Perceptual enhancement as a result of a top-down attentional influence in a scene viewing task: Evidence from saccadic inhibition

Abstract

Prior research has shown that task instructions influence the locations and durations of eye fixations during scene viewing. These task-related changes in gaze patterns are likely to be associated with a top-down influence of attention. Presently we applied a saccadic-inhibition manipulation in order to detect another expected manifestation of top-down attention: perceptual enhancement. Participants viewed eight-item arrays containing photographs from two categories of scenes. Four of the photos depicted natural landscapes (“nature”) and the other four depicted urban environments (“buildings”). Participants were instructed to memorize scenes from one of the categories in preparation for a later recognition memory test. During eye fixations the border around the fixated scene flickered briefly from black to white with a random interval between flickers ranging from 400 to 600 ms. We computed the likelihood of a saccade being initiated in the period following the flicker. Consistent with prior research, we found a strong saccadic inhibition effect with maximum saccadic inhibition occurring approximately 97 ms following the flicker. Importantly, the saccadic inhibition effect was stronger and longer lasting when the subject’s eyes were fixated on a relevant scene compared to an irrelevant scene. These findings are consistent with perceptual enhancement as a result of top-down attention.

Keywords

Eye movements Saccadic inhibition Scene viewing Visual attention

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ballard

D. H.

Hayhoe

M. M.

(2009). Modelling the role of task in the control of gaze. Visual Cognition, 17(6/7), 1185–1204.

Baluch

Itti

(2011). Mechanisms of top-down attention. Trends in Neurosciences, 34(4), 210–224.

Bashinski

H. S.

Bacharach

V. R.

(1980). Enhancement of perceptual sensitivity as a result of selectively attending to spatial locations. Perception & Psychophysics, 28(3), 241–248.

Biederman

(1981). On the semantics of a glance at a scene. In Kubovy

Pomerantz

J. R.

(Eds.), Perceptual Organization (pp. 213–253). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Biederman

Mezzanotte

R. J.

Rabinowitz

J. C.

(1982). Scene perception: Detecting and judging objects undergoing relational violations. Cognitive Psychology, 14, 143–177.

Bompas

Sumner

(2011). Saccadic inhibition reveals the timing of automatic and voluntary signals in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(35), 12501–12512.

Briand

K. A.

Klein

R. M.

(1987). Is Posner’s “beam” the same as Treisman’s “glue”?: On the relation between visual orienting and feature integration theory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 13(2), 228–241.

Buonocore

McIntosh

R. D.

(2008). Saccadic inhibition underlies the remote distractor effect. Experimental Brain Research, 191(1), 117–122.

Buonocore

McIntosh

R. D.

(2013). Attention modulates saccadic inhibition magnitude. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(6), 1051–1059.

10.

Buonocore

McIntosh

R. D.

(2014). Saccadic inhibition can cause the remote distractor effect, but the remote distractor effect may not be a useful concept. Journal of Vision, 15(5), 1–6.

11.

Buswell

G. T.

(1935). How people look at pictures: A study of the psychology of perception in art. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

12.

Carrasco

(2011). Visual attention: The past 25 years. Vision Research, 51, 1484–1525.

13.

Carrasco

(2014). Spatial covert attention: Perceptual modulation. In Nobre

A.C.

Kastner

(Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of attention (pp. 183–230). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

14.

Castelhano

M. S.

Henderson

J. M.

(2007). Initial scene representations facilitate eye movement guidance in visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33(4), 753–763.

15.

Castelhano

M. S.

Henderson

J. M.

(2008). The influence of colour on the perception of scene gist. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34(3), 660–675.

16.

Castelhano

M. S.

Mack

Henderson

J. M.

(2009). Viewing task influences eye movement control during active scene perception. Journal of Vision, 9(3), 6. doi:10.1167/9.3.6

17.

DeAngelus

Pelz

J. B.

(2009). Top-down control of eye movements: Yarbus revisited. Visual Cognition, 17(6), 790–811.

18.

Downing

C. J.

(1988). Expectancy and visual-spatial attention: effects on perceptual quality. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14(2), 188–202.

19.

Ehinger

K. A.

Hidalgo-Sotelo

Torralba

Oliva

(2009). Modelling search for people in 900 scenes: A combined source model of eye guidance. Visual Cognition, 17(6/7), 945–978.

20.

Eriksen

C. W.

Yeh

Y. Y.

(1985). Allocation of attention in the visual field. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 11(5), 583–597.

21.

Glaholt

M. G.

Rayner

Reingold

E. M.

(2012). The mask-onset delay paradigm and the availability of central and peripheral visual information during scene viewing. Journal of Vision, 12(1), 9. doi:10.1167/12.1.9

22.

Glaholt

M. G.

Rayner

Reingold

E. M.

(2014). A rapid effect of stimulus quality on the durations of individual fixations during reading. Visual Cognition, 22, 377–389.

23.

Glaholt

M. G.

Reingold

E. M.

(2009a). The time course of gaze bias in visual decision tasks. Visual Cognition, 17(8), 1228–1243.

24.

Glaholt

M. G.

Reingold

E. M.

(2009b). Stimulus exposure and gaze bias: A further test of the gaze cascade model. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 71, 445–450.

25.

Glaholt

M. G.

Reingold

E. M.

(2011). Eye movement monitoring as a process tracing methodology in decision making research. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 4(2), 125–146.

26.

Glaholt

M. G.

Reingold

E. M.

(2012). Direct control of fixation times in scene viewing: Evidence from analysis of the distribution of first fixation duration. Visual Cognition, 20(6), 605–626.

27.

Graupner

S.-T.

Velichkovsky

Pannasch

Marx

(2007). Surprise, surprise: Two distinct components in the visually evoked distractor effect. Psychophysiology, 44, 251–261.

28.

Greene

M. R.

Oliva

(2009). The briefest of glances: The time course of natural scene understanding. Psychological Science, 20(4), 464–472.

29.

Henderson

J. M.

(2003). Human gaze control during real-world scene perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(11), 498–504.

30.

Henderson

J. M.

Brockmole

J. R.

Castelhano

M. S.

Mack

(2007). Visual saliency does not account for eye movements during visual search in real-world scenes. In van Gompel

Fischer

Murray

Hill

(Eds.), Eye movements: A window on mind and brain (pp. 537–562). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

31.

Henderson

J. M.

Ferreira

(2004). Scene perception for psycholinguists. In Henderson

J. M.

Ferreira

(Eds.), The interface of language, vision, and action: Eye movements and the visual world, (pp. 1–58). New York: Psychology Press.

32.

Henderson

J. M.

Hollingworth

(1999). High-level scene perception. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 243–271.

33.

Henderson

J. M.

Malcolm

G. L.

Schandl

(2009). Searching in the dark: Cognitive relevance drives attention in real-world scenes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 850–856.

34.

Henderson

J. M.

Pierce

G. L.

(2008). Eye movements during scene viewing: Evidence for mixed control of fixation durations. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15(3), 566–573.

35.

Henderson

J. M.

Smith

T. J.

(2009). How are eye fixation durations controlled during scene viewing? Evidence from a scene onset delay paradigm. Visual Cognition, 17, 1055–1082.

36.

Itti

Koch

(2001). Computational modeling of visual attention. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 194–203.

37.

Itti

Koch

Niebur

(1998). A model of saliency-based visual attention for rapid scene analysis. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 20, 1254–1259.

38.

Jonides

(1980). Towards a model of the mind’s eye’s movement. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 34(2), 103–112.

39.

Land

M. F.

Hayhoe

M. M.

(2001). In what ways do eye movements contribute to everyday activities? Vision Research, 41, 3559–3565.

40.

Liu

Abrams

Carrasco

(2009). Voluntary attention enhances contrast appearance. Psychological Science, 20(3), 354–362.

41.

Luke

S. G.

Nuthmann

Henderson

J. M.

(2013). Eye movement control in scene viewing and reading: Evidence from the stimulus onset delay paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39(1), 10–15.

42.

McIntosh

R. D.

Buonocore

(2014). Saccadic inhibition can cause the remote distractor effect, but the remote distractor effect may not be a useful concept. Journal of Vision, 14(5), 15. doi:10.1167/14.5.15

43.

McSorley

McCloy

Lyne

(2012). The spatial impact of visual distractors on saccade latency. Vision Research, 60, 61–72.

44.

Navalpakkam

Itti

(2005). Modeling the influence of task on attention. Vision Research, 45, 205–231.

45.

Nuthmann

Henderson

J. M.

(2012). Using CRISP to model global characteristics of fixation durations in scene viewing and reading with a common mechanism. Visual Cognition, 20, 457–494.

46.

Nuthmann

Smith

T. J.

Engbert

Henderson

J. M.

(2010). CRISP: A computational model of fixation durations in scene viewing. Psychological Review, 117, 382–405.

47.

Pannasch

Dornhoefer

S. M.

Unema

P. J. A.

Velichkovsky

B. M.

(2001). The omnipresent prolongation of visual fixations: Saccades are inhibited by changes in situation and in subject’s activity. Vision Research, 41, 3345–3351.

48.

Pannasch

Velichkovsky

B. M.

(2009). Distractor effect and saccade amplitudes: Further evidence on different modes of processing in free exploration of visual images. Visual Cognition, 17(6/7), 1109–1131.

49.

Pannasch

Schulz

Velichkovsky

B. M.

(2011). On the control of visual fixation durations in free viewing of complex images. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 73, 1120–1132.

50.

Parkhurst

Law

Niebur

(2002). Modeling the role of salience in the allocation of overt visual attention. Vision Research, 42, 107–123.

51.

Peters

Itti

(2007). Beyond bottom-up: Incorporating task dependent influences into a computational model of spatial attention. Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 1–8.

52.

Rao

Zelinsky

Hayhoe

Ballard

(2002). Eye movements in iconic visual search. Vision Research, 42, 1447–1463.

53.

Reingold

E. M.

Stampe

D. M.

(1999). Saccadic inhibition in complex visual tasks. In Becker

Deubel

Mergner

(Eds.), Current oculomotor research: Physiological and psychological aspects (pp. 249–255). London: Plenum.

54.

Reingold

E. M.

Stampe

D. M.

(2000). Saccadic inhibition and gaze contingent research paradigms. In Kennedy

Radach

Heller

Pynte

(Eds.), Reading as a perceptual process (pp. 119–145). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

55.

Reingold

E. M.

Stampe

D. M.

(2002). Saccadic inhibition in voluntary and reflexive saccades. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 371–388.

56.

Reingold

E. M.

Stampe

D. M.

(2003). Using the saccadic inhibition paradigm to investigate saccadic control in reading. In Hyona

Radach

Deubel

(Eds.), The mind’s eye: cognitive and applied aspects of eye movements (pp. 347–360). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.

57.

Reingold

E. M.

Stampe

D. M.

(2004). Saccadic inhibition in reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30, 194–211.

58.

Reynolds

J. H.

Chelazzi

(2004). Attentional modulation of visual processing. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 611–647.

59.

Rousselet

Joubert

Fabre-Thorpe

(2005). How long to get the “gist” of real-world natural scenes? Visual Cognition, 12(6), 852–877.

60.

Slattery

T. J.

Angele

Rayner

(2011). Eye movements and display change detection during reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37(6), 1924–1938.

61.

Stormer

V. S.

McDonald

J. J.

Hillyard

S. A.

(2009). Cross-modal cueing of attention alters appearance and early cortical processing of visual stimuli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 106(52), 22456–2461.

62.

Tatler

B. W.

Hayhoe

M. M.

Land

M. F.

Ballard

D. H.

(2011). Eye guidance in natural vision: Reinterpreting salience. Journal of Vision, 11(5), 5. doi:10.1167/11.5.5

63.

Torralba

Oliva

Castelhano

Henderson

J. M.

(2006). Contextual guidance of eye movements and attention in real-world scenes: The role of global features in object search. Psychological Review, 113(4), 766–786.

64.

Treue

(2004). Perceptual enhancement of contrast by attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(10), 435–437.

65.

Tsotsos

J. K.

(2011). A computational perspective on visual attention. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

66.

Walker

Benson

(2013). Remote distractor effects and saccadic inhibition: Spatial and temporal modulation. Journal of Vision, 13(11), 9. doi:10.1167/13.11.9

67.

Walker

Benson

(2014). Saccadic distractor effects: The remote distractor effect (RDE) and saccadic inhibition (SI): A response to McIntosh and Buonocore (2014). Journal of Vision, 15(2), 6. doi:10.1167/15.2.6

68.

Walker

Deubel

Schneider

W. X.

Findlay

J. M.

(1997). Effect of remote distractors on saccade programming: Evidence for an extended fixation zone. Journal of Neurophysiology, 78, 1108–1119.

69.

Walker

Kentridge

R. W.

Findlay

J. M.

(1995). Independent contributions of the orienting of attention, fixation offset and bilateral stimulation on human saccadic latencies. Experimental Brain Research, 103, 294–231.

70.

Yang

S.-N.

(2009). Effects of gaze-contingent text changes on fixation duration in reading. Vision Research, 49(23), 2843–2855.

71.

Yarbus

(1967). Eye movements and vision. New York: Plenum Press.

72.

Zelinksy

G. J.

(2008). A theory of eye movements during target acquisition. Psychological Review, 115(4), 787–835.