Demonstrating Failures of Attentional Guidance in Visual Search
Date
2021-07-03
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Abstract
There are many differences across individuals in the strategies that people use while performing
visual search tasks. Prior literature suggests that visual search is more efficient when performed
using some search strategies than others, based on different experimental conditions. People
sometimes also use suboptimal strategies (such as unguided search, etc.), while performing a
search task. This present study uses data from multiple eye tracking experiments to explore the
distinct decision-making strategies employed by humans while performing visual search tasks.
This is primarily a multi-layered data analysis study that investigates a phenomenon called ‘Step Path’. ‘Step-paths’ occur when people fixate objects adjacent to one another in a unidirectional
pattern. The goal of this analysis is to explore how probability of a fixation falling in a step-path
changes over the course of a trial, in different experimental conditions. A step-path pattern suggests
that eye movements are not being guided by target features during search, and so the step-path
probability can reflect how guidance changes across different search conditions. Moreover, it
would also enable us to explore experimental conditions that might nudge people towards using
more efficient search strategies.
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Keywords
Psychology, Neuroscience, Visual Cognition, Attentional Guidance, Visual Search