THE DEPLOYMENT OF VISUAL ATTENTION

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA510413&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

THE DEPLOYMENT OF VISUAL ATTENTION

Jeremy M Wolfe

AFOSR Final Report 2009

This grant had three specific aims.

Aim 1
Transcending the serial/parallel dichotomy in visual search: Guided Search, our model of human visual search behavior, has proposed that "preattentive" visual processes guide the deployment of attention from item to item in a serial, item by-item fashion. Others have argued for deployment of attention to multiple items in parallel. These views have been seen as opposed to one another. The work in this aimis intended to reconcile them in a single framework.
Aim 2
Understanding the role of memory in visual search: Standard serial models of attention have assumed that items in the display are sampled without replacement. In the previous grant period, we have shown that the data reject this assertion of perfect memory for rejected distractors. We have proposed that items are sample with
replacement in typical search tasks. Data from other labs suggest the possibility that some partial memory (perhaps oculomotor) discourages deployment to recently
attended items. In the next grant period, we will investigate the theoretical and practical consequences of visual search with limited memory for previous deployments of attention.
Aim 3

The relationship of different modes of attentional control. There are multiple processes that can control attention. Some of these appear to be very fast. Others are closely coupled with eye movements. The work in Aim 3 is intended to determine how these share control of visual attentional resources.