The effect of spatial frequency information in central and peripheral vision on natural gaze patterns and audiovisual speech perception

Abstract

It has been known for some time that visual information plays an important role in how we perceive speech. The present research examines how this visual information is processed in central and peripheral vision. The perception of visual images is carried out in the nervous system by a set of spatial frequency-tuned channels and the sensitivity to spatial resolution varies across the retina. The experiment was conducted using a gaze-contingent display system that records a person’s eye position and then displays different information to their peripheral and central vision. The amount of high spatial frequency information presented in the central and peripheral visual fields was manipulated and the effect on both audiovisual speech perception and natural gaze patterns was measured. Preliminary results show that when peripheral information is no longer adequate, gaze patterns become altered to gather important visual information. This suggests that information across the whole visual field influences audiovisual speech behavior.