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Wilming N, Kietzmann TC, Jutras M, Xue C, Treue S, Buffalo EA, König P. Differential Contribution of Low- and High-level Image Content to Eye Movements in Monkeys and Humans. Cereb Cortex 2017; 27:279-293. [PMID: 28077512 PMCID: PMC5942390 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2016] [Accepted: 12/13/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Oculomotor selection exerts a fundamental impact on our experience of the environment. To better understand the underlying principles, researchers typically rely on behavioral data from humans, and electrophysiological recordings in macaque monkeys. This approach rests on the assumption that the same selection processes are at play in both species. To test this assumption, we compared the viewing behavior of 106 humans and 11 macaques in an unconstrained free-viewing task. Our data-driven clustering analyses revealed distinct human and macaque clusters, indicating species-specific selection strategies. Yet, cross-species predictions were found to be above chance, indicating some level of shared behavior. Analyses relying on computational models of visual saliency indicate that such cross-species commonalities in free viewing are largely due to similar low-level selection mechanisms, with only a small contribution by shared higher level selection mechanisms and with consistent viewing behavior of monkeys being a subset of the consistent viewing behavior of humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Niklas Wilming
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.,Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.,Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.,Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA
| | - Tim C Kietzmann
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.,Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Megan Jutras
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.,Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA
| | - Cheng Xue
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center - Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Stefan Treue
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center - Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany.,Faculty of Biology and Psychology, Goettingen University, Goettingen, Germany.,Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Elizabeth A Buffalo
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.,Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.,Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA
| | - Peter König
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.,Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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Rouinfar A, Agra E, Larson AM, Rebello NS, Loschky LC. Linking attentional processes and conceptual problem solving: visual cues facilitate the automaticity of extracting relevant information from diagrams. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1094. [PMID: 25324804 PMCID: PMC4179331 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2014] [Accepted: 09/10/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This study investigated links between visual attention processes and conceptual problem solving. This was done by overlaying visual cues on conceptual physics problem diagrams to direct participants' attention to relevant areas to facilitate problem solving. Participants (N = 80) individually worked through four problem sets, each containing a diagram, while their eye movements were recorded. Each diagram contained regions that were relevant to solving the problem correctly and separate regions related to common incorrect responses. Problem sets contained an initial problem, six isomorphic training problems, and a transfer problem. The cued condition saw visual cues overlaid on the training problems. Participants' verbal responses were used to determine their accuracy. This study produced two major findings. First, short duration visual cues which draw attention to solution-relevant information and aid in the organizing and integrating of it, facilitate both immediate problem solving and generalization of that ability to new problems. Thus, visual cues can facilitate re-representing a problem and overcoming impasse, enabling a correct solution. Importantly, these cueing effects on problem solving did not involve the solvers' attention necessarily embodying the solution to the problem, but were instead caused by solvers attending to and integrating relevant information in the problems into a solution path. Second, this study demonstrates that when such cues are used across multiple problems, solvers can automatize the extraction of problem-relevant information extraction. These results suggest that low-level attentional selection processes provide a necessary gateway for relevant information to be used in problem solving, but are generally not sufficient for correct problem solving. Instead, factors that lead a solver to an impasse and to organize and integrate problem information also greatly facilitate arriving at correct solutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Rouinfar
- Department of Physics, Kansas State University Manhattan, KS, USA
| | - Elise Agra
- Department of Physics, Kansas State University Manhattan, KS, USA
| | - Adam M Larson
- Department of Psychology, University of Findlay Findlay, OH, USA
| | - N Sanjay Rebello
- Department of Physics, Kansas State University Manhattan, KS, USA
| | - Lester C Loschky
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University Manhattan, KS, USA
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