Evaluating the Importance of Top-Down "Semantic" Features to Decoding Observer Task from Eye Movements

An experiment was conducted to examine the influence of luminance, contrast, and spatial frequency content on saccadic eye movements. 112 pictures of natural textures from Brodatz were low-pass filtered (0.04 – 0.76 cycles deg−1) and high-pass filtered (1.91 – 19.56 cycles deg−1) and varied in luminance (low and high) and contrast (low and high), resulting in eight images per texture. Circular clippings of the central parts of the images (approximately 15% of the whole image) were used as stimuli. In the condition of bottom - up processing, the eight stimuli derived from one texture were presented for 1500 ms in a circular arrangement around the fixation cross. They were followed by a briefly presented target stimulus in the centre, which in half the trials was identical to one of the eight test stimuli. Participants had to decide whether the target stimulus was identical to any of the preceding stimuli. During a trial, their eye movements were recorded by means of a Dual-Purkinje-Image eye tracker. In the top - down condition, the target stimulus was presented in each trial prior to the display of the test stimulus. It was assumed that the priming with a target produced a top - down processing of the test stimuli. The latency and landing site of the first saccade were computed and compared between the top - down and bottom - up conditions. It is hypothesised that stimulus characteristics (luminance, contrast, and spatial frequency) play a more prominent role in bottom - up processing, while top - down processing is adjusted to the particular characteristics of the prime.

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Top-down guided eye movements: peripheral model

10.1117/12.429505 ◽

2001 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dimitri A. Chernyak ◽

Lawrence W. Stark

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Top Down ◽

Peripheral Model

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Top-down guided eye movements

IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part B (Cybernetics) ◽

10.1109/3477.938257 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 514-522 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

D.A. Chernyak ◽

L.W. Stark

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Top Down

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A Computational Model of Eye Movements as Cyclic Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processes

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193120605001109 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 50 (11) ◽

pp. 1156-1159 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ji Hyoun Lim ◽

Yili Liu

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Computational Model ◽

Top Down ◽

Bottom Up

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Expectations and perceptual priming in a visual search task: Evidence from eye movements and behavior

10.31219/osf.io/fcjx3 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Olga Shurygina ◽

Arni Kristjansson ◽

Luke Tudge ◽

Andrey Chetverikov

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Search Task ◽

Visual Search Task ◽

Target Color ◽

Top Down ◽

Singleton Search ◽

Attention Deployment ◽

Random Responses ◽

And Behavior

An extensive amount of research indicates that repeating target and distractor features facilitates pop-out search while switching these features slows the search. Following the seminal study by Maljkovic & Nakayama (1994), this ‘priming of pop-out’ effect (PoP) has been widely described as an automatic bottom-up process that is independent of the observers' expectations. At the same time, numerous studies emphasize the crucial role of expectations in visual attention deployment. Our experiment shows that in contrast to previous claims, PoP in a classic color singleton search task is a mix of automatic priming and expectations. Participants searched for a uniquely-colored diamond among two same-colored distractors. Target color sequences were either predictable (e.g., two red-target-green-distractors trials, followed by two green-target-red- distractors trials, and so on) or random. Responses were faster in predictable color sequences than randomly changing ones with equal number of repetitions of target colors on preceding trials. Analysis of observers’ eye movements showed that predictability of target color affected both latency and accuracy of the first saccade during a search trial. Our results support the idea that PoP is governed not only by automatic effects from previous target or distractor features but also by top-down expectations.

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