Salience is only briefly represented: Evidence from probe-detection performance (original) (raw)
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Effects of Salience Are Short-Lived
Psychological Science, 2008
A salient event in the visual field tends to attract attention and the eyes. To account for the effects of salience on visual selection, models generally assume that the human visual system continuously holds information concerning the relative salience of objects in the visual field. Here we show that salience in fact drives vision only during the short time interval immediately following the onset of a visual scene. In a saccadic target-selection task, human performance in making an eye movement to the most salient element in a display was accurate when response latencies were short, but was at chance when response latencies were long. In a manual discrimination task, performance in making a judgment of salience was more accurate with brief than with long display durations. These results suggest that salience is represented in the visual system only briefly after a visual image enters the brain.
The Time Course of Color- and Luminance-Based Salience Effects
Frontiers in Psychology, 2010
Salient objects in the visual field attract our attention. Recent work in the orientation domain has shown that the effects of the relative salience of two singleton elements on covert visual attention disappear over time. The present study aims to investigate how salience derived from color and luminance differences affects covert selection. In two experiments, observers indicated the location of a probe which was presented at different stimulus-onset-asynchronies after the presentation of a singleton display containing a homogenous array of oriented lines and two distinct color singletons (Experiment 1) or luminance singletons (Experiment 2). The results show that relative singleton salience from luminance and color differences, just as from orientation differences, affects covert visual attention in a brief time span after stimulus onset. The mere presence of an object, however, can affect covert attention for a longer time span regardless of salience.
Fast and Conspicuous? Quantifying Salience With the Theory of Visual Attention
Particular differences between an object and its surrounding cause salience, guide attention, and improve performance in various tasks. While much research has been dedicated to identifying which feature dimensions contribute to salience, much less regard has been paid to the quantitative strength of the salience caused by feature differences. only a few studies systematically related salience effects to a common salience measure, and they are partly outdated in the light of new findings on the time course of salience effects. We propose Bundesen's theory of visual Attention (tvA) as a theoretical basis for measuring salience and introduce an empirical and modeling approach to link this theory to data retrieved from temporal-order judgments. With this procedure, tvA becomes applicable to a broad range of salience-related stimulus material. three experiments with orientation pop-out displays demonstrate the feasibility of the method. A 4th experiment substantiates its applicability to the luminance dimension.
PloS one, 2014
The goal of the current study was to investigate time-dependent effects of the number of targets presented and its interaction with stimulus salience on oculomotor selection performance. To this end, observers were asked to make a speeded eye movement to a target orientation singleton embedded in a homogeneous background of vertically oriented lines. In Experiment 1, either one or two physically identical targets were presented, whereas in Experiment 2 an additional orientation-based salience manipulation was performed. The results showed that the probability of a singleton being available for selection is reduced in the presence of an identical singleton (Experiment 1) and that this effect is modulated by the salience of the other singleton (Experiment 2). While the absolute orientation contrast of a target relative to the background contributed to the probability that it is available for selection, the crucial factor affecting selection was the relative salience between singletons...
Salience-Based Selection: Attentional Capture by Distractors Less Salient Than the Target
PLoS ONE, 2013
Current accounts of attentional capture predict the most salient stimulus to be invariably selected first. However, existing salience and visual search models assume noise in the map computation or selection process. Consequently, they predict the first selection to be stochastically dependent on salience, implying that attention could even be captured first by the second most salient (instead of the most salient) stimulus in the field. Yet, capture by less salient distractors has not been reported and salience-based selection accounts claim that the distractor has to be more salient in order to capture attention. We tested this prediction using an empirical and modeling approach of the visual search distractor paradigm. For the empirical part, we manipulated salience of target and distractor parametrically and measured reaction time interference when a distractor was present compared to absent. Reaction time interference was strongly correlated with distractor salience relative to the target. Moreover, even distractors less salient than the target captured attention, as measured by reaction time interference and oculomotor capture. In the modeling part, we simulated first selection in the distractor paradigm using behavioral measures of salience and considering the time course of selection including noise. We were able to replicate the result pattern we obtained in the empirical part. We conclude that each salience value follows a specific selection time distribution and attentional capture occurs when the selection time distributions of target and distractor overlap. Hence, selection is stochastic in nature and attentional capture occurs with a certain probability depending on relative salience.
In defense of the salience map: Salience rather than visibility determines selection
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2013
In order to test these two models, we performed an experiment in which participants were instructed to make a speeded eye movement to any of two orientation singletons presented among a homogeneous set of vertically oriented background lines. One singleton, the fixed singleton, remained identical across conditions, whereas the other singleton, the variable singleton, varied such that its orientation contrast relative to the background lines was either smaller or larger than that of the fixed singleton. The results showed that the proportion of eye movements directed toward the fixed singleton varied substantially depending on the orientation contrast of the variable singleton. A model assuming selection behavior to be determined by relative salience provided a better fit to the individual data than the absolute processing speed model. These findings suggest that relative salience rather than the visibility of an element is crucial in determining temporal variations in oculomotor selection behavior and that an explanation of visual selection behavior is insufficient without the concept of a salience map.
Perceptual salience captures the eyes on a surprise trial
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 2016
A number of characteristics of the visual system and of the visual stimulus are invoked to explain involuntary control of attention, including goals, novelty, and perceptual salience. The present experiment tested perceptual salience on a surprise trial, that is, on its unannounced first presentation following trials lacking any salient items, thus eliminating possible confounds by current goals. Moreover, the salient item's location was not singled out by a novel feature, thus eliminating a possible confound by novelty in directing attention. Eye tracking was used to measure involuntary attention. Results show a prioritization of the salient item. However, contrary to predictions of prominent neuro-computational and psychological salience models, prioritization was not fast-acting. Rather the observers' gaze was attracted only as the second fixation on average or later (depending on condition) and with a latency of more than 500 ms on average. These results support the general proposition that salience can control attention. However, contrary to most salience models, the present results indicate that salience changes attentional priority only in novel environments.
An electrophysiological study of attention capture by salience: Does rarity enable capture?
Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2014
Several behavioural studies have suggested that rarity is critical for enabling irrelevant, salient objects to capture attention. We tested this hypothesis using the N2pc thought to reflect attentional allocation. A cue display was followed by a target display in which participants identified the letter in a specific colour. Experiment 1 pitted rare, irrelevant abrupt onset cues (appearing on only 20% of trials) against target-relevant colour cues. The relevant colour cue produced large N2pc and cue validity effects even when competing with a rare, salient, simultaneous abrupt onset. Similar results occurred even when abrupt onset frequency was reduced to only 10% of trials (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 examined rare, irrelevant colour singleton cues (20% of trials). Despite being rare and salient, these singleton cues produced no N2pc or cue validity effect indicating little attentional capture. Experiment 4 greatly increased colour cue salience by adding four background boxes, increasing colour contrast and tripling the cue display duration (from 50 to 150 ms). Small cue validity and N2pc effects were obtained, but did not strongly depend on degree of rarity (20% vs. 100%). We argue that rarity by itself is neither necessary nor sufficient to produce attention capture.