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Merkel C, Hopf JM, Schoenfeld MA. Location- and Object-Based Representational Mechanisms Account for Bilateral Field Advantage in Multiple-Object Tracking. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0519-23.2024. [PMID: 38479811 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0519-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2023] [Revised: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 02/22/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Keeping track of multiple visually identical and independently moving objects is a remarkable feature of the human visual system. Theoretical accounts for this ability focus on resource-based models that describe parametric decreases of performance with increasing demands during the task (i.e., more relevant items, closer distances, higher speed). Additionally, the presence of two central tracking resources, one within each hemisphere, has been proposed, allowing for an independent maintenance of moving targets within each visual hemifield. Behavioral evidence in favor of such a model shows that human subjects are able to track almost twice as many targets across both hemifields compared with within one hemifield. A number of recent publications argue for two separate and parallel tracking mechanisms during standard object tracking tasks that allow for the maintenance of the relevant information in a location-based and object-based manner. Unique electrophysiological correlates for each of those processes have been identified. The current study shows that these electrophysiological components are differentially present during tracking within either the left or right hemifield. The present results suggest that targets are mostly maintained as an object-based representation during left hemifield tracking, while location-based resources are preferentially engaged during right hemifield tracking. Interestingly, the manner of representation does not seem to have an impact on behavioral performance within the subjects, while the electrophysiological component indicating object-based tracking does correlate with performance between subjects. We propose that hemifield independence during multiple-object tracking may be an indication of the underlying hemispheric bias for parallel location-based and object-based tracking mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Merkel
- Department for Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Jens-Max Hopf
- Department for Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
- Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz-Institute of Neurobiology, 39118 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Mircea Ariel Schoenfeld
- Department for Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany
- Schmieder-Kliniken, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
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2
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Merkel C, Burgmann L, Bartsch MV, Schoenfeld MA, Hopf JM. Serial attentional resource allocation during parallel feature value tracking. eLife 2023; 12:e91183. [PMID: 38099581 PMCID: PMC10791127 DOI: 10.7554/elife.91183] [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: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/17/2024] Open
Abstract
The visual system has evolved the ability to track features like color and orientation in parallel. This property aligns with the specialization of processing these feature dimensions in the visual cortex. But what if we ask to track changing feature-values within the same feature dimension? Parallel tracking would then have to share the same cortical representation, which would set strong limitations on tracking performance. We address this question by measuring the precision of color representations when human observers track the color of two superimposed dot clouds that simultaneously change color along independent trajectories in color-space. We find that tracking precision is highly imbalanced between streams and that tracking precision changes over time by alternating between streams at a rate of ~1 Hz. These observations suggest that, while parallel color tracking is possible, it is highly limited, essentially allowing for only one color-stream to be tracked with precision at a given time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Merkel
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke UniversityMagdeburgGermany
| | - Luise Burgmann
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke UniversityMagdeburgGermany
| | | | - Mircea Ariel Schoenfeld
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke UniversityMagdeburgGermany
- Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibnitz Institute for NeurobiologyMagdeburgGermany
- Kliniken SchmiederHeidelbergGermany
| | - Jens-Max Hopf
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke UniversityMagdeburgGermany
- Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibnitz Institute for NeurobiologyMagdeburgGermany
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3
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Kim J, Singh S, Vales C, Keebler E, Fisher AV, Thiessen ED. Staying and Returning dynamics of young children's attention. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13410. [PMID: 37211716 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Revised: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we decompose selective sustained attending behavior into components of continuous attention maintenance and attentional transitions and study how each of these components develops in young children. Our results in two experiments suggest that changes in children's ability to return attention to a target locus after distraction ("Returning") play a crucial role in the development of selective sustained attention between the ages of 3.5-6 years, perhaps to a greater extent than changes in the ability to continuously maintain attention on the target ("Staying"). We further distinguish Returning from the behavior of transitioning attention away from task (i.e., becoming distracted) and investigate the relative contributions of bottom-up and top-down factors on these different types of attentional transitions. Overall, these results (a) suggest the importance of understanding the cognitive process of transitioning attention for understanding selective sustained attention and its development, (b) provide an empirical paradigm within which to study this process, and (c) begin to characterize basic features of this process, namely its development and its relative dependence on top-down and bottom-up influences on attention. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Young children exhibited an endogenously ability, Returning, to preferentially transition attention to task-relevant information over task-irrelevant information. Selective sustained attention and its development were decomposed into Returning and Staying, or task-selective attention maintenance, using novel eye-tracking-based measures. Returning improved between the ages of 3.5-6 years, to a greater extent than Staying. Improvements in Returning supported improvements in selective sustained attention between these ages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaeah Kim
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Shashank Singh
- Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Catarina Vales
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Emily Keebler
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Anna V Fisher
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Erik D Thiessen
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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4
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Li H, Hu L, Wei L, He H, Zhang X. Disentangling working memory from multiple-object tracking: Evidence from dual-task interferences. Scand J Psychol 2023. [PMID: 36892531 DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Revised: 12/28/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 03/10/2023]
Abstract
Multiple object tracking (MOT) is generally regarded as a pure attention-consuming task that draws heavily on attention resources. In the present study, we adopted a cross-channel visual-audio dual-task paradigm, i.e., the MOT task combined with the concurrent auditory N-back working memory task, to test whether working memory indeed plays a necessary role in the process of multiple tracking, as well as to further identify the specific types of working memory components involved in this process. Experiments 1a and 1b examined the relationship between the MOT task and nonspatial object working memory (OWM) processing by manipulating the tracking load and working memory load, respectively. Results in both experiments indicated that the concurrent nonspatial OWM task did not have a significant effect on the tracking capacity of the MOT task. In contrast, Experiments 2a and 2b examined the relationship between the MOT task and spatial working memory (SWM) processing by a similar approach. Results in both experiments indicated that the concurrent SWM task significantly impaired the tracking capacity of the MOT task, showing a gradual decrease with increasing SWM load. Overall, our study provides empirical evidence that multiple object tracking does involve working memory, primarily related to spatial working memory rather than nonspatial object working memory, which sheds more light on the mechanisms of multiple object tracking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Li
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Luming Hu
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, Zhuhai, China
| | - Liuqing Wei
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Education, Hubei University, Wuhan, China
| | - Hong He
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xuemin Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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5
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Adamian N, Andersen SK. Attentional Enhancement of Tracked Stimuli in Early Visual Cortex Has Limited Capacity. J Neurosci 2022; 42:8709-8715. [PMID: 36202616 PMCID: PMC9671574 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0605-22.2022] [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: 03/28/2022] [Revised: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Keeping track of the location of multiple moving objects is one of the well documented functions of visual attention. However, the mechanism of attentional selection that supports such continuous tracking is unclear. In particular, it has been proposed that target selection in early visual cortex occurs in parallel, with tracking errors arising because of attentional limitations at later processing stages. Here, we examine whether, instead, total attentional capacity for enhancement of early visual processing of tracked targets is shared between all attended stimuli. If the magnitude of attentional facilitation of multiple tracked targets was a key limiting factor of tracking ability, then one should expect it to drop systematically with increasing set-size of tracked targets. Human observers (male and female) were instructed to track two, four, or six moving objects among a pool of identical distractors. Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) recorded during the tracking period revealed that the processing of tracked targets was consistently amplified compared with the processing of the distractors. The magnitude of this amplification decreased with increasing set size, and at lateral occipital electrodes it closely followed inverse proportionality to the number of tracked items, suggesting that limited attentional resources must be shared among the tracked stimuli. Accordingly, the magnitude of attentional facilitation predicted the behavioral outcome at the end of the trial. Together, these findings demonstrate that the limitations of multiple object tracking (MOT) across set-sizes stem from the limitations of top-down selective attention already at the early stages of visual processing.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ability to selectively attend to relevant features or objects is the key to flexibility of perception and action in the continuously changing environment. This ability is demonstrated in the multiple object tracking (MOT) task where observers monitor multiple independently moving objects at different locations in the visual field. The role of early attentional enhancement in tracking was previously acknowledged in the literature, however, the limitations on tracking were thought to arise during later stages of processing. Here, we demonstrate that the strength of attentional facilitation depends on the number of tracked objects and predicts successful tracking performance. Thus, it is the limitations of attentional enhancement at the early stages of visual processing that determine behavioral performance limits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nika Adamian
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX United Kingdom
| | - Søren K Andersen
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, DK-5230 Denmark
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6
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Exploring the effectiveness of auditory, visual, and audio-visual sensory cues in a multiple object tracking environment. Atten Percept Psychophys 2022; 84:1611-1624. [PMID: 35610410 PMCID: PMC9232473 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02492-5] [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] [Accepted: 04/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Maintaining object correspondence among multiple moving objects is an essential task of the perceptual system in many everyday life activities. A substantial body of research has confirmed that observers are able to track multiple target objects amongst identical distractors based only on their spatiotemporal information. However, naturalistic tasks typically involve the integration of information from more than one modality, and there is limited research investigating whether auditory and audio-visual cues improve tracking. In two experiments, we asked participants to track either five target objects or three versus five target objects amongst similarly indistinguishable distractor objects for 14 s. During the tracking interval, the target objects bounced occasionally against the boundary of a centralised orange circle. A visual cue, an auditory cue, neither or both coincided with these collisions. Following the motion interval, the participants were asked to indicate all target objects. Across both experiments and both set sizes, our results indicated that visual and auditory cues increased tracking accuracy although visual cues were more effective than auditory cues. Audio-visual cues, however, did not increase tracking performance beyond the level of purely visual cues for both high and low load conditions. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for multiple object tracking as well as for the principles of multisensory integration.
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7
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Děchtěrenko F, Jakubková D, Lukavský J, Howard CJ. Tracking multiple fish. PeerJ 2022; 10:e13031. [PMID: 35261822 PMCID: PMC8898553 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13031] [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] [Received: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) task is a widely used experimental method for studying divided attention, tracking objects in the real world usually looks different. For example, in the real world, objects are usually clearly distinguishable from each other and also possess different movement patterns. One such case is tracking groups of creatures, such as tracking fish in an aquarium. We used movies of fish in an aquarium and measured general tracking performance in this task (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, we compared tracking accuracy within-subjects in fish tracking, tracking typical MOT stimuli, and in a third condition using standard MOT uniform objects which possessed movement patterns similar to the real fish. This third condition was added to further examine the impact of different motion characteristics on tracking performance. Results within a Bayesian framework showed that tracking real fish shares similarities with tracking simple objects in a typical laboratory MOT task. Furthermore, we observed a close relationship between performance in both laboratory MOT tasks (typical and fish-like) and real fish tracking, suggesting that the commonly used laboratory MOT task possesses a good level of ecological validity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filip Děchtěrenko
- Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Daniela Jakubková
- Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Lukavský
- Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
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8
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Kamkar S, Moghaddam HA, Lashgari R, Erlhagen W. Brain-inspired multiple-target tracking using Dynamic Neural Fields. Neural Netw 2022; 151:121-131. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2022.03.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Revised: 02/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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9
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Merkel C, Hopf J, Schoenfeld MA. Electrophysiological hallmarks of location‐based and object‐based visual multiple objects tracking. Eur J Neurosci 2022; 55:1200-1214. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Christian Merkel
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Germany
| | - Jens‐Max Hopf
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Germany
- Department of Behavioral Neurology Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
| | - Mircea Ariel Schoenfeld
- Department of Neurology Otto‐von‐Guericke University Magdeburg Germany
- Department of Behavioral Neurology Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology Magdeburg Germany
- Kliniken Schmieder Heidelberg Germany
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10
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Hu L, Zhao C, Wei L, Talhelm T, Wang C, Zhang X. How do humans group non-rigid objects in multiple object tracking?: Evidence from grouping by self-rotation. Br J Psychol 2021; 113:653-676. [PMID: 34921401 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies on perceptual grouping found that people can use spatiotemporal and featural information to group spatially separated rigid objects into a unit while tracking moving objects. However, few studies have tested the role of objects' self-motion information in perceptual grouping, although it is of great significance to the motion perception in the three-dimensional space. In natural environments, objects always move in translation and rotation at the same time. The self-rotation of the objects seriously destroys objects' rigidity and topology, creates conflicting movement signals and results in crowding effects. Thus, this study sought to examine the specific role played by self-rotation information on grouping spatially separated non-rigid objects through a modified multiple object tracking (MOT) paradigm with self-rotating objects. Experiment 1 found that people could use self-rotation information to group spatially separated non-rigid objects, even though this information was deleterious for attentive tracking and irrelevant to the task requirements, and people seemed to use it strategically rather than automatically. Experiment 2 provided stronger evidence that this grouping advantage did come from the self-rotation per se rather than surface-level cues arising from self-rotation (e.g. similar 2D motion signals and common shapes). Experiment 3 changed the stimuli to more natural 3D cubes to strengthen the impression of self-rotation and again found that self-rotation improved grouping. Finally, Experiment 4 demonstrated that grouping by self-rotation and grouping by changing shape were statistically comparable but additive, suggesting that they were two different sources of the object information. Thus, grouping by self-rotation mainly benefited from the perceptual differences in motion flow fields rather than in deformation. Overall, this study is the first attempt to identify self-motion as a new feature that people can use to group objects in dynamic scenes and shed light on debates about what entities/units we group and what kinds of information about a target we process while tracking objects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luming Hu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Chen Zhao
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Liuqing Wei
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Education, Hubei University, Wuhan, China
| | - Thomas Talhelm
- Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Chundi Wang
- Department of Psychology and Research Centre of Aeronautic Psychology and Behavior, Beihang University, Beijing, China
| | - Xuemin Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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11
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Diab MS, Elhosseini MA, El-Sayed MS, Ali HA. Brain Strategy Algorithm for Multiple Object Tracking Based on Merging Semantic Attributes and Appearance Features. SENSORS 2021; 21:s21227604. [PMID: 34833680 PMCID: PMC8625767 DOI: 10.3390/s21227604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Revised: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 11/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The human brain can effortlessly perform vision processes using the visual system, which helps solve multi-object tracking (MOT) problems. However, few algorithms simulate human strategies for solving MOT. Therefore, devising a method that simulates human activity in vision has become a good choice for improving MOT results, especially occlusion. Eight brain strategies have been studied from a cognitive perspective and imitated to build a novel algorithm. Two of these strategies gave our algorithm novel and outstanding results, rescuing saccades and stimulus attributes. First, rescue saccades were imitated by detecting the occlusion state in each frame, representing the critical situation that the human brain saccades toward. Then, stimulus attributes were mimicked by using semantic attributes to reidentify the person in these occlusion states. Our algorithm favourably performs on the MOT17 dataset compared to state-of-the-art trackers. In addition, we created a new dataset of 40,000 images, 190,000 annotations and 4 classes to train the detection model to detect occlusion and semantic attributes. The experimental results demonstrate that our new dataset achieves an outstanding performance on the scaled YOLOv4 detection model by achieving a 0.89 mAP 0.5.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mai S. Diab
- Faculty of Computer & Artificial Intelligence, Benha University, Benha 13511, Egypt;
- Intoolab Ltd., London WC2H 9JQ, UK
- Correspondence:
| | - Mostafa A. Elhosseini
- Computers Engineering and Control System, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt; (M.A.E.); (H.A.A.)
- College of Computer Science and Engineering in Yanbu, Taibah University, Madinah 46421, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mohamed S. El-Sayed
- Faculty of Computer & Artificial Intelligence, Benha University, Benha 13511, Egypt;
| | - Hesham A. Ali
- Computers Engineering and Control System, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt; (M.A.E.); (H.A.A.)
- Faculty of Artificial Intelligence, Delta University for Science and Technology, Mansoura 35511, Egypt
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12
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Liu JS, Elvezio C, Tversky B, Feiner S. Using Multi-Level Precueing to Improve Performance in Path-Following Tasks in Virtual Reality. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS 2021; 27:4311-4320. [PMID: 34449370 DOI: 10.1109/tvcg.2021.3106476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Work on VR and AR task interaction and visualization paradigms has typically focused on providing information about the current step (a cue) immediately before or during its performance. Some research has also shown benefits to simultaneously providing information about the next step (a precue). We explore whether it would be possible to improve efficiency by precueing information about multiple upcoming steps before completing the current step. To accomplish this, we developed a remote VR user study comparing task completion time and subjective metrics for different levels and styles of precueing in a path-following task. Our visualizations vary the precueing level (number of steps precued in advance) and style (whether the path to a target is communicated through a line to the target, and whether the place of a target is communicated through graphics at the target). Participants in our study performed best when given two to three precues for visualizations using lines to show the path to targets. However, performance degraded when four precues were used. On the other hand, participants performed best with only one precue for visualizations without lines, showing only the places of targets, and performance degraded when a second precue was given. In addition, participants performed better using visualizations with lines than ones without lines.
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13
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Pichlmeier S, Pfeiffer T. Attentional capture in multiple object tracking. J Vis 2021; 21:16. [PMID: 34379083 PMCID: PMC8363777 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.8.16] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Attentional processes are generally assumed to be involved in multiple object tracking (MOT). The attentional capture paradigm is regularly used to study conditions of attentional control. It has up to now not been used to assess influences of sudden onset distractor stimuli in MOT. We investigated whether attentional capture does occur in MOT: Are onset distractors processed at all in dynamic attentional tasks? We found that sudden onset distractors were effective in lowering probe detection, thus demonstrating attentional capture. Tracking performance as dependent measure was not affected. The attentional capture effect persisted in conditions of higher tracking load (Experiment 2) and was dramatically increased in lower presentation frequency of the onset distractor (Experiment 3). Tracking performance was shown to suffer only when onset distractors were presented serially with very short time gaps in between, thus effectively disturbing re-engaging attention on the tracking set (Experiment 4). We discuss that rapid dis- and re-engagement of the attention process on target objects and an additional more basic process that continuously provides location information allow managing strong disruptions of attention during tracking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Pichlmeier
- Institute of Psychology, Karlsruhe University of Education, Karlsruhe, Germany.,
| | - Till Pfeiffer
- Institute of Psychology, Karlsruhe University of Education, Karlsruhe, Germany.,
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14
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Styrkowiec P, Ostrowski M. Evaluating the Influence of Visual Attentional Tracking on Pointing Movement Precision. J Mot Behav 2021; 54:237-255. [PMID: 34251999 DOI: 10.1080/00222895.2021.1944972] [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: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Multiple object tracking (MOT) and goal-directed movements are both based on attentional processes. This study focused on the instant effect of attentive tracking with respect to pointing performance. We measured the precision of pointing to the targets of an MOT task immediately after the tracking period when all the objects were still in motion, and to the precision of pointing to moving objects in the task without attentional tracking. The results demonstrated that an increase in the attentional tracking load was the primary factor that decreased pointing precision, although visual load may also contribute to this influence. We also manipulated the relationship between the number of targets and the density of the MOT display (the total number of objects displayed), which affected the MOT accuracy but not the pointing precision.
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15
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Wang Y, Vul E. The role of kinematic properties in multiple object tracking. J Vis 2021; 21:22. [PMID: 33769442 PMCID: PMC7998010 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.3.22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
People commonly track objects moving in complex natural displays and their performance in the multiple object tracking paradigm has been used to study such visual attention for more than three decades. Given the theoretical and practical importance of object tracking, it is critical to understand how people solve the correspondence problem to track objects; however, it remains unclear what information people use to achieve this feat. In particular, although people can track multiple moving objects based on their positions, there is ambiguity about whether people can track objects via higher order kinematic information, such as velocity. We designed a paradigm in which position was rendered uninformative to directly examine whether people could use higher order kinematic information to track multiple objects. We find that people can track via velocity, but not acceleration, even though observers can reliably detect the acceleration cue that they cannot use for tracking. Furthermore, we show a capacity constraint on using higher order kinematic information—people perform worse when required to use velocity to resolve correspondence for multiple object pairs simultaneously. Together, our results suggest that, although people can use higher order kinematic information for object tracking, precise higher order kinematic information is not freely available from the early visual system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Wang
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.,
| | - Edward Vul
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.,
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16
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Individual differences in visual attention: A short, reliable, open-source, and multilingual test of multiple object tracking in PsychoPy. Behav Res Methods 2021; 52:2556-2566. [PMID: 32495028 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-020-01413-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Individual differences in attentional abilities provide an interesting approach in studying visual attention as well as the relation of attention to other psychometric measures. However, recent research has demonstrated that many tasks from experimental research are not suitable for individual differences research, as they fail to capture these differences reliably. Here, we provide a test for individual differences in visual attention which relies on the multiple object tracking task (MOT). This test captures individual differences reliably in 6 to 15 min. Within the task, the participants have to maintain a set of targets (among identical distractors) across an interval of object motion. It captures the efficiency of attentional deployment. Importantly, this test was explicitly designed and tested for reliability under conditions that match those of most laboratory research (restricted sample of students, approximately n = 50). The test is free to use and runs fully under open-source software. In order to facilitate the application of the test, we have translated it into 16 common languages (Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish). The test can be downloaded at https://osf.io/qy6nb/ . We hope that this MOT test supports researchers whose field of study requires capturing individual differences in visual attention reliably.
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Spatial resolution and object segmentation efficiency constrain grouping effects in attentive tracking. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-020-01277-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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18
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Lesch H, Schoenfeld MA, Merkel C. Functional dissociation of multiple-object tracking mechanisms based on hemispheric asymmetries. Restor Neurol Neurosci 2020; 38:443-453. [PMID: 33325416 DOI: 10.3233/rnn-201048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND A number of theoretical accounts have been put forward to explain the ability to simultaneously track multiple visually indistinguishable objects over a period of time. Serial processing models of visual tracking focus on the maintenance of the spatial locations of every single item over time. A more recent mechanism describes multiple object tracking as the ability to maintain a higher order representation of an abstract spatial configuration built by the illusory connection of the tracked items through their transition. OBJECTIVE The current study investigates the correspondence between these serial and parallel tracking accounts and the right hemispheric specialization for the space-based vs. left hemispheric for object-based attentional processing. METHODS Electrophysiological brain responses were recorded in two groups of patients with right- and left hemispheric lesions while performing in a multiple object tracking task. RESULTS The results suggest a failure to distinguish single item information for the right hemispheric patients accompanied by the absence of a known electrophysiological marker associated with single item tracking. Importantly, left hemispheric patients showed a graded behavioral and electrophysiological response to probe stimuli as a function of the congruence of the probe with the relevant target stimuli. CONCLUSIONS The current data suggest that the differential contribution of serial and parallel tracking mechanisms during object tracking can partly be explained by the different functional contributions of the right and left brain hemispheres.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mircea Ariel Schoenfeld
- Kliniken Schmieder, Heidelberg, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.,Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Christian Merkel
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
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Heuer A, Rolfs M. Incidental encoding of visual information in temporal reference frames in working memory. Cognition 2020; 207:104526. [PMID: 33279830 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104526] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2020] [Revised: 11/21/2020] [Accepted: 11/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Visual events are structured in space and time, yet models of visual working memory (VWM) have largely relied on tasks emphasizing spatial aspects. Here, we show that temporal properties of visual events are incidentally encoded along with spatial properties. In five experiments, participants performed change-detection tasks, in which items had unique spatial and temporal coordinates at encoding. Crucially, neither space nor time was task-relevant. The key manipulation concerned the retrieval context: The test array was identical to the memory array either in its entire spatiotemporal structure, or only its spatial or temporal structure. Removing spatial or temporal information at retrieval resulted in costs, indicating that memory relied on both spatial and temporal context in which items were initially perceived. Encoding of spatiotemporal structure occurred incidentally, not strategically, as it was robust even when the retrieval context was perfectly predictable. However, spatial and temporal inter-item spacings influenced the weighting of spatial and temporal information: It favoured the domain in which items were more widely spaced, facilitating their individuation and, likely, access to representations. Across individuals, the weighting of spatial and temporal information varied substantially, but it remained consistent across sessions, suggesting stable preferences for coding in the spatial or temporal domain. No comparable incidental encoding occurred for other task-irrelevant feature dimensions (size or colour). We propose that temporal structure serves as fundamental a function in VWM as spatial structure, scaffolding events that unfold over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Heuer
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 10117, Germany.
| | - Martin Rolfs
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 10117, Germany
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20
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Abstract
Working memory is a central cognitive system that plays key role in development, with increases in working memory capacity and speed of processing as children move from infancy through adolescence. Here, I focus on two questions: what neural processes underlie working memory and how do these processes change over development? Answers to these questions lie in computer simulations of artificial neural network models that shed light on how development happens. These models open up new avenues for optimizing clinical interventions aimed at boosting the working memory abilities of at-risk infants.
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Affiliation(s)
- John P Spencer
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
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21
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Hierarchical structure is employed by humans during visual motion perception. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:24581-24589. [PMID: 32938799 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2008961117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In the real world, complex dynamic scenes often arise from the composition of simpler parts. The visual system exploits this structure by hierarchically decomposing dynamic scenes: When we see a person walking on a train or an animal running in a herd, we recognize the individual's movement as nested within a reference frame that is, itself, moving. Despite its ubiquity, surprisingly little is understood about the computations underlying hierarchical motion perception. To address this gap, we developed a class of stimuli that grant tight control over statistical relations among object velocities in dynamic scenes. We first demonstrate that structured motion stimuli benefit human multiple object tracking performance. Computational analysis revealed that the performance gain is best explained by human participants making use of motion relations during tracking. A second experiment, using a motion prediction task, reinforced this conclusion and provided fine-grained information about how the visual system flexibly exploits motion structure.
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22
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Jin P, Li X, Ma B, Guo H, Zhang Z, Mao L. Dynamic visual attention characteristics and their relationship to match performance in skilled basketball players. PeerJ 2020; 8:e9803. [PMID: 32879809 PMCID: PMC7443082 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.9803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Dynamic visual attention is important in basketball because it may affect the performance of players and thus the match outcome. The goals of this study were to investigate the difference in dynamic visual attention characteristics between highly skilled basketball players and nonathletic college students and to explore the relationship between visual attention and game-related performance among the basketball players. Methods In total, 24 highly skilled basketball players and 24 nonathletic college students participated in a multiple object tracking task. The task was conducted so that either the number of targets that were visually tracked or the speed at which a given number of tracked targets moved was altered to examine the difference in dynamic visual attention characteristics between the basketball players and nonathletic college students. The relationship between visual tracking speed (VTS) and game-related statistics, including assists, steals, mistakes, fouls and points scored recorded for every match during the season, was assessed among the basketball players by using Pearson correlations. Results A significant main effect of target tracking load was observed (P < 0.001), with visual tracking performance significantly decreased as target number increased. In addition, the speed at which the targets moved had a significant effect on visual tracking performance (P < 0.001), with tracking performance significantly decreased as target speed increased. However, no significant difference was observed in the abilities of basketball players and nonathletic college students to simultaneously track up to six targets. By contrast, a significant interaction between group and target speed was found (P < 0.001), with the visual tracking accuracy of basketball players significantly greater than that of college students at the higher target speeds examined (P < 0.001). Among basketball players, there were positive, large, and statistically significant correlations in the accuracy in VTS trials and the number of assists (P < 0.001) and between the accuracy in VTS trials and the number of steals (P < 0.001). Conclusion The advantage of skilled basketball players to handle dynamic visual information in a multiple object tracking task was not attributable to the target number but to the target speed. Those athletes with greater dynamic visual attention were more likely to successfully assist or to steal the ball, enhancing performance of the athlete as well as contributing to a more successful team match. These findings may inform basketball training programs to improve player and team performances during matches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peng Jin
- School of Physical Education and Training, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China.,Department of Physical Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
| | - Xiawen Li
- School of Physical Kinesiology, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
| | - Bin Ma
- College of Physical Education Science, Anshan Normal University, Anshan, China
| | - Hongbo Guo
- Department of Physical Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
| | - Zhongxi Zhang
- Physical Education College of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Lijuan Mao
- School of Physical Education and Training, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
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23
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Strong RW, Alvarez GA. Hemifield-specific control of spatial attention and working memory: Evidence from hemifield crossover costs. J Vis 2020; 20:24. [PMID: 32841317 PMCID: PMC7453044 DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.8.24] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Attentional tracking and working memory tasks are often performed better when targets are divided evenly between the left and right visual hemifields, rather than contained within a single hemifield (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2005; Delvenne, 2005). However, this bilateral field advantage does not provide conclusive evidence of hemifield-specific control of attention and working memory, because it can be explained solely from hemifield-limited spatial interference at early stages of visual processing. If control of attention and working memory is specific to each hemifield, maintaining target information should become more difficult as targets move between the two hemifields. Observers in the present study maintained targets that moved either within or between the left and right hemifields, using either attention (Experiment 1) or working memory (Experiment 2). Maintaining spatial information was more difficult when target items moved between the hemifields compared with when target items moved within their original hemifields, consistent with hemifield-specific control of spatial attention and working memory. However, this pattern was not found for maintaining identity information (e.g., color) in working memory (Experiment 3). Together, these results provide evidence that control of spatial attention and working memory is specific to each hemifield, and that hemifield-specific control is a unique signature of spatial processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger W Strong
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - George A Alvarez
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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24
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Blankenship TL, Strong RW, Kibbe MM. Development of multiple object tracking via multifocal attention. Dev Psychol 2020; 56:1684-1695. [PMID: 32614210 DOI: 10.1037/dev0001064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Multifocal attention is the ability to simultaneously attend to multiple objects, and is critical for typical functioning. Although adults are able to use multifocal attention, little is known about the development of this ability. In two experiments, we investigated multifocal attention in 6-8-year-old children and adults using a child-friendly, computerized multiple object tracking task designed to encourage the use of multifocal attention. We also investigated whether multifocal attention in children is deployed independently across left and right hemifields of vision, as in adults. Our results suggest that children's capacity for multifocal attention increases significantly across middle childhood. We also found evidence that at least one signature of hemifield-independent multifocal attention, the bilateral field advantage, can be observed in children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Lovett A, Bridewell W, Bello P. Selection enables enhancement: An integrated model of object tracking. J Vis 2020; 19:23. [PMID: 31868894 DOI: 10.1167/19.14.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The diversity of research on visual attention and multiple-object tracking presents challenges for anyone hoping to develop a unified account. One key challenge is identifying the attentional limitations that give rise to competition among targets during tracking. To address this challenge, we present a computational model of object tracking that relies on two attentional mechanisms: serial selection and parallel enhancement. Selection picks out an object for further processing, whereas enhancement increases sensitivity to stimuli in regions where objects have been selected previously. In this model, multiple target locations can be tracked in parallel via enhancement, whereas a single target can be selected so that additional information beyond its location can be processed. In simulations of two psychological experiments, we demonstrate that spatial competition during enhancement and temporal competition for selection can explain a range of findings on multiple-object tracking, and we argue that the interaction between selection and enhancement captured in the model is critical to understanding attention more broadly.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Paul Bello
- U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA
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26
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Kamkar S, Ghezloo F, Moghaddam HA, Borji A, Lashgari R. Multiple-target tracking in human and machine vision. PLoS Comput Biol 2020; 16:e1007698. [PMID: 32271746 PMCID: PMC7144962 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans are able to track multiple objects at any given time in their daily activities—for example, we can drive a car while monitoring obstacles, pedestrians, and other vehicles. Several past studies have examined how humans track targets simultaneously and what underlying behavioral and neural mechanisms they use. At the same time, computer-vision researchers have proposed different algorithms to track multiple targets automatically. These algorithms are useful for video surveillance, team-sport analysis, video analysis, video summarization, and human–computer interaction. Although there are several efficient biologically inspired algorithms in artificial intelligence, the human multiple-target tracking (MTT) ability is rarely imitated in computer-vision algorithms. In this paper, we review MTT studies in neuroscience and biologically inspired MTT methods in computer vision and discuss the ways in which they can be seen as complementary. Multiple-target tracking (MTT) is a challenging task vital for both a human’s daily life and for many artificial intelligent systems, such as those used for urban traffic control. Neuroscientists are interested in discovering the underlying neural mechanisms that successfully exploit cognitive resources, e.g., spatial attention or memory, during MTT. Computer-vision specialists aim to develop powerful MTT algorithms based on advanced models or data-driven computational methods. In this paper, we review MTT studies from both communities and discuss how findings from cognitive studies can inspire developers to construct higher performing MTT algorithms. Moreover, some directions have been proposed through which MTT algorithms could raise new questions in the cognitive science domain, and answering them can shed light on neural processes underlying MTT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiva Kamkar
- Machine Vision and Medical Image Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
- Brain Engineering Research Center, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
| | - Fatemeh Ghezloo
- Brain Engineering Research Center, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
| | - Hamid Abrishami Moghaddam
- Machine Vision and Medical Image Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
- * E-mail: (RL); (HAM)
| | - Ali Borji
- HCL America, Manhattan, New York City, United States of America
| | - Reza Lashgari
- Brain Engineering Research Center, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
- * E-mail: (RL); (HAM)
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27
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Liang T, Cheng Z, Hu W, Ye C, Zhang J, Liu Q. Limitations of concurrently representing objects within view and in visual working memory. Sci Rep 2020; 10:5351. [PMID: 32210299 PMCID: PMC7093397 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62164-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2019] [Accepted: 03/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Representing visibly present stimuli is as limited in capacity as representing invisible stimuli in visual working memory (WM). In this study, we explored whether concurrently representing stimuli within view affects representing objects in visual WM, and if so, whether this effect is modulated by the storage states (active and silent state) of memory contents? In experiment 1, participants were asked to perform the change-detect task in a simultaneous-representing condition in which WM content and the continuously-visible stimuli in view were simultaneously represented, as well as a baseline condition in which only the representations of visual WM content were maintained. The results showed that the representations in visual WM would be impaired when the continuously-visible stimuli in view were concurrently represented, revealed by the reduced CDA amplitude and the lower behavior performance. In experiment 2, a dual-serial retro-cue paradigm was adopted to guide participants to maintain memory items in two different storage states, and the results revealed that simultaneously representing the continuously-visible stimuli and the WM content would only impair the WM representations in the active state. These evidences demonstrated that only the visual WM representations that were maintained in the active state would definitely share the limited resources with the representations of continuously-visible information, and further supported the dissociation between the active state and silent state of visual WM storage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tengfei Liang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610000, China
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Zijian Cheng
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Wenjing Hu
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Chaoxiong Ye
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610000, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyväskylä, 40014, Finland
| | - Jiafeng Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Qiang Liu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610000, China.
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China.
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A Limiting Channel Capacity of Visual Perception: Spreading Attention Divides the Rates of Perceptual Processes. Atten Percept Psychophys 2020; 82:2652-2672. [PMID: 32086727 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-01973-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated effects of divided attention on the temporal processes of perception. During continuous watch periods, observers responded to sudden changes in the color or direction of any one of a set of moving objects. The set size of moving objects was a primary variable. A simple detection task required responses to any display change, and a selective task required responses to a subset of the changes. Detection rates at successive points in time were measured by response time (RT) hazard functions.The principal finding was that increasing the set size divided the detection rates-and these divisive effects were essentially constant over time and over the time-varying influence of the target signals and response tasks. The set size, visual target signal, and response task exerted mutually invariant influence on detection rates at given times, indicating independent joint contributions of parallel component processes. The lawful structure of these effects was measured by RT hazard functions but not by RTs as such. The results generalized the time-invariant divisive effects of set size on visual process rates found by Lappin, Morse, & Seiffert (Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 78, 2469-2493, 2016). These findings suggest that the rate of visual perception has a limiting channel capacity.
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29
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Mäki-Marttunen V, Hagen T, Laeng B, Espeseth T. Distinct Neural Mechanisms Meet Challenges in Dynamic Visual Attention due to Either Load or Object Spacing. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:65-84. [DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
When engaged in dynamic visuospatial tasks, the brain copes with perceptual and cognitive processing challenges. During multiple-object tracking (MOT), the number of objects to be tracked (i.e., load) imposes attentional demands, but so does spatial interference from irrelevant objects (i.e., close encounters). Presently, it is not clear whether the effect of load on accuracy solely depends on the number of close encounters. If so, the same cognitive and physiological mechanisms deal with increasing load by preparing for and dealing with spatial interference. However, this has never been directly tested. Such knowledge is important to understand the neurophysiology of dynamic visual attention and resolve conflicting views within visual cognition concerning sources of capacity limitations. We varied the processing challenge in MOT task in two ways: the number of targets and the minimum spatial proximity between targets and distractors. In a first experiment, we measured task-induced pupil dilations and saccades during MOT. In a separate cohort, we measured fMRI activity. In both cohorts, increased load and close encounters (i.e., close spatial proximity) led to reduced accuracy in an additive manner. Load was associated with pupil dilations, whereas close encounters were not. Activity in dorsal attentional areas and frequency of saccades were proportionally larger both with higher levels of load and close encounters. Close encounters recruited additionally ventral attentional areas that may reflect orienting mechanisms. The activity in two brainstem nuclei, ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra and locus coeruleus, showed clearly dissociated patterns. Our results constitute convergent evidence indicating that different mechanisms underlie processing challenges due to load and object spacing.
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30
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Van der Burg E, Cass J, Theeuwes J. Changes (but not differences) in motion direction fail to capture attention. Vision Res 2019; 165:54-63. [PMID: 31655449 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2019.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2018] [Revised: 09/27/2019] [Accepted: 09/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
In this study we investigated under what conditions motion direction changes pop out in continuously moving target/distractor environments. Participants were presented with vertically oriented Gabor patches whose carrier components drifted at a constant speed from left to right and then reversed direction. On any given trial, one of these elements was nominated as the target and the remaining elements were distractors. Distractor elements all changed direction simultaneously. The distractors either moved in a homogeneous manner (i.e. all moved in the same direction), or in a heterogeneous manner (i.e. direction was randomized). The target moved with a similar spatio-temporal trajectory as the distractors from left to right (or vice versa), but changed direction asynchronously with respect to the distracting elements. The participants' task was to locate this deviant (target) Gabor patch. We show that a motion direction change pops out (as indicated by the absence of a set size effect) when the surrounding distractors move in a homogeneous direction. When the distractors moved in heterogenous directions, a similar pop out effect was observed when the set size was small (≤5 elements), but not when it was large. This suggests that motion direction changes capture attention only when the change results in a unique direction of motion. Consistent with this finding we also show that a moving target (without direction change) captures attention in cases in which all distractors recently changed direction. This corroborates the idea that, in addition to direction cues, the temporal uniqueness of a change in an object's direction (or absence, thereof) relative to surrounding objects is a cue capable of capturing attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik Van der Burg
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia; Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
| | - John Cass
- School of Social Sciences & Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia
| | - Jan Theeuwes
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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31
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Abstract
Zusammenfassung. Die periphere Wahrnehmung im Sport ist eine theoretische wie methodische Herausforderung. Während die bisher in der Literatur diskutierten Funktionalitäten des gleichzeitigen peripheren Monitorings mehrerer Objekte, der Detektion von peripheren Bewegungsveränderungen und der peripheren Preview-Funktion zur Planung von Blicksprüngen gut begründet scheinen, fehlte bislang deren eindeutiger empirischer Nachweis. Mit Hilfe des Multiple-Objekt-Tracking-Paradigmas konnten die beiden erstgenannten Funktionalitäten empirisch untermauert und in diesem Zuge zu berücksichtigende visuelle und aufmerksamkeitsbedingte Randbedingungen bestimmt werden. In einem weiteren Schritt wurden die neu eingeführten Begriffe Anker, Pivot und Spot mit den gefundenen Funktionalitäten in Beziehung gesetzt. Abschließend wurden konkrete Vorhersagen für sportspezifische Untersuchungen formuliert, um die so umschriebenen Funktionalitäten empirisch zu überprüfen. Die Ergebnisse solcher Untersuchungen werden zeigen, inwieweit sich die grundlagenwissenschaftlichen Befunde auf Belange des Sports transferieren lassen. Für die Sportpraxis könnte es dabei ein wichtiges Ziel sein, ein funktional begründetes Blick- und Aufmerksamkeitstraining zu integrieren, um das volle Potenzial der peripheren Wahrnehmung auszuschöpfen.
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32
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Gao T, Baker CL, Tang N, Xu H, Tenenbaum JB. The Cognitive Architecture of Perceived Animacy: Intention, Attention, and Memory. Cogn Sci 2019; 43:e12775. [PMID: 31446655 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2016] [Revised: 04/30/2019] [Accepted: 05/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Human vision supports social perception by efficiently detecting agents and extracting rich information about their actions, goals, and intentions. Here, we explore the cognitive architecture of perceived animacy by constructing Bayesian models that integrate domain-specific hypotheses of social agency with domain-general cognitive constraints on sensory, memory, and attentional processing. Our model posits that perceived animacy combines a bottom-up, feature-based, parallel search for goal-directed movements with a top-down selection process for intent inference. The interaction of these architecturally distinct processes makes perceived animacy fast, flexible, and yet cognitively efficient. In the context of chasing, in which a predator (the "wolf") pursues a prey (the "sheep"), our model addresses the computational challenge of identifying target agents among varying numbers of distractor objects, despite a quadratic increase in the number of possible interactions as more objects appear in a scene. By comparing modeling results with human psychophysics in several studies, we show that the effectiveness and efficiency of human perceived animacy can be explained by a Bayesian ideal observer model with realistic cognitive constraints. These results provide an understanding of perceived animacy at the algorithmic level-how it is achieved by cognitive mechanisms such as attention and working memory, and how it can be integrated with higher-level reasoning about social agency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Gao
- Departments of Statistics and Communication, University of California, Los Angeles
| | | | - Ning Tang
- Departments of Statistics and Communication, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Haokui Xu
- Departments of Statistics and Communication, University of California, Los Angeles
| | - Joshua B Tenenbaum
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Vater C. How selective attention affects the detection of motion changes with peripheral vision in MOT. Heliyon 2019; 5:e02282. [PMID: 31463394 PMCID: PMC6706584 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2019] [Revised: 08/08/2019] [Accepted: 08/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
In sports, peripheral vision is expected to play an important role in tasks that demand distributed attention and motion-change detection. By using the Multiple-Object-Tracking (MOT) task, these demands were simulated in a well-controlled laboratory environment. Participants tracked four target out of ten moving objects (6 distractors) and pressed a button when one of the ten objects stopped. Detection rates for tracked targets were compared to detection rates of non-tracked distractors at eccentricities between 5° and 25°. The study's aim was to test how the location of attention affects peripheral motion detection. The results show a large attention effect because target stops were detected in 89 % and distractor stops only in 55 % of the trials. Distractor stops were more likely detected when they occurred closer to the fovea while target stops were detected at all eccentricities. That means, orienting attention at target objects facilitates the peripheral detection of their motion changes in monitoring tasks. Having distractors closer to the fovea increases the chance to also detect motion changes of unattended objects. On a theoretical level, results support a tracking mechanism with object-based attention, serial covert attention shifts and flexible but limited attentional resources. On a practical level, sports' experts should use their extensive knowledge to locate attention on most-relevant objects and reduce the eccentricity to other objects to detect motion changes of attended and unattended objects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Vater
- University of Bern, Institute of Sport Science, Bern, Switzerland
- University of Sydney, School of Psychology, Australia
- Corresponding author.
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Crowe EM, Howard CJ, Attwood AS, Kent C. Goal-directed unequal attention allocation during multiple object tracking. Atten Percept Psychophys 2019; 81:1312-1326. [PMID: 30761503 PMCID: PMC6647460 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-019-01674-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
In standard multiple object tracking (MOT) tasks the relative importance of the targets being tracked is equal. This is atypical of everyday situations in which an individual may need to prioritize one target relative to another and so allocate attention unequally. We report three experiments that examined whether participants could unequally split attention using a modified MOT task in which target priority was manipulated. Specifically, we examined the effect of priority on participants' magnitude of error and used a distribution mixture analysis to investigate how priority affected both participants' probability of losing an item and tracking precision. Experiment 1 (trajectory tracking) revealed a higher magnitude of error and higher proportion of guessing for low- compared with high-priority targets. Experiments 2 (trajectory tracking) and 3 (position tracking) examined how fine-grained this ability is by manipulating target priority at finer increments. In line with Experiment 1, results from both these experiments indicated that participants could split attention unequally. There was some evidence that participants could allocate attention unequally at fine increments, but this was less conclusive. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate participants' ability to distribute attention unequally across multiple moving objects but suggest some limitation with the flexibility of attention allocation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily M Crowe
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TU, UK.
| | | | - Angela S Attwood
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TU, UK
| | - Christopher Kent
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TU, UK
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35
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Shanmugapriya K, Malar RSM. An Effective Technique to Track Objects with the Aid of Rough Set Theory and Evolutionary Programming. JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS 2019. [DOI: 10.1515/jisys-2016-0351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractDue to its wide range of applications, the impact of multimedia in the real world has shown stupendous growth. Texts, images, audio, and video are the different forms of multimedia which are utilized by humans in various applications such as education and surveillance applications. A wide range of research has been carried out, and here in this paper, we propose an object racking with the aid of rough set theory in combination with the eminent soft computing technique evolutionary programming. Initially, the input video is segregated into frames, then the frames that belong to particular shots are identified through the shot segmentation process, and after that the object to be tracked is identified manually. Subsequently, the shape and texture feature is extracted, and then the rough set theory is applied. This is done to identify the presence of object in the frames. Consequently, genetic algorithm (GA) is utilized for the object monitoring process to mark the object with variant color. As a result, the selected object is tracked in an effective manner.
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Wang C, Hu L, Talhelm T, Zhang X. The effects of colour complexity and similarity on multiple object tracking performance. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2018; 72:1903-1912. [DOI: 10.1177/1747021818817388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Surface features can be used during multiple object tracking (MOT). Previous studies suggested that surface features might be stored in visual working memory to assist object tracking, and attentive tracking and visual working memory share common attentional resources. However, it is still unknown whether features of both the target and distractor sets will be stored, or features of the target and distractor sets are processed differently. Moreover, how feature distinctiveness and similarity between the target and distractor sets affect tracking and allocation of attentional resources are still not clear. First, we manipulated the colour complexity of the target set (CT) and the colour complexity of the distractor set (CD), respectively, in two experiments, where colours of the target and distractor sets were always distinct, to test their effects on tracking performance. If features of the target and distractor sets are stored, manipulating feature complexity of the target and distractor sets would significantly affect tracking performance. Second, this study tested whether tracking performance was affected by different levels of distinctiveness between the target and distractor sets (DTD) and explored how distinctiveness affected tracking and allocation of attentional resources. Results showed that DTD and CT significantly affect tracking performance and allocation of attentional resources, but not CD. These results indicated that when targets and distractors have distinct features, only the surface features of the targets are maintained in visual working memory. And when targets have the same colour with the distractors, they are more difficult and consume more attentional resources to track.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chundi Wang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Luming Hu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Thomas Talhelm
- Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Xuemin Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
- Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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37
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Focus+context grouping for animated transitions. JOURNAL OF VISUAL LANGUAGES AND COMPUTING 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jvlc.2018.06.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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38
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Wang Y, Archambault D, Scheidegger CE, Qu H. A Vector Field Design Approach to Animated Transitions. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS 2018; 24:2487-2500. [PMID: 28910773 DOI: 10.1109/tvcg.2017.2750689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Animated transitions can be effective in explaining and exploring a small number of visualizations where there are drastic changes in the scene over a short interval of time. This is especially true if data elements cannot be visually distinguished by other means. Current research in animated transitions has mainly focused on linear transitions (all elements follow straight line paths) or enhancing coordinated motion through bundling of linear trajectories. In this paper, we introduce animated transition design, a technique to build smooth, non-linear transitions for clustered data with either minimal or no user involvement. The technique is flexible and simple to implement, and has the additional advantage that it explicitly enhances coordinated motion and can avoid crowding, which are both important factors to support object tracking in a scene. We investigate its usability, provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of this technique through metric evaluations and user study and discuss limitations and future directions.
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39
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Abstract
Tasks that require tracking visual information reveal the severe limitations of our capacity to attend to multiple objects that vary in time and space. Although these limitations have been extensively characterized in the visual domain, very little is known about tracking information in other sensory domains. Does tracking auditory information exhibit characteristics similar to those of tracking visual information, and to what extent do these two tracking tasks draw on the same attention resources? We addressed these questions by asking participants to perform either single or dual tracking tasks from the same (visual-visual) or different (visual-auditory) perceptual modalities, with the difficulty of the tracking tasks being manipulated across trials. The results revealed that performing two concurrent tracking tasks, whether they were in the same or different modalities, affected tracking performance as compared to performing each task alone (concurrence costs). Moreover, increasing task difficulty also led to increased costs in both the single-task and dual-task conditions (load-dependent costs). The comparison of concurrence costs between visual-visual and visual-auditory dual-task performance revealed slightly greater interference when two visual tracking tasks were paired. Interestingly, however, increasing task difficulty led to equivalent costs for visual-visual and visual-auditory pairings. We concluded that visual and auditory tracking draw largely, though not exclusively, on common central attentional resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daryl Fougnie
- Department of Psychology, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
| | - Jurnell Cockhren
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - René Marois
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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40
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Tullo D, Faubert J, Bertone A. The characterization of attention resource capacity and its relationship with fluid reasoning intelligence: A multiple object tracking study. INTELLIGENCE 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2018.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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41
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Gaze following in multiagent contexts: Evidence for a quorum-like principle. Psychon Bull Rev 2018; 25:2260-2266. [DOI: 10.3758/s13423-018-1464-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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42
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Meyerhoff HS, Schwan S, Huff M. Oculomotion mediates attentional guidance toward temporarily close objects. VISUAL COGNITION 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2017.1399950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Markus Huff
- Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Research Infrastructures, German Research Institute for Adult Education, Bonn, Germany
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43
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Comparing eye movements during position tracking and identity tracking: No evidence for separate systems. Atten Percept Psychophys 2017; 80:453-460. [PMID: 29159571 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-017-1447-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate as to whether people track multiple moving objects in a serial fashion or with a parallel mechanism. One recent study compared eye movements when observers tracked identical objects (Multiple Object Tracking-MOT task) versus when they tracked the identities of different objects (Multiple Identity Tracking-MIT task). Distinct eye-movement patterns were found and attributed to two separate tracking systems. However, the same results could be caused by differences in the stimuli viewed during tracking. In the present study, object identities in the MIT task were invisible during tracking, so observers performed MOT and MIT tasks with identical stimuli. Observer were able to track either position and identity depending on the task. There was no difference in eye movements between position tracking and identity tracking. This result suggests that, while observers can use different eye-movement strategies in MOT and MIT, it is not necessary.
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44
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The channel capacity of visual awareness divided among multiple moving objects. Atten Percept Psychophys 2017; 78:2469-2493. [PMID: 27357842 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-016-1162-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
If attention is distributed among multiple moving objects, how does this divided attention affect the temporal process for detecting a specific target motion? Well-trained observers in three experiments monitored ongoing random motions of multiple objects, trying to rapidly detect non-random target motions. Response time hazard rates revealed a simple lawful structure of the detection processes. Target detection rates (hazard rates, in bits /s) were inversely proportional to the number of observed objects. Detection rates at any response time and in any condition equaled a product of two parallel (functionally independent and concurrent) visual processes: visual awareness and motion integration. The rate of visual awareness was inversely proportional to Set Size (n = 1-12), constant over time, and invariant with integrated motion information. Thus, a single rate parameter, indicating a constant channel capacity of visual awareness, described detection rates over a wide range of conditions and response times. During an initial interval of roughly 0.5 s, detection rates increased proportionally with the duration and length of motion; but after this initial integration, detection rates were constant, independent of the time the target remained undetected. The relationship between the quantity of visual information and detection rates was simpler than anticipated by contemporary theories of attention, perception, and performance.
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45
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Martín A, Sfer AM, D'Urso Villar MA, Barraza JF. Position Affects Performance in Multiple-Object Tracking in Rugby Union Players. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1494. [PMID: 28951725 PMCID: PMC5599788 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2017] [Accepted: 08/18/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We report an experiment that examines the performance of rugby union players and a control group composed of graduate student with no sport experience, in a multiple-object tracking task. It compares the ability of 86 high level rugby union players grouped as Backs and Forwards and the control group, to track a subset of randomly moving targets amongst the same number of distractors. Several difficulties were included in the experimental design in order to evaluate possible interactions between the relevant variables. Results show that the performance of the Backs is better than that of the other groups, but the occurrence of interactions precludes an isolated groups analysis. We interpret the results within the framework of visual attention and discuss both, the implications of our results and the practical consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrés Martín
- Instituto de Investigación en Luz, Ambiente y Visión, CONICET - Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT)San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.,Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Tecnológica NacionalSan Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
| | - Ana M Sfer
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de TucumánSan Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
| | | | - José F Barraza
- Instituto de Investigación en Luz, Ambiente y Visión, CONICET - Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (UNT)San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.,Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de TucumánSan Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
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46
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Endress AD, Korjoukov I, Bonatti LL. Category-based grouping in working memory and multiple object tracking. VISUAL COGNITION 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2017.1349229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Luca L. Bonatti
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
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47
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Cooke JRH, ter Horst AC, van Beers RJ, Medendorp WP. Effect of depth information on multiple-object tracking in three dimensions: A probabilistic perspective. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005554. [PMID: 28727743 PMCID: PMC5519009 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [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: 03/03/2017] [Accepted: 05/08/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Many daily situations require us to track multiple objects and people. This ability has traditionally been investigated in observers tracking objects in a plane. This simplification of reality does not address how observers track objects when targets move in three dimensions. Here, we study how observers track multiple objects in 2D and 3D while manipulating the average speed of the objects and the average distance between them. We show that performance declines as speed increases and distance decreases and that overall tracking accuracy is always higher in 3D than in 2D. The effects of distance and dimensionality interact to produce a more than additive improvement in performance during tracking in 3D compared to 2D. We propose an ideal observer model that uses the object dynamics and noisy observations to track the objects. This model provides a good fit to the data and explains the key findings of our experiment as originating from improved inference of object identity by adding the depth dimension. Many daily life situations require us to track objects that are in motion. In the laboratory, this multiple object tracking problem is classically studied with objects moving on a two-dimensional screen, but in the real world objects typically move in three dimensions. Here we show that, despite the complexity of seeing in depth, observers track multiple objects better when they move in 3D than 2D. A probabilistic inference model explains this by showing that the association of noisy visual signals to the objects that caused them is less ambiguous when depth cues are available. This highlights the role that depth cues play in our everyday ability to track objects.
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Affiliation(s)
- James R. H. Cooke
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- * E-mail:
| | - Arjan C. ter Horst
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Robert J. van Beers
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, MOVE Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - W. Pieter Medendorp
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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48
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Studying visual attention using the multiple object tracking paradigm: A tutorial review. Atten Percept Psychophys 2017; 79:1255-1274. [DOI: 10.3758/s13414-017-1338-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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49
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Howard CJ, Rollings V, Hardie A. Sustained attention to objects' motion sharpens position representations: Attention to changing position and attention to motion are distinct. Vision Res 2017; 135:43-53. [PMID: 28454895 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2017.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2016] [Revised: 04/02/2017] [Accepted: 04/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In tasks where people monitor moving objects, such the multiple object tracking task (MOT), observers attempt to keep track of targets as they move amongst distracters. The literature is mixed as to whether observers make use of motion information to facilitate performance. We sought to address this by two means: first by superimposing arrows on objects which varied in their informativeness about motion direction and second by asking observers to attend to motion direction. Using a position monitoring task, we calculated mean error magnitudes as a measure of the precision with which target positions are represented. We also calculated perceptual lags versus extrapolated reports, which are the times at which positions of targets best match position reports. We find that the presence of motion information in the form of superimposed arrows made no difference to position report precision nor perceptual lag. However, when we explicitly instructed observers to attend to motion, we saw facilitatory effects on position reports and in some cases reports that best matched extrapolated rather than lagging positions for small set sizes. The results indicate that attention to changing positions does not automatically recruit attention to motion, showing a dissociation between sustained attention to changing positions and attention to motion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina J Howard
- Nottingham Trent University, Room 4010, Chaucer Building, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, United Kingdom.
| | - Victoria Rollings
- Nottingham Trent University, Room 4010, Chaucer Building, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, United Kingdom
| | - Amy Hardie
- Nottingham Trent University, Room 4010, Chaucer Building, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, United Kingdom
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50
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Lapierre MD, Cropper SJ, Howe PDL. Shared processing in multiple object tracking and visual working memory in the absence of response order and task order confounds. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0175736. [PMID: 28410383 PMCID: PMC5391939 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2016] [Accepted: 03/30/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
To understand how the visual system represents multiple moving objects and how those representations contribute to tracking, it is essential that we understand how the processes of attention and working memory interact. In the work described here we present an investigation of that interaction via a series of tracking and working memory dual-task experiments. Previously, it has been argued that tracking is resistant to disruption by a concurrent working memory task and that any apparent disruption is in fact due to observers making a response to the working memory task, rather than due to competition for shared resources. Contrary to this, in our experiments we find that when task order and response order confounds are avoided, all participants show a similar decrease in both tracking and working memory performance. However, if task and response order confounds are not adequately controlled for we find substantial individual differences, which could explain the previous conflicting reports on this topic. Our results provide clear evidence that tracking and working memory tasks share processing resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark D. Lapierre
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Simon J. Cropper
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Piers D. L. Howe
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
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