Eye Behavior During Multiple Object Tracking and Multiple Identity Tracking.

Hyönä Hyönä,Li Li,Oksama Oksama

doi:10.3390/vision3030037

Hyönä Hyönä, Li Li + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/vision3030037

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Abstract

We review all published eye-tracking studies to date that have used eye movements to examine multiple object (MOT) or multiple identity tracking (MIT). In both tasks, observers dynamically track multiple moving objects. In MOT the objects are identical, whereas in MIT they have distinct identities. In MOT, observers prefer to fixate on blank space, which is often the center of gravity formed by the moving targets (centroid). In contrast, in MIT observers have a strong preference for the target-switching strategy, presumably to refresh and maintain identity-location bindings for the targets. To account for the qualitative differences between MOT and MIT, two mechanisms have been posited, a position tracking (MOT) and an identity tracking (MOT & MIT) mechanism. Eye-tracking studies of MOT have also demonstrated that observers execute rescue saccades toward targets in danger of becoming occluded or are about to change direction after a collision. Crowding attracts the eyes close to it in order to increase visual acuity for the crowded objects to prevent target loss. It is suggested that future studies should concentrate more on MIT, as MIT more closely resembles tracking in the real world.

Highlights

In many real-life visual tasks, people are required to keep track of multiple moving objects
During multiple object tracking (MOT), observers frequently look at the central areas between targets
During MOT eyes frequently gaze at the central area between targets for grouping and anticrowding

Summary

Introduction

In many real-life visual tasks, people are required to keep track of multiple moving objects This is true, for example, of car drivers maneuvering a vehicle across a busy intersection where the driver has to keep track of other vehicles approaching the intersection and of pedestrians crossing the street. This is true of a football player making the decision of whom to pass the ball. In the human factors’ literature, such awareness is called situation awareness [1] It is genuinely dynamic in nature in that the visual environment (e.g., the intersection or the football field) is constantly changing, so that situation awareness has to be updated in order to adequately represent the moment-to-moment fluctuations in the relevant task environments

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