Attentional Allocation During the *Perception of Complex Scenes

Although the scene processing that occurs on the first fixation on a scene plays a crucial role in the development of a scene representation, this early processing is poorly understood. Inferences about the distribution of attention during the first fixation are often drawn on the basis of eye movement patterns, but attentional allocation during scene perception has not been directly measured. In three experiments, the guidance of attention by semantic content was explored. In Experiments 1 and 3, subjects view briefly presented scenes; during the scene presentation, a spatial probe, to which the subject must respond, is presented at the location of an object that is either consistent or inconsistent with the scene category. The spatial probe serves as an index of attention. The results of Experiment 1 suggest that, for scenes presented for 90 ms or longer, subjects attend preferentially to inconsistent objects. The results of Experiment 2, in which a lexical decision response is primed by the scene category and by the identity of objects within the scene, confirm that very rapid analysis of inconsistent objects does occur within a single fixation. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 suggest that the allocation of attention is influenced both by scene familiarity and expectancy. Implications of the results for scene perception and exploration are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Gordon, Robert David

Contributors dc:contributor

• Irwin, David E.

• Psychology, Cognitive

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9953030

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/82287