Gaze control and memory for objects while walking in a real world environment

Assessments of gaze behaviour and object memory are typically done in the context of experimental paradigms briefly presenting transient static images of synthetic or real scenes. Less is known about observers’ gaze behaviour and memory for objects in a real world environment. While wearing a mobile eyetracker, 20 subjects performed a task in which they walked around a building eight times and were either told to walk normally, or to also expect to be asked about what they saw following their walk. During the course of their walk, nine objects along their path were exchanged for similar token objects of the same category (e.g., whisk broom for push broom). Observers told to prepare for a memory test were much more likely to notice object changes than observers simply told to walk normally (32% vs. 5%). Detected object changes were also fixated for longer duration prior to the change, suggesting a role of task demand in gaze control and the selective storage of visual information.

[1]  A. Hollingworth.  Constructing visual representations of natural scenes: the roles of short- and long-term visual memory. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[2]  A. Hollingworth.  Two forms of scene memory guide visual search: Memory for scene context and memory for the binding of target object to scene location , 2009 .

[3]  B. Tatler.  Characterising the Visual Buffer: Real-World Evidence for Overwriting Early in Each Fixation , 2001, Perception.

[4]  M. Tinker.  How People Look at Pictures. , 1936 .

[5]  Iain D Gilchrist,et al.  The Time Course of Abstract Visual Representation , 2003, Perception.

[6]  A. Treisman,et al.  Binding in short-term visual memory. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[7]  M. Hayhoe,et al.  Look-ahead fixations: anticipatory eye movements in natural tasks , 2007, Experimental Brain Research.

[8]  J. Neuschatz,et al.  Recollections of things schematic: room schemas revisited. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[9]  Rajesh P. N. Rao,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article EYE MOVEMENTS REVEAL THE SPATIOTEMPORAL DYNAMICS OE VISUAL SEARCH , 2022 .

[10]  Bonnie L. Angelone,et al.  Memory for centrally attended changing objects in an incidental real-world change detection paradigm. , 2002, British journal of psychology.

[11]  L. Stark,et al.  Most naturally occurring human saccades have magnitudes of 15 degrees or less. , 1975, Investigative ophthalmology.

[12]  F. Craik,et al.  Depth of processing and the retention of words , 1975 .

[13]  C. Koch,et al.  A saliency-based search mechanism for overt and covert shifts of visual attention , 2000, Vision Research.

[14]  Derrick J. Parkhurst,et al.  Texture contrast attracts overt visual attention in natural scenes , 2004, The European journal of neuroscience.

[15]  David Melcher,et al.  Accumulation and persistence of memory for natural scenes. , 2006, Journal of vision.

[16]  J. O'Regan,et al.  Solving the "real" mysteries of visual perception: the world as an outside memory. , 1992, Canadian journal of psychology.

[17]  A. L. Yarbus.  Eye movements during the examination of complicated objects. , 1961, Biofizika.

[18]  Bonnie L. Angelone,et al.  The Relationship between Change Detection and Recognition of Centrally Attended Objects in Motion Pictures , 2003, Perception.

[19]  Daniel T. Levin,et al.  Evidence for Preserved Representations in Change Blindness , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.

[20]  Ronald A. Rensink,et al.  TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE: The Need for Attention to Perceive Changes in Scenes , 1997 .

[21]  C. Koch,et al.  Task-demands can immediately reverse the effects of sensory-driven saliency in complex visual stimuli. , 2008, Journal of vision.

[22]  David Melcher,et al.  Persistence of visual memory for scenes , 2001, Nature.

[23]  Mary Hayhoe,et al.  Visual Cognition , 2021, Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science.

[24]  Mary M Hayhoe,et al.  Task and context determine where you look. , 2016, Journal of vision.

[25]  John M. Findlay,et al.  Misdirection in magic: Implications for the relationship between eye gaze and attention , 2008 .

[26]  Mary M Hayhoe,et al.  Visual memory and motor planning in a natural task. , 2003, Journal of vision.

[27]  Nancy Millette,et al.  How People Look at Pictures , 1935 .

[28]  Joan N. Vickers,et al.  How far ahead do we look when required to step on specific locations in the travel path during locomotion? , 2002, Experimental Brain Research.

[29]  Mary M Hayhoe,et al.  Trade-offs between gaze and working memory use. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[30]  D. Simons,et al.  Failure to detect changes to people during a real-world interaction , 1998 .

[31]  A. L. I︠A︡rbus.  Eye Movements and Vision , 1967 .

[32]  G. Kuhn,et al.  Magic and Fixation: Now You Don't See it, Now You Do , 2005, Perception.

[33]  Xin Chen,et al.  Real-world visual search is dominated by top-down guidance , 2006, Vision Research.

[34]  J. Henderson,et al.  Testing a conceptual locus , 2003 .

[35]  Miguel P Eckstein,et al.  Attentional Cues in Real Scenes, Saccadic Targeting, and Bayesian Priors , 2005, Psychological science.

[36]  Andrew Hollingworth,et al.  Sustained change blindness to incremental scene rotation: A dissociation between explicit change detection and visual memory , 2004, Perception & psychophysics.

[37]  D. Levin,et al.  Change blindness and visual memory: visual representations get rich and act poor. , 2006, British journal of psychology.

[38]  Ian M Thornton,et al.  Explicit mechanisms do not account for implicit localization and identification of change: An empirical reply to Mitroff et al. (2002). , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[39]  A. Hollingworth.  Failures of retrieval and comparison constrain change detection in natural scenes. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[40]  Klaus Bartl,et al.  Eye movement driven head-mounted camera: it looks where the eyes look , 2005, 2005 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics.

[41]  K. Turano,et al.  Direction of Gaze while Walking a Simple Route: Persons with Normal Vision and Persons with Retinitis Pigmentosa , 2001, Optometry and vision science : official publication of the American Academy of Optometry.

[42]  Carrick C. Williams,et al.  Incidental visual memory for targets and distractors in visual search , 2005, Perception & psychophysics.

[43]  Jason A. Droll,et al.  Learning where to direct gaze during change detection. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[44]  Peter König,et al.  Salient features in gaze-aligned recordings of human visual input during free exploration of natural environments. , 2008, Journal of vision.

[45]  D. Simons,et al.  Failure to detect changes to attended objects in motion pictures , 1997 .

[46]  Robert P O'Shea,et al.  Early correlates of visual awareness in the human brain: Time and place from event-related brain potentials. , 2008, Journal of vision.

[47]  Edward K. Vogel,et al.  The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions , 1997, Nature.

[48]  Jason A. Droll,et al.  Task demands control acquisition and storage of visual information. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[49]  Derrick J. Parkhurst,et al.  Scene content selected by active vision. , 2003, Spatial vision.

[50]  Michael F. Land,et al.  From eye movements to actions: how batsmen hit the ball , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[51]  Iain D Gilchrist,et al.  Visual Memory for Objects in Natural Scenes: From Fixations to Object Files , 2005, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[52]  G. Brelstaff,et al.  Is the Richness of Our Visual World an Illusion? Transsaccadic Memory for Complex Scenes , 1995, Perception.

[53]  Stephen R Mitroff,et al.  The siren song of implicit change detection. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[54]  D. Ballard,et al.  Memory Representations in Natural Tasks , 1995, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[55]  A. L. Yarbus,et al.  Eye Movements and Vision , 1967, Springer US.

[56]  A. Hollingworth.  Scene and position specificity in visual memory for objects. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[57]  K. Turano,et al.  Oculomotor strategies for the direction of gaze tested with a real-world activity , 2003, Vision Research.

[58]  J. Pelz,et al.  Oculomotor behavior in natural and man-made environments , 2007 .

[59]  Ronald A. Rensink,et al.  Change-blindness as a result of ‘mudsplashes’ , 1999, Nature.

[60]  Benjamin W Tatler,et al.  The central fixation bias in scene viewing: selecting an optimal viewing position independently of motor biases and image feature distributions. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[61]  T. Foulsham,et al.  What can saliency models predict about eye movements? Spatial and sequential aspects of fixations during encoding and recognition. , 2008, Journal of vision.

[62]  J. Pelz,et al.  Oculomotor behavior and perceptual strategies in complex tasks , 2001, Vision Research.

[63]  D. E. Irwin,et al.  Eye movements and scene perception: Memory for things observed , 2002, Perception & psychophysics.

[64]  M. Hayhoe,et al.  In what ways do eye movements contribute to everyday activities? , 2001, Vision Research.

[65]  C. Koch,et al.  Computational modelling of visual attention , 2001, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[66]  Daniel J. Simons,et al.  Current Approaches to Change Blindness , 2000 .

[67]  J. Henderson,et al.  Testing a conceptual locus for the inconsistent object change detection advantage in real-world scenes. , 2003, Memory & cognition.

[68]  Mary Hayhoe,et al.  Control of attention and gaze in complex environments. , 2006, Journal of vision.

[69]  G. Woodman,et al.  Storage of features, conjunctions and objects in visual working memory. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[70]  M. Land,et al.  The Roles of Vision and Eye Movements in the Control of Activities of Daily Living , 1998, Perception.

[71]  Michael F. Land,et al.  The coordination of rotations of the eyes, head and trunk in saccadic turns produced in natural situations , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[72]  M. Hayhoe,et al.  The coordination of eye, head, and hand movements in a natural task , 2001, Experimental Brain Research.

[73]  J. Henderson,et al.  Incidental visual memory for objects in scenes , 2005 .

[74]  Yarbus Al.  Eye movements during the examination of complicated objects. , 1961 .

[75]  G J Zelinsky,et al.  Eye movements during change detection: Implications for search constraints, memory limitations, and scanning strategies , 2001, Perception & psychophysics.

[76]  B. Tatler,et al.  Pictures in Mind: Initial Encoding of Object Properties Varies with the Realism of the Scene Stimulus , 2007, Perception.

[77]  J. Grimes.  On the failure to detect changes in scenes across saccades. , 1996 .

[78]  Ronald A. Rensink,et al.  Towards a science of magic , 2008, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[79]  G. Underwood,et al.  Low-level visual saliency does not predict change detection in natural scenes. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[80]  Rajesh P. N. Rao,et al.  Embodiment is the foundation, not a level , 1996, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[81]  J. Henderson,et al.  Accurate visual memory for previously attended objects in natural scenes , 2002 .

[82]  Mary M. Hayhoe,et al.  Is attention drawn to changes in familiar scenes? , 2008 .

[83]  A. Hollingworth.  Visual memory for natural scenes: Evidence from change detection and visual search , 2006 .

[84]  Andrew Hollingworth,et al.  The relationship between online visual representation of a scene and long-term scene memory. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[85]  P. de Graef,et al.  Perceptual effects of scene context on object identification , 1990, Psychological research.