Change detection in pictorial and solid scenes: The role of depth of field.

Tingting Zhang,Harold Nefs,Ingrid Heynderickx

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0188432

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of depth of field on change detection in both pictorial and solid scenes. In this work, a within-subjects experiment is conducted using a flicker paradigm, with which the hit rate and response time for change detection are obtained. The results show that depth of field has effects on change detection: the hit rate is smaller and response time is longer in the scene with small depth of field than in the scene with large depth of field or uniform blur. It is concluded that when depth of field is small and binocular disparity is not zero in a picture, the influence of depth of field on change detection is more significant than binocular disparity. This conclusion leads to the result that the change in the sharp area is detected easier and faster than in the area that is closer to the observer.

Highlights

Literatures have revealed a surprising inability for human to detect substantial changes under natural viewing conditions
These results suggest that when a picture with a small depth of field is observed under stereo viewing condition, the change detection is mainly influenced by the effect of depth of field but not by the binocular disparity
The first principal point of this experiment is that small depth of field has a significant influence on change detection: the hit rate is lower and the response time for change detection is longer compared with large depth of field

Summary

Introduction

Literatures have revealed a surprising inability for human to detect substantial changes under natural viewing conditions. This phenomenon is known as ‘change blindness’ [1,2,3,4]. Change blindness suggests that limited information in a retinal image is stored as an enduring form across a saccade. Saccades represent rapid and ballistic movements of the eyes when the point of fixation changes. Change blindness is against the traditional view that a complete representation of a real-world scene is constructed by our visual system [6]. Investigating change blindness and change detection can contribute to a better characterization of the nature of the visual representation, visual attention, and visual memory of the real world

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Discussion

Conclusion