scholarly journals Reading problems and their connection with visual search and attention: The search for a cause continues

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heida Maria Sigurdardottir ◽  
Hilma Ros Omarsdóttir ◽  
Anna Sigridur Valgeirsdottir
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Conjunction Search ◽  
Reading Problems ◽  
Visual Stream ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Reading Abilities ◽  
Gating Mechanism

Attention has been hypothesized to act as a sequential gating mechanism for the orderly processing of letters in words. These same visuo-attentional processes are assumed to partake in some but not all visual search tasks. In the current study, 60 adults with varying degrees of reading abilities, ranging from expert readers to severely impaired dyslexic readers, completed an attentionally demanding visual conjunction search task thought to heavily rely on the dorsal visual stream. A visual feature search task served as an internal control. According to the dorsal view of dyslexia, reading problems should go hand in hand with specific problems in visual conjunction search – particularly elevated conjunction search slopes (time per search item) – which would be interpreted as a problem with visual attention. Results showed that reading problems were associated with slower visual search, especially conjunction search. However, problems with reading were not associated with increased conjunction search slopes but instead with increased conjunction search intercepts, traditionally not interpreted as reflecting attentional processes. Our data are hard to reconcile with hypothesized problems in dyslexia with the serial moving of an attentional spotlight across a visual scene or a page of text.

scholarly journals Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair D F Clarke ◽  
Jessica Irons ◽  
Warren James ◽  
Andrew B. Leber ◽  
Amelia R. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Test Retest Reliability ◽  
Over Time

A striking range of individual differences has recently been reported in three different visual search tasks. These differences in performance can be attributed to strategy, that is, the efficiency with which participants control their search to complete the task quickly and accurately. Here we ask if an individual's strategy and performance in one search task is correlated with how they perform in the other two. We tested 64 observers in the three tasks mentioned above over two sessions. Even though the test-retest reliability of the tasks is high, an observer's performance and strategy in one task did not reliably predict their behaviour in the other two. These results suggest search strategies are stable over time, but context-specific. To understand visual search we therefore need to account not only for differences between individuals, but also how individuals interact with the search task and context. These context-specific but stable individual differences in strategy can account for a substantial proportion of variability in search performance.

The effects of audiovisual task-set in visual search

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Pawel J. Matusz ◽  
Martin Eimer
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Attentional Control Settings ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Attentional Selectivity ◽  
Auditory Features ◽  
Target Matching

We investigated whether top-down attentional control settings can specify task-relevant features in different sensory modalities (vision and audition). Two audiovisual search tasks were used where a spatially uninformative visual singleton cue preceded a target search array. In different blocks, participants searched for a visual target (defined by colour or shape in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively), or target defined by a combination of visual and auditory features (e.g., red target accompanied by a high-pitch tone). Spatial cueing effects indicative of attentional capture by target-matching visual singleton cues in the unimodal visual search task were reduced or completely eliminated when targets were audiovisually defined. The N2pc component (i.e. index attentional target selection in vision) triggered by these cues was reduced and delayed during search for audiovisual as compared to unimodal visual targets. These results provide novel evidence that the top-down control settings which guide attentional selectivity can include perceptual features from different sensory modalities.

scholarly journals Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182092919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair DF Clarke ◽  
Jessica L Irons ◽  
Warren James ◽  
Andrew B Leber ◽  
Amelia R Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Test Retest Reliability ◽  
Over Time

A striking range of individual differences has recently been reported in three different visual search tasks. These differences in performance can be attributed to strategy, that is, the efficiency with which participants control their search to complete the task quickly and accurately. Here, we ask whether an individual’s strategy and performance in one search task is correlated with how they perform in the other two. We tested 64 observers and found that even though the test–retest reliability of the tasks was high, an observer’s performance and strategy in one task was not predictive of their behaviour in the other two. These results suggest search strategies are stable over time, but context-specific. To understand visual search, we therefore need to account not only for differences between individuals but also how individuals interact with the search task and context.

When visual search target is rare: overweighting or under weighting the probability?

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1520-1524
Author(s):  
Hanshu Zhang ◽  
Joseph W. Houpt
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Target Presence ◽  
Model Assumption ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Low Prevalence

The prevalence of items in visual search may have substantial performance consequences. In laboratory visual search tasks in which the target is rare, viewers are likely to miss the target. A dual-threshold model proposed by Wolfe and Van Wert (2010) assumes that in the low prevalence condition, viewers shift their criteria resulting in more miss errors. However, from the prospective of prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), decision makers tend to overweight small probability. To explore how viewers subjectively weight the probability in the low prevalence visual search task, we compared viewers’ criteria with the optimal criteria by presenting different probability descriptions for a fixed prevalence rate. The data from this experiment indicated that target presence had an effect on viewers’ accuracy and response times but not probability descriptions. Viewers’ criteria under different probability descriptions were higher than optimal. These results are in accordance with the dual-threshold model assumption that viewers respond “target absent” more frequently than optimal, leading to more miss errors in the low prevalence condition.

scholarly journals Difficulty of Visual Search Modulates Neuronal Interactions and Response Variability in the Frontal Eye Field

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 2580-2587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Y. Cohen ◽  
Pierre Pouget ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman ◽  
Chenchal R. Subraveti ◽  
Jeffrey D. Schall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Response Variability ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Saccade Onset ◽  
Neuronal Interactions ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Spiking Activity

The frontal eye field (FEF) is involved in selecting visual targets for eye movements. To understand how populations of FEF neurons interact during target selection, we recorded activity from multiple neurons simultaneously while macaques performed two versions of a visual search task. We used a multivariate analysis in a point process statistical framework to estimate the instantaneous firing rate and compare interactions among neurons between tasks. We found that FEF neurons were engaged in more interactions during easier visual search tasks compared with harder search tasks. In particular, eye movement–related neurons were involved in more interactions than visual-related neurons. In addition, our analysis revealed a decrease in the variability of spiking activity in the FEF beginning ∼100 ms before saccade onset. The minimum in response variability occurred ∼20 ms earlier for the easier search task compared with the harder one. This difference is positively correlated with the difference in saccade reaction times for the two tasks. These findings show that a multivariate analysis can provide a measure of neuronal interactions and characterize the spiking activity of FEF neurons in the context of a population of neurons.

Allocation of Attention in Texture Segregation, Visual Search, and Location-Precuing Paradigms

1994 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
MaryLou Cheal ◽  
Don R. Lyon
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Search Rate ◽  
Texture Segregation ◽  
Search Tasks

Is there a common mechanism (or set of mechanisms) that controls the allocation of spatial attention in texture segregation, visual search, and location-precuing tasks? This question was addressed by comparing data from our previous research on location-cuing and search tasks with data from a new set of experiments on texture segregation, in which a common set of stimuli was used across the three paradigms. However, when we ranked the scores for the targets on texture segregation speed, search rate, and improvement due to precuing effects, agreement between these measures was less than perfect. Further analyses of these results led to the following conclusions: (a) speed of texture segregation is affected by perceptual aspects of the display other than the attentional salience of a particular target; (b) visual search rate and the size of precuing effects are strongly related over most of the set of targets we used; and (c) some cases in which search rate was not consistent with size of precue effects may be related to the presence of nearby distractors in the search task.

Gaze Linking in Visual Search: A Help or a Hindrance?

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1376-1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Messmer ◽  
Nathan Leggett ◽  
Melissa Prince ◽  
Jason S. McCarley
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Visual Task ◽  
Serial Search ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Computer Monitors

Gaze linking allows team members in a collaborative visual task to scan separate computer monitors simultaneously while their eye movements are tracked and projected onto each other’s displays. The present study explored the benefits of gaze linking to performance in unguided and guided visual search tasks. Participants completed either an unguided or guided serial search task as both independent and gaze-linked searchers. Although it produced shorter mean response times than independent search, gaze linked search was highly inefficient, and gaze linking did not differentially affect performance in guided and unguided groups. Results suggest that gaze linking is likely to be of little value in improving applied visual search.

scholarly journals Human Frontal Eye Fields and Visual Search

2003 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 3340-3343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil G. Muggleton ◽  
Chi-Hung Juan ◽  
Alan Cowey ◽  
Vincent Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
False Alarm ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Scene Analysis ◽  
Frontal Eye Fields ◽  
Feature Search ◽  
Search Tasks

Recent physiological recording studies in monkeys have suggested that the frontal eye fields (FEFs) are involved in visual scene analysis even when eye movement commands are not required. We examined this proposed function of the human frontal eye fields during performance of visual search tasks in which difficulty was matched and eye movements were neither necessary nor required. Magnetic stimulation over FEF modulated performance on a conjunction search task and a simple feature search task in which the target was unpredictable from trial to trial, primarily by increasing false alarm responses. Simple feature search with a predictable target was not affected. The results establish that human FEFs are critical to visual selection, regardless of the need to generate a saccade command.

Spatial Attention in Visual Search for Features and Feature Conjunctions

1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 376-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-Shik Kim ◽  
Kyle R. Cave
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Direct Measurement ◽  
Probe Method ◽  
Conjunction Search ◽  
Attentional Allocation ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Accuracy Measures ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

Spatial attention was measured in visual search tasks using a spatial probe Both speed and accuracy measures showed that in a conjunction task, spatial attention was allocated to locations according to the presence of target features Also, contrary to some predictions, spatial attention was used when a clearly distinguishable feature defined the target The results raise questions about any account that assumes separate mechanisms for feature and conjunction search The probe method demonstrated here allows a very direct measurement of attentional allocation, and may uncover aspects of selection not revealed by visual search

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