Task-dependence in scene perception: Head unrestrained viewing using mobile eye-tracking

Real-world scene perception is typically studied in the laboratory using static picture viewing with restrained head position. Consequently, the transfer of results obtained in this paradigm to real-word scenarios has been questioned. The advancement of mobile eye-trackers and the progress in image processing, however, permit a more natural experimental setup that, at the same time, maintains the high experimental control from the standard laboratory setting. We investigated eye movements while participants were standing in front of a projector screen and explored images under four specific task instructions. Eye movements were recorded with a mobile eye-tracking device and raw gaze data were transformed from head-centered into image-centered coordinates. We observed differences between tasks in temporal and spatial eye-movement parameters and found that the bias to fixate images near the center differed between tasks. Our results demonstrate that current mobile eye-tracking technology and a highly controlled design support the study of fine-scaled task dependencies in an experimental setting that permits more natural viewing behavior than the static picture viewing paradigm.

Disentangling bottom-up versus top-down and low-level versus high-level influences on eye movements over time

Bottom-up and top-down as well as low-level and high-level factors influence where we fixate when viewing natural scenes. However, the importance of each of these factors and how they interact remains a matter of debate. Here, we disentangle these factors by analyzing their influence over time. For this purpose, we develop a saliency model that is based on the internal representation of a recent early spatial vision model to measure the low-level, bottom-up factor. To measure the influence of high-level, bottom-up features, we use a recent deep neural network-based saliency model. To account for top-down influences, we evaluate the models on two large data sets with different tasks: first, a memorization task and, second, a search task. Our results lend support to a separation of visual scene exploration into three phases: the first saccade, an initial guided exploration characterized by a gradual broadening of the fixation density, and a steady state that is reached after roughly 10 fixations. Saccade-target selection during the initial exploration and in the steady state is related to similar areas of interest, which are better predicted when including high-level features. In the search data set, fixation locations are determined predominantly by top-down processes. In contrast, the first fixation follows a different fixation density and contains a strong central fixation bias. Nonetheless, first fixations are guided strongly by image properties, and as early as 200 ms after image onset, fixations are better predicted by high-level information. We conclude that any low-level, bottom-up factors are mainly limited to the generation of the first saccade. All saccades are better explained when high-level features are considered, and later, this high-level, bottom-up control can be overruled by top-down influences.

Spatial statistics for gaze patterns in scene viewing: Effects of repeated viewing

Scene viewing is used to study attentional selection in complex but still controlled environments. One of the main observations on eye movements during scene viewing is the inhomogeneous distribution of fixation locations: While some parts of an image are fixated by almost all observers and are inspected repeatedly by the same observer, other image parts remain unfixated by observers even after long exploration intervals. Here, we apply spatial point process methods to investigate the relationship between pairs of fixations. More precisely, we use the pair correlation function, a powerful statistical tool, to evaluate dependencies between fixation locations along individual scanpaths. We demonstrate that aggregation of fixation locations within 4° is stronger than expected from chance. Furthermore, the pair correlation function reveals stronger aggregation of fixations when the same image is presented a second time. We use simulations of a dynamical model to show that a narrower spatial attentional span may explain differences in pair correlations between the first and the second inspection of the same image.

Searchers adjust their eye-movement dynamics to target characteristics in natural scenes

When searching a target in a natural scene, it has been shown that both the target's visual properties and similarity to the background influence whether and how fast humans are able to find it. So far, it was unclear whether searchers adjust the dynamics of their eye movements (e.g., fixation durations, saccade amplitudes) to the target they search for. In our experiment, participants searched natural scenes for six artificial targets with different spatial frequency content throughout eight consecutive sessions. High-spatial frequency targets led to smaller saccade amplitudes and shorter fixation durations than low-spatial frequency targets if target identity was known. If a saccade was programmed in the same direction as the previous saccade, fixation durations and successive saccade amplitudes were not influenced by target type. Visual saliency and empirical fixation density at the endpoints of saccades which maintain direction were comparatively low, indicating that these saccades were less selective. Our results suggest that searchers adjust their eye movement dynamics to the search target efficiently, since previous research has shown that low-spatial frequencies are visible farther into the periphery than high-spatial frequencies. We interpret the saccade direction specificity of our effects as an underlying separation into a default scanning mechanism and a selective, target-dependent mechanism.

The rhythm of cognition - Effects of an auditory beat on oculomotor control in reading and sequential scanning

Eye-movement behavior is inherently rhythmic. Even without cognitive input, the eyes never rest, as saccades are generated 3 to 4 times per second. Based on an embodied view of cognition, we asked whether mental processing in visual cognitive tasks is also rhythmic in nature by studying the effects of an external auditory beat (rhythmic background music) on saccade generation in exemplary cognitive tasks (reading and sequential scanning). While in applied settings background music has been demonstrated to impair reading comprehension, the effect of musical tempo on eye-movement control during reading or scanning has not been investigated so far. We implemented a tempo manipulation in four steps as well as a silent baseline condition, while participants completed a text reading or a sequential scanning task that differed from each other in terms of underlying cognitive processing requirements. The results revealed that increased tempo of the musical beat sped up fixations in text reading, while the presence (vs. absence) of the auditory stimulus generally reduced overall reading time. In contrast, sequential scanning was unaffected by the auditory pacemaker. These results were supported by additionally applying Bayesian inference statistics. Our study provides evidence against a cognitive load account (i.e., that spare resources during low-demand sequential scanning allow for enhanced processing of the external beat). Instead, the data suggest an interpretation in favor of a modulation of the oculomotor saccade timer by irrelevant background music in cases involving highly automatized oculomotor control routines (here: in text reading).

Temporal evolution of the central fixation bias in scene viewing

When watching the image of a natural scene on a computer screen, observers initially move their eyes toward the center of the image-a reliable experimental finding termed central fixation bias. This systematic tendency in eye guidance likely masks attentional selection driven by image properties and top-down cognitive processes. Here, we show that the central fixation bias can be reduced by delaying the initial saccade relative to image onset. In four scene-viewing experiments we manipulated observers' initial gaze position and delayed their first saccade by a specific time interval relative to the onset of an image. We analyzed the distance to image center over time and show that the central fixation bias of initial fixations was significantly reduced after delayed saccade onsets. We additionally show that selection of the initial saccade target strongly depended on the first saccade latency. A previously published model of saccade generation was extended with a central activation map on the initial fixation whose influence declined with increasing saccade latency. This extension was sufficient to replicate the central fixation bias from our experiments. Our results suggest that the central fixation bias is generated by default activation as a response to the sudden image onset and that this default activation pattern decreases over time. Thus, it may often be preferable to use a modified version of the scene viewing paradigm that decouples image onset from the start signal for scene exploration to explicitly reduce the central fixation bias.

Likelihood-based parameter estimation and comparison of dynamical cognitive models

Dynamical models of cognition play an increasingly important role in driving theoretical and experimental research in psychology. Therefore, parameter estimation, model analysis and comparison of dynamical models are of essential importance. In this article, we propose a maximum likelihood approach for model analysis in a fully dynamical framework that includes time-ordered experimental data. Our methods can be applied to dynamical models for the prediction of discrete behavior (e.g., movement onsets); in particular, we use a dynamical model of saccade generation in scene viewing as a case study for our approach. For this model, the likelihood function can be computed directly by numerical simulation, which enables more efficient parameter estimation including Bayesian inference to obtain reliable estimates and corresponding credible intervals. Using hierarchical models inference is even possible for individual observers. Furthermore, our likelihood approach can be used to compare different models. In our example, the dynamical framework is shown to outperform nondynamical statistical models. Additionally, the likelihood based evaluation differentiates model variants, which produced indistinguishable predictions on hitherto used statistics. Our results indicate that the likelihood approach is a promising framework for dynamical cognitive models. (PsycINFO Database Record

Spatial statistics and attentional dynamics in scene viewing

In humans and in foveated animals visual acuity is highly concentrated at the center of gaze, so that choosing where to look next is an important example of online, rapid decision-making. Computational neuroscientists have developed biologically-inspired models of visual attention, termed saliency maps, which successfully predict where people fixate on average. Using point process theory for spatial statistics, we show that scanpaths contain, however, important statistical structure, such as spatial clustering on top of distributions of gaze positions. Here, we develop a dynamical model of saccadic selection that accurately predicts the distribution of gaze positions as well as spatial clustering along individual scanpaths. Our model relies on activation dynamics via spatially-limited (foveated) access to saliency information, and, second, a leaky memory process controlling the re-inspection of target regions. This theoretical framework models a form of context-dependent decision-making, linking neural dynamics of attention to behavioral gaze data.

Eye movements in a sequential scanning task: evidence for distributed processing

Current models of eye movement control are derived from theories assuming serial processing of single items or from theories based on parallel processing of multiple items at a time. This issue has persisted because most investigated paradigms generated data compatible with both serial and parallel models. Here, we study eye movements in a sequential scanning task, where stimulus n indicates the position of the next stimulus n + 1. We investigate whether eye movements are controlled by sequential attention shifts when the task requires serial order of processing. Our measures of distributed processing in the form of parafoveal-on-foveal effects, long-range modulations of target selection, and skipping saccades provide evidence against models strictly based on serial attention shifts. We conclude that our results lend support to parallel processing as a strategy for eye movement control.

Oculomotor control in a sequential search task

Using a serial search paradigm, we observed several effects of within-object fixation position on spatial and temporal control of eye movements: the preferred viewing location, launch site effect, the optimal viewing position, and the inverted optimal viewing position of fixation duration. While these effects were first identified by eye-movement studies in reading, our approach permits an analysis of the functional relationships between the effects in a different paradigm. Our results demonstrate that the fixation position is an important predictor of the subsequent saccade by influencing both fixation duration and the selection of the next saccade target.