individually unique and where those idiosyncratic representations are encoded in the brain are unknown. We investigated this problem using representational similarity analysis of human fMRI data to measure the common and idiosyncratic representations of famous face morphs during an identity categorization task; data from the categorization task were then used to predict performance on a separate identity search task. We hypothesized that the idiosyncratic categorical representations of the continuous face morphs would predict their distractability when searching for each target identity. The results identified that patterns of activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) as well as in face-selective areas in the ventral temporal cortex were highly correlated with the patterns of behavioral categorization of face morphs and search performance that were common across subjects. However, the individually unique components of the categorization behavior were reliably decoded only in right LPFC. Moreover, the neural pattern in right LPFC successfully predicted idiosyncratic variability in search performance, such that reaction times were longer when distractors had a higher probability of being categorized as the target identity. These results suggest that the prefrontal cortex encodes individually unique components of categorical representations that are also present in attentional templates for target search. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Everyone's perception of the world is uniquely shaped by personal experiences and preferences. Using functional MRI, we show that individual differences in the categorization of face morphs between two identities could be decoded from the prefrontal cortex and the ventral temporal cortex. Moreover, the individually unique representations in prefrontal cortex predicted idiosyncratic variability in attentional performance when looking for each identity in the "crowd" of another morphed face in a separate search task. Our results reveal that the representation of task-related information in prefrontal cortex is individually unique and preserved across categorization and search performance. This demonstrates the possibility of predicting individual behaviors across tasks with patterns of brain activity.
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18
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Previously seen and expected stimuli elicit surprise in the context of visual search. Atten Percept Psychophys 2016; 78:774-88. [DOI: 10.3758/s13414-015-1052-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Hout MC, Godwin HJ, Fitzsimmons G, Robbins A, Menneer T, Goldinger SD. Using multidimensional scaling to quantify similarity in visual search and beyond. Atten Percept Psychophys 2016; 78:3-20. [PMID: 26494381 PMCID: PMC5523409 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-015-1010-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Visual search is one of the most widely studied topics in vision science, both as an independent topic of interest, and as a tool for studying attention and visual cognition. A wide literature exists that seeks to understand how people find things under varying conditions of difficulty and complexity, and in situations ranging from the mundane (e.g., looking for one's keys) to those with significant societal importance (e.g., baggage or medical screening). A primary determinant of the ease and probability of success during search are the similarity relationships that exist in the search environment, such as the similarity between the background and the target, or the likeness of the non-targets to one another. A sense of similarity is often intuitive, but it is seldom quantified directly. This presents a problem in that similarity relationships are imprecisely specified, limiting the capacity of the researcher to examine adequately their influence. In this article, we present a novel approach to overcoming this problem that combines multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) analyses with behavioral and eye-tracking measurements. We propose a method whereby MDS can be repurposed to successfully quantify the similarity of experimental stimuli, thereby opening up theoretical questions in visual search and attention that cannot currently be addressed. These quantifications, in conjunction with behavioral and oculomotor measures, allow for critical observations about how similarity affects performance, information selection, and information processing. We provide a demonstration and tutorial of the approach, identify documented examples of its use, discuss how complementary computer vision methods could also be adopted, and close with a discussion of potential avenues for future application of this technique.
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Ramkumar P, Fernandes H, Kording K, Segraves M. Modeling peripheral visual acuity enables discovery of gaze strategies at multiple time scales during natural scene search. J Vis 2015; 15:19. [PMID: 25814545 PMCID: PMC4374760 DOI: 10.1167/15.3.19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2014] [Accepted: 12/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Like humans, monkeys make saccades nearly three times a second. To understand the factors guiding this frequent decision, computational models of vision attempt to predict fixation locations using bottom-up visual features and top-down goals. How do the relative influences of these factors evolve over multiple time scales? Here we analyzed visual features at fixations using a retinal transform that provides realistic visual acuity by suitably degrading visual information in the periphery. In a task in which monkeys searched for a Gabor target in natural scenes, we characterized the relative importance of bottom-up and task-relevant influences by decoding fixated from nonfixated image patches based on visual features. At fast time scales, we found that search strategies can vary over the course of a single trial, with locations of higher saliency, target-similarity, edge–energy, and orientedness looked at later on in the trial. At slow time scales, we found that search strategies can be refined over several weeks of practice, and the influence of target orientation was significant only in the latter of two search tasks. Critically, these results were not observed without applying the retinal transform. Our results suggest that saccade-guidance strategies become apparent only when models take into account degraded visual representation in the periphery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavan Ramkumar
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Hugo Fernandes
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Konrad Kording
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Mark Segraves
- Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
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Hout MC, Goldinger SD. Target templates: the precision of mental representations affects attentional guidance and decision-making in visual search. Atten Percept Psychophys 2015; 77:128-49. [PMID: 25214306 PMCID: PMC4286498 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-014-0764-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
When people look for things in the environment, they use target templates-mental representations of the objects they are attempting to locate-to guide attention and to assess incoming visual input as potential targets. However, unlike laboratory participants, searchers in the real world rarely have perfect knowledge regarding the potential appearance of targets. In seven experiments, we examined how the precision of target templates affects the ability to conduct visual search. Specifically, we degraded template precision in two ways: 1) by contaminating searchers' templates with inaccurate features, and 2) by introducing extraneous features to the template that were unhelpful. We recorded eye movements to allow inferences regarding the relative extents to which attentional guidance and decision-making are hindered by template imprecision. Our findings support a dual-function theory of the target template and highlight the importance of examining template precision in visual search.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael C Hout
- Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001 / MSC 3452, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA,
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Wu CC, Wang HC, Pomplun M. The roles of scene gist and spatial dependency among objects in the semantic guidance of attention in real-world scenes. Vision Res 2014; 105:10-20. [PMID: 25199610 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2014.08.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2014] [Revised: 08/19/2014] [Accepted: 08/21/2014] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
A previous study (Vision Research 51 (2011) 1192-1205) found evidence for semantic guidance of visual attention during the inspection of real-world scenes, i.e., an influence of semantic relationships among scene objects on overt shifts of attention. In particular, the results revealed an observer bias toward gaze transitions between semantically similar objects. However, this effect is not necessarily indicative of semantic processing of individual objects but may be mediated by knowledge of the scene gist, which does not require object recognition, or by known spatial dependency among objects. To examine the mechanisms underlying semantic guidance, in the present study, participants were asked to view a series of displays with the scene gist excluded and spatial dependency varied. Our results show that spatial dependency among objects seems to be sufficient to induce semantic guidance. Scene gist, on the other hand, does not seem to affect how observers use semantic information to guide attention while viewing natural scenes. Extracting semantic information mainly based on spatial dependency may be an efficient strategy of the visual system that only adds little cognitive load to the viewing task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chia-Chien Wu
- Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts at Boston, USA.
| | - Hsueh-Cheng Wang
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
| | - Marc Pomplun
- Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts at Boston, USA
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Alexander RG, Schmidt J, Zelinsky GJ. Are summary statistics enough? Evidence for the importance of shape in guiding visual search. VISUAL COGNITION 2014; 22:595-609. [PMID: 26180505 DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2014.890989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Peripheral vision outside the focus of attention may rely on summary statistics. We used a gaze-contingent paradigm to directly test this assumption by asking whether search performance differed between targets and statistically-matched visualizations of the same targets. Four-object search displays included one statistically-matched object that was replaced by an unaltered version of the object during the first eye movement. Targets were designated by previews, which were never altered. Two types of statistically-matched objects were tested: One that maintained global shape and one that did not. Differences in guidance were found between targets and statistically-matched objects when shape was not preserved, suggesting that they were not informationally equivalent. Responses were also slower after target fixation when shape was not preserved, suggesting an extrafoveal processing of the target that again used shape information. We conclude that summary statistics must include some global shape information to approximate the peripheral information used during search.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Joseph Schmidt
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, USA ; Institute for Mind and Brain, University of South Carolina, USA
| | - Gregory J Zelinsky
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, USA ; Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, USA
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Zelinsky GJ, Peng Y, Samaras D. Eye can read your mind: decoding gaze fixations to reveal categorical search targets. J Vis 2013; 13:13.14.10. [PMID: 24338446 DOI: 10.1167/13.14.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Is it possible to infer a person's goal by decoding their fixations on objects? Two groups of participants categorically searched for either a teddy bear or butterfly among random category distractors, each rated as high, medium, or low in similarity to the target classes. Target-similar objects were preferentially fixated in both search tasks, demonstrating information about target category in looking behavior. Different participants then viewed the searchers' scanpaths, superimposed over the target-absent displays, and attempted to decode the target category (bear/butterfly). Bear searchers were classified perfectly; butterfly searchers were classified at 77%. Bear and butterfly Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers were also used to decode the same preferentially fixated objects and found to yield highly comparable classification rates. We conclude that information about a person's search goal exists in fixation behavior, and that this information can be behaviorally decoded to reveal a search target-essentially reading a person's mind by analyzing their fixations.
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Zelinsky GJ, Peng Y, Berg AC, Samaras D. Modeling guidance and recognition in categorical search: bridging human and computer object detection. J Vis 2013; 13:30. [PMID: 24105460 PMCID: PMC3793629 DOI: 10.1167/13.3.30] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2012] [Accepted: 08/05/2013] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Search is commonly described as a repeating cycle of guidance to target-like objects, followed by the recognition of these objects as targets or distractors. Are these indeed separate processes using different visual features? We addressed this question by comparing observer behavior to that of support vector machine (SVM) models trained on guidance and recognition tasks. Observers searched for a categorically defined teddy bear target in four-object arrays. Target-absent trials consisted of random category distractors rated in their visual similarity to teddy bears. Guidance, quantified as first-fixated objects during search, was strongest for targets, followed by target-similar, medium-similarity, and target-dissimilar distractors. False positive errors to first-fixated distractors also decreased with increasing dissimilarity to the target category. To model guidance, nine teddy bear detectors, using features ranging in biological plausibility, were trained on unblurred bears then tested on blurred versions of the same objects appearing in each search display. Guidance estimates were based on target probabilities obtained from these detectors. To model recognition, nine bear/nonbear classifiers, trained and tested on unblurred objects, were used to classify the object that would be fixated first (based on the detector estimates) as a teddy bear or a distractor. Patterns of categorical guidance and recognition accuracy were modeled almost perfectly by an HMAX model in combination with a color histogram feature. We conclude that guidance and recognition in the context of search are not separate processes mediated by different features, and that what the literature knows as guidance is really recognition performed on blurred objects viewed in the visual periphery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory J. Zelinsky
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Yifan Peng
- Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Alexander C. Berg
- Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Dimitris Samaras
- Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
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Vighneshvel T, Arun SP. Does linear separability really matter? Complex visual search is explained by simple search. J Vis 2013; 13:13.11.10. [PMID: 24029822 DOI: 10.1167/13.11.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual search in real life involves complex displays with a target among multiple types of distracters, but in the laboratory, it is often tested using simple displays with identical distracters. Can complex search be understood in terms of simple searches? This link may not be straightforward if complex search has emergent properties. One such property is linear separability, whereby search is hard when a target cannot be separated from its distracters using a single linear boundary. However, evidence in favor of linear separability is based on testing stimulus configurations in an external parametric space that need not be related to their true perceptual representation. We therefore set out to assess whether linear separability influences complex search at all. Our null hypothesis was that complex search performance depends only on classical factors such as target-distracter similarity and distracter homogeneity, which we measured using simple searches. Across three experiments involving a variety of artificial and natural objects, differences between linearly separable and nonseparable searches were explained using target-distracter similarity and distracter heterogeneity. Further, simple searches accurately predicted complex search regardless of linear separability (r = 0.91). Our results show that complex search is explained by simple search, refuting the widely held belief that linear separability influences visual search.
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Affiliation(s)
- T Vighneshvel
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
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27
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Zelinsky GJ, Adeli H, Peng Y, Samaras D. Modelling eye movements in a categorical search task. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2013; 368:20130058. [PMID: 24018720 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
We introduce a model of eye movements during categorical search, the task of finding and recognizing categorically defined targets. It extends a previous model of eye movements during search (target acquisition model, TAM) by using distances from an support vector machine classification boundary to create probability maps indicating pixel-by-pixel evidence for the target category in search images. Other additions include functionality enabling target-absent searches, and a fixation-based blurring of the search images now based on a mapping between visual and collicular space. We tested this model on images from a previously conducted variable set-size (6/13/20) present/absent search experiment where participants searched for categorically defined teddy bear targets among random category distractors. The model not only captured target-present/absent set-size effects, but also accurately predicted for all conditions the numbers of fixations made prior to search judgements. It also predicted the percentages of first eye movements during search landing on targets, a conservative measure of search guidance. Effects of set size on false negative and false positive errors were also captured, but error rates in general were overestimated. We conclude that visual features discriminating a target category from non-targets can be learned and used to guide eye movements during categorical search.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory J Zelinsky
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, , Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA
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Pomplun M, Garaas TW, Carrasco M. The effects of task difficulty on visual search strategy in virtual 3D displays. J Vis 2013; 13:13.3.24. [PMID: 23986539 DOI: 10.1167/13.3.24] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Analyzing the factors that determine our choice of visual search strategy may shed light on visual behavior in everyday situations. Previous results suggest that increasing task difficulty leads to more systematic search paths. Here we analyze observers' eye movements in an "easy" conjunction search task and a "difficult" shape search task to study visual search strategies in stereoscopic search displays with virtual depth induced by binocular disparity. Standard eye-movement variables, such as fixation duration and initial saccade latency, as well as new measures proposed here, such as saccadic step size, relative saccadic selectivity, and x-y target distance, revealed systematic effects on search dynamics in the horizontal-vertical plane throughout the search process. We found that in the "easy" task, observers start with the processing of display items in the display center immediately after stimulus onset and subsequently move their gaze outwards, guided by extrafoveally perceived stimulus color. In contrast, the "difficult" task induced an initial gaze shift to the upper-left display corner, followed by a systematic left-right and top-down search process. The only consistent depth effect was a trend of initial saccades in the easy task with smallest displays to the items closest to the observer. The results demonstrate the utility of eye-movement analysis for understanding search strategies and provide a first step toward studying search strategies in actual 3D scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Pomplun
- Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Boston, MA, USA.
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29
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30
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31
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Santana P, Mendonça R, Correia L, Barata J. Neural-swarm visual saliency for path following. Appl Soft Comput 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.asoc.2012.07.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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32
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Shive J, Francis G. Choosing colors for map display icons using models of visual search. HUMAN FACTORS 2013; 55:373-396. [PMID: 23691832 DOI: 10.1177/0018720812459341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE We show how to choose colors for icons on maps to minimize search time using predictions of a model of visual search. BACKGROUND The model analyzes digital images of a search target (an icon on a map) and a search display (the map containing the icon) and predicts search time as a function of target-distractor color distinctiveness and target eccentricity. METHOD We parameterized the model using data from a visual search task and performed a series of optimization tasks to test the model's ability to choose colors for icons to minimize search time across icons. Map display designs made by this procedure were tested experimentally. In a follow-up experiment, we examined the model's flexibility to assign colors in novel search situations. RESULTS The model fits human performance, performs well on the optimization tasks, and can choose colors for icons on maps with novel stimuli to minimize search time without requiring additional model parameter fitting. CONCLUSION Models of visual search can suggest color choices that produce search time reductions for display icons. APPLICATION Designers should consider constructing visual search models as a low-cost method of evaluating color assignments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Shive
- Tennessee State University, Department of Psychology, 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd., Nashville, TN 37029, USA.
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33
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Wang HC, Pomplun M. The attraction of visual attention to texts in real-world scenes. J Vis 2012; 12:12.6.26. [PMID: 22715197 DOI: 10.1167/12.6.26] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
When we look at real-world scenes, attention seems disproportionately attracted by texts that are embedded in these scenes, for instance, on signs or billboards. The present study was aimed at verifying the existence of this bias and investigating its underlying factors. For this purpose, data from a previous experiment were reanalyzed and four new experiments measuring eye movements during the viewing of real-world scenes were conducted. By pairing text objects with matching control objects and regions, the following main results were obtained: (a) Greater fixation probability and shorter minimum fixation distance of texts confirmed the higher attractiveness of texts; (b) the locations where texts are typically placed contribute partially to this effect; (c) specific visual features of texts, rather than typically salient features (e.g., color, orientation, and contrast), are the main attractors of attention; (d) the meaningfulness of texts does not add to their attentional capture; and (e) the attraction of attention depends to some extent on the observer's familiarity with the writing system and language of a given text.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsueh-Cheng Wang
- Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Boston, MA, USA.
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34
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Pinkus AR, Poteet MJ, Pantle AJ. Search performance with discrete-cell stimulus arrays: filtered naturalistic images and probabilistic markers. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2012; 77:277-302. [PMID: 22476358 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-012-0434-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2011] [Accepted: 03/15/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
In order to partially fill the gap between search studies with artificial and naturalistic stimuli, experiments with segmented and spatially filtered images of real stimuli in the discrete cells of search arrays were conducted. RT × set size functions obtained with the spatially filtered arrays were compared with those obtained with geometric and other types of arrays. With the aid of Fourier analysis, components of target certainty/uncertainty, target-distractor similarity/dissimilarity, and distractor homogeneity/heterogeneity were evaluated for their effects on search performance and efficiency. The comparative effects of valid/invalid and ambiguous/unambiguous markers of search items were included in the experiments to probe the potential contributions of top-down and bottom-up control to search with naturalistic stimuli. Visual coding in the form of spatial frequency passbands and top-down preferences for distractor search were used to explain the results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alan R Pinkus
- 711th Human Performance Wing, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH 45433, USA
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Hollingworth A. Guidance of visual search by memory and knowledge. NEBRASKA SYMPOSIUM ON MOTIVATION. NEBRASKA SYMPOSIUM ON MOTIVATION 2012; 59:63-89. [PMID: 23437630 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-4794-8_4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
To behave intelligently in the world, humans must be able to find objects efficiently within the complex environments they inhabit. A growing proportion of the literature on visual search is devoted to understanding this type of natural search. In the present chapter, I review the literature on visual search through natural scenes, focusing on the role of memory and knowledge in guiding attention to task-relevant objects.
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Donk M, van Zoest W. No control in orientation search: the effects of instruction on oculomotor selection in visual search. Vision Res 2011; 51:2156-66. [PMID: 21875612 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2011.08.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2011] [Revised: 07/20/2011] [Accepted: 08/15/2011] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate whether people can selectively use salience information in search for a target. Observers were presented with a display consisting of multiple homogeneously oriented background lines and two orientation singletons. The orientation singletons differed in salience, where salience was defined by their orientation contrast relative to the background lines. Observers had the task to make a speeded eye movement towards a target, which was either the most or the least salient element of the two orientation singletons. The specific orientation of the target was either constant or variable over a block of trials such that observers had varying knowledge concerning the target identity. The results demonstrated that instruction - whether people were instructed to move to the most or the least salient item - only minimally affected the results. Short-latency eye movements were completely salience driven; here it did not matter whether people were searching for the most or least salient element. Long-latency eye movements were marginally affected by instruction, in particular when observers knew the target identity. These results suggest that even though people use salience information in oculomotor selection, they cannot use this information in a goal-driven manner. The results are discussed in terms of current models on visual selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mieke Donk
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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37
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Wilming N, Betz T, Kietzmann TC, König P. Measures and limits of models of fixation selection. PLoS One 2011; 6:e24038. [PMID: 21931638 PMCID: PMC3171410 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2011] [Accepted: 07/29/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Models of fixation selection are a central tool in the quest to understand how the human mind selects relevant information. Using this tool in the evaluation of competing claims often requires comparing different models' relative performance in predicting eye movements. However, studies use a wide variety of performance measures with markedly different properties, which makes a comparison difficult. We make three main contributions to this line of research: First we argue for a set of desirable properties, review commonly used measures, and conclude that no single measure unites all desirable properties. However the area under the ROC curve (a classification measure) and the KL-divergence (a distance measure of probability distributions) combine many desirable properties and allow a meaningful comparison of critical model performance. We give an analytical proof of the linearity of the ROC measure with respect to averaging over subjects and demonstrate an appropriate correction of entropy-based measures like KL-divergence for small sample sizes in the context of eye-tracking data. Second, we provide a lower bound and an upper bound of these measures, based on image-independent properties of fixation data and between subject consistency respectively. Based on these bounds it is possible to give a reference frame to judge the predictive power of a model of fixation selection . We provide open-source python code to compute the reference frame. Third, we show that the upper, between subject consistency bound holds only for models that predict averages of subject populations. Departing from this we show that incorporating subject-specific viewing behavior can generate predictions which surpass that upper bound. Taken together, these findings lay out the required information that allow a well-founded judgment of the quality of any model of fixation selection and should therefore be reported when a new model is introduced.
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Affiliation(s)
- Niklas Wilming
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
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Abstract
We asked how visual similarity relationships affect search guidance to categorically defined targets (no visual preview). Experiment 1 used a web-based task to collect visual similarity rankings between two target categories, teddy bears and butterflies, and random-category objects, from which we created search displays in Experiment 2 having either high-similarity distractors, low-similarity distractors, or "mixed" displays with high-, medium-, and low-similarity distractors. Analysis of target-absent trials revealed faster manual responses and fewer fixated distractors on low-similarity displays compared to high-similarity displays. On mixed displays, first fixations were more frequent on high-similarity distractors (bear = 49%; butterfly = 58%) than on low-similarity distractors (bear = 9%; butterfly = 12%). Experiment 3 used the same high/low/mixed conditions, but now these conditions were created using similarity estimates from a computer vision model that ranked objects in terms of color, texture, and shape similarity. The same patterns were found, suggesting that categorical search can indeed be guided by purely visual similarity. Experiment 4 compared cases where the model and human rankings differed and when they agreed. We found that similarity effects were best predicted by cases where the two sets of rankings agreed, suggesting that both human visual similarity rankings and the computer vision model captured features important for guiding search to categorical targets.
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39
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Võ MLH, Wolfe JM. When does repeated search in scenes involve memory? Looking at versus looking for objects in scenes. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 2011; 38:23-41. [PMID: 21688939 DOI: 10.1037/a0024147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
One might assume that familiarity with a scene or previous encounters with objects embedded in a scene would benefit subsequent search for those items. However, in a series of experiments we show that this is not the case: When participants were asked to subsequently search for multiple objects in the same scene, search performance remained essentially unchanged over the course of searches despite increasing scene familiarity. Similarly, looking at target objects during previews, which included letter search, 30 seconds of free viewing, or even 30 seconds of memorizing a scene, also did not benefit search for the same objects later on. However, when the same object was searched for again memory for the previous search was capable of producing very substantial speeding of search despite many different intervening searches. This was especially the case when the previous search engagement had been active rather than supported by a cue. While these search benefits speak to the strength of memory-guided search when the same search target is repeated, the lack of memory guidance during initial object searches-despite previous encounters with the target objects-demonstrates the dominance of guidance by generic scene knowledge in real-world search.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa L-H Võ
- Visual Attention Lab, Harvard Medical School, 64 Sidney Street, Suite 170, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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40
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Hwang AD, Wang HC, Pomplun M. Semantic guidance of eye movements in real-world scenes. Vision Res 2011; 51:1192-205. [PMID: 21426914 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2011.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2010] [Revised: 03/10/2011] [Accepted: 03/16/2011] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
The perception of objects in our visual world is influenced by not only their low-level visual features such as shape and color, but also their high-level features such as meaning and semantic relations among them. While it has been shown that low-level features in real-world scenes guide eye movements during scene inspection and search, the influence of semantic similarity among scene objects on eye movements in such situations has not been investigated. Here we study guidance of eye movements by semantic similarity among objects during real-world scene inspection and search. By selecting scenes from the LabelMe object-annotated image database and applying latent semantic analysis (LSA) to the object labels, we generated semantic saliency maps of real-world scenes based on the semantic similarity of scene objects to the currently fixated object or the search target. An ROC analysis of these maps as predictors of subjects' gaze transitions between objects during scene inspection revealed a preference for transitions to objects that were semantically similar to the currently inspected one. Furthermore, during the course of a scene search, subjects' eye movements were progressively guided toward objects that were semantically similar to the search target. These findings demonstrate substantial semantic guidance of eye movements in real-world scenes and show its importance for understanding real-world attentional control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex D Hwang
- Department of Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125-3393, USA.
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41
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Santana P, Guedes M, Correia L, Barata J. Stereo-based all-terrain obstacle detection using visual saliency. J FIELD ROBOT 2010. [DOI: 10.1002/rob.20376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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42
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Neider MB, Zelinsky GJ. Exploring the perceptual causes of search set-size effects in complex scenes. Perception 2010; 39:780-94. [PMID: 20698473 DOI: 10.1068/p6428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
We explored search set-size effects in the context of scenes, where objects are difficult to delineate and define. Observers searched for a tank target in landscape scenes populated by boulder, shrub, and tree distractors, which varied in their color and size similarity to the target. Scenes contained either 75 or 125 distractors. In two experiments we found that adding boulder or shrub distractors that were similar to the target in color and in size produced a consistent set-size effect, but adding distractors that were similar to the target only in size did not. Tree distractors, which were larger than the target, also produced a set-size effect regardless of whether they had a target-similar color (experiment 1) or not (experiment 2). In a third experiment we varied target-tree color similarity and tree color heterogeneity and found no change in search efficiency. We interpret these data as evidence for two independent sources of set-size effects in scenes, one subject to target--distractor similarity relationships (shrubs/boulders) and the other reflecting overall visual clutter (trees), with these latter clutter effects definable by edge content.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark B Neider
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, USA.
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