Developmental changes in infants’ and children’s attention to faces and salient regions vary across and within video stimuli

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.31234/osf.io/mecz4 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

John Michael Franchak ◽

Kellan Kadooka

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Alternative Explanation ◽

Time Windows ◽

Dynamic Scenes ◽

Video Clips ◽

Age Related ◽

Global Age ◽

Salient Regions ◽

Socially Relevant ◽

Shift Hypothesis

Visual attention in complex, dynamic scenes is attracted to locations that contain socially-relevant features, such as faces, and to areas that are visually salient. Previous work suggests that there is a global shift over development such that observers increasingly attend to faces with age. However, no prior work has tested whether this shift is truly global, that is, consistent across and within stimuli despite variations in content. To test the global shift hypothesis, we recorded eye movements of 89 children (6 months to 10 years) and adults while they viewed seven video clips. We measured the extent to which each participant attended to faces and to salient areas for each video. There was no evidence of global age-related changes in attention: Neither feature showed consistent increases or decreases with age. Moreover, windowed analyses within each stimulus video revealed moment-to-moment variations in the relation between age and each visual feature. For some time windows, adults looked more often at both feature types compared to infants and children. However, for other time windows the pattern was reversed—younger participants looked more at faces and salient locations. Lack of consistent directional effects provides strong evidence against the global shift hypothesis. We suggest an alternative explanation: Over development, observers increasingly prioritize when and where to look by learning to track which features are relevant within a scene. Implications for the development of visual attention and children’s understanding of screen-based media are discussed.

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If You Are Old, Videos Look Slow. The Paradoxical Effect of Age-Related Motor Decline on the Kinematic Interpretation of Visual Scenes

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.783090 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Claudio de’Sperati ◽

Marco Granato ◽

Michela Moretti

Keyword(s):

Motor Speed ◽

Dynamic Scenes ◽

Aged People ◽

Physical Motion ◽

Video Clips ◽

Age Related ◽

Tightly Coupled ◽

Visual Speed ◽

Speed Adjustment ◽

Individual Motor

Perception and action are tightly coupled. However, there is still little recognition of how individual motor constraints impact perception in everyday life. Here we asked whether and how the motor slowing that accompanies aging influences the sense of visual speed. Ninety-four participants aged between 18 and 90 judged the natural speed of video clips reproducing real human or physical motion (SoS, Sense-of-Speed adjustment task). They also performed a finger tapping task and a visual search task, which estimated their motor speed and visuospatial attention speed, respectively. Remarkably, aged people judged videos to be too slow (speed underestimation), as compared to younger people: the Point of Subjective Equality (PSE), which estimated the speed bias in the SoS task, was +4% in young adults (<40), +12% in old adults (40–70) and +16% in elders. On average, PSE increased with age at a rate of 0.2% per year, with perceptual precision, adjustment rate, and completion time progressively worsening. Crucially, low motor speed, but not low attentional speed, turned out to be the key predictor of video speed underestimation. These findings suggest the existence of a counterintuitive compensatory coupling between action and perception in judging dynamic scenes, an effect that becomes particularly germane during aging.

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Visual Attention and Aging: an Age-Related Cognitive Model of Positive Adaptation

European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education ◽

10.3390/ejihpe4030017 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 181-191

Author(s):

José Manuel Rodríguez-Ferrer

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Visual Attention ◽

Response Times ◽

Age Groups ◽

Cognitive Model ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Positive Adaptation ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Age Related ◽

Healthy Young People

We have studied the effects of normal aging on visual attention. Have participated a group of 38 healthy elderly people with an average age of 67.8 years and a group of 39 healthy young people with average age of 19.2 years. In a first experiment of visual detection, response times were recorded, with and without covert attention, to the presentation of stimuli (0.5º in diameter grey circles) appearing in three eccentricities (2.15, 3.83 and 5.53° of visual field) and with three levels of contrast (6, 16 and 78%). In a second experiment of visual form discrimination circles and squares with the same features as in the previous experiment were presented, but in this case subjects only should respond to the emergence of the circles. In both age groups, the covert attention reduced response times. Compared to young people, the older group achieved better results in some aspects of attention tests and response times were reduced more in the stimuli of greater eccentricity. The data suggest that there is a mechanism of adaptation in aging, in which visual attention especially favors the perception of those stimuli more difficult to detec

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Covert Attention to Gestures Is Sufficient for Information Uptake

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.776867 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Kendra Gimhani Kandana Arachchige ◽

Wivine Blekic ◽

Isabelle Simoes Loureiro ◽

Laurent Lefebvre

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Information Extraction ◽

Sentence Context ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Speech Comprehension ◽

Video Clips ◽

Degraded Speech ◽

Different Types ◽

Tracking Technology

Numerous studies have explored the benefit of iconic gestures in speech comprehension. However, only few studies have investigated how visual attention was allocated to these gestures in the context of clear versus degraded speech and the way information is extracted for enhancing comprehension. This study aimed to explore the effect of iconic gestures on comprehension and whether fixating the gesture is required for information extraction. Four types of gestures (i.e., semantically and syntactically incongruent iconic gestures, meaningless configurations, and congruent iconic gestures) were presented in a sentence context in three different listening conditions (i.e., clear, partly degraded or fully degraded speech). Using eye tracking technology, participants’ gaze was recorded, while they watched video clips after which they were invited to answer simple comprehension questions. Results first showed that different types of gestures differently attract attention and that the more speech was degraded, the less participants would pay attention to gestures. Furthermore, semantically incongruent gestures appeared to particularly impair comprehension although not being fixated while congruent gestures appeared to improve comprehension despite also not being fixated. These results suggest that covert attention is sufficient to convey information that will be processed by the listener.

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Visual Search in Static and Dynamic Scenes Using Fine-Grain Top-Down Visual Attention

Lecture Notes in Computer Science - Computer Vision Systems ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-79547-6_1 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 3-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Muhammad Zaheer Aziz ◽

Bärbel Mertsching

Keyword(s):

Visual Search ◽

Visual Attention ◽

Dynamic Scenes ◽

Top Down ◽

Fine Grain

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Are age-related deficits in route learning related to control of visual attention?

Psychological Research ◽

10.1007/s00426-019-01159-5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 84 (6) ◽

pp. 1473-1484 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Christopher Hilton ◽

Sebastien Miellet ◽

Timothy J. Slattery ◽

Jan Wiener

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Route Learning ◽

Age Related

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Individual and group level personality change across the lifespan in dogs

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-74310-7 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Borbála Turcsán ◽

Lisa Wallis ◽

Judit Berczik ◽

Friederike Range ◽

Enikő Kubinyi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Middle Age ◽

Personality Change ◽

Novelty Seeking ◽

Age Related ◽

Personality Changes ◽

Random Fashion ◽

Global Age ◽

Age Trends ◽

Related Personality

Abstract In humans, age-related changes in personality occur in a non-random fashion with respect to their direction, timing, and magnitude. In dogs, there are still gaps in our knowledge about the detailed dynamics of age-related personality changes. We analysed the personality of 217 Border collies aged from 0.5 to 15 years both cross-sectionally and longitudinally using a test battery, to specify age periods when changes most prominently occur, assess the magnitude of changes, and analyse individual differences in personality change. We found that similar to humans, changes in personality occur unevenly during the dogs’ life course, however, their dynamics seems to be specific for each trait. Activity-independence decreased mostly from puppyhood (0.5–1 years) to adolescence (> 1–2 years), then continued to decrease in a slowing rate. Novelty seeking did not change markedly until middle age (> 3–6 years), then showed a steady linear decrease. Problem orientation increased strongly until middle age then showed no marked changes in later age periods. We also revealed individual differences in personality change over time, and showed that a few individuals with potential age-related impairments significantly affected the general age trajectory of some traits. These results raise caution against the over-generalisation of global age trends in dogs.

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Aging, Attention, and Bimanual Coordination

Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement ◽

10.1017/s0714980800002087 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 549-557 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Timothy D. Lee ◽

Laurie R. Wishart ◽

Jason E. Murdoch

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Bimanual Coordination ◽

Alternative Explanation ◽

Digit Number ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

Movement Frequency ◽

Effects Of Aging ◽

Coordination Patterns

ABSTRACTAlthough aging is normally associated with declines in motor performance, recent evidence suggests that older adults suffer no loss in some measures of bimanual coordination relative to younger adults. Two hypotheses for this finding were compared in the present research. One hypothesis was based on the assumption that these coordination patterns are automatic and relatively impervious to the effects of aging. An alternative explanation is that older adults maintain this level of bimanual coordination at a cost of increased attention demand. These hypotheses were tested in an experiment in which bimanual coordination patterns (in-phase and anti-phase) were paced at two metronome frequencies (1 and 2 Hz), either alone or together, with serial performance of an attention-demanding task (adding 3s to a two-digit number at a 1 Hz pace). The results of the study provided some support for both hypotheses. The automaticity view was supported only for the coordination patterns at the 1 Hz metronome frequency. Support for an attention allocation hypothesis was shown in the observed-movement frequency data, as older adults tended to sacrifice movement frequency at the 2 Hz metronome pace in order to maintain performance in the movement and counting tasks. These findings are discussed relative to recent accounts of the role of automaticity in the absence of age-related differences in the performance of cognitive tasks.

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Visual Attention With Cognitive Aging

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.369 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David J. Madden ◽

Zachary A. Monge

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Cognitive Aging ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Object Identification ◽

Features Selection ◽

Top Down ◽

Bottom Up ◽

Attentional Functioning ◽

Age Related

Age-related decline occurs in several aspects of fluid, speed-dependent cognition, particularly those related to attention. Empirical research on visual attention has determined that attention-related effects occur across a range of information processing components, including the sensory registration of features, selection of information from working memory, controlling motor responses, and coordinating multiple perceptual and cognitive tasks. Thus, attention is a multifaceted construct that is relevant at virtually all stages of object identification. A fundamental theme of attentional functioning is the interaction between the bottom-up salience of visual features and top-down allocation of processing based on the observer’s goals. An underlying age-related slowing is prominent throughout visual processing stages, which in turn contributes to age-related decline in some aspects of attention, such as the inhibition of irrelevant information and the coordination of multiple tasks. However, some age-related preservation of attentional functioning is also evident, particularly the top-down allocation of attention. Neuroimaging research has identified networks of frontal and parietal brain regions relevant for top-down and bottom-up attentional processing. Disconnection among these networks contributes to an age-related decline in attention, but preservation and perhaps even increased patterns of functional brain activation and connectivity also contribute to preserved attentional functioning.

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Age-related changes in visual search: manipulation of colour cues based on cone contrast and opponent modulation space

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-78303-4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Shuto Tamura ◽

Keiko Sato

Keyword(s):

Visual Search ◽

Visual Attention ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Visual Space ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Human Lens ◽

Search Performance ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Colour Perception ◽

Age Related

AbstractReduced retinal illuminance affects colour perception in older adults, and studies show that they exhibit deficiencies in yellow-blue (YB) discrimination. However, the influence of colour cues on the visual attention in older individuals remains unclarified. Visual attention refers to the cognitive model by which we prioritise regions within the visual space and selectively process information. The present study aimed to explore the effect of colour on visual search performance in older observers. In our experiment, younger observers wearing glasses with a filter that simulated the spectral transmittance of the aging human lens and older observers performed two types of search tasks, feature search (FS) and conjunction search (CS), under three colour conditions: red-green, YB, and luminance. Targets and distractors were designed on the basis of the Derrington–Krauskopf–Lennie colour representation. In FS tasks, reaction times changed according to colour in all groups, especially under the YB condition, regardless of the presence or absence of distractors. In CS tasks with distractors, older participants and younger participants wearing glasses showed slower responses under chromatic conditions than under the achromatic condition. These results provide preliminary evidence that, for older observers, visual search performance may be affected by impairments in chromatic colour discrimination.

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