Direction Of Visual Attention Research Articles

Vocabulary and automatic attention: The relation between novel words and gaze dynamics in noun generalization.

Words direct visual attention in infants, children, and adults, presumably by activating representations of referents that then direct attention to matching stimuli in the visual scene. Novel, unknown, words have also been shown to direct attention, likely via the activation of more general representations of naming events. To examine the critical issue of how novel words and visual attention interact to support word learning we coded frame-by-frame the gaze of 17- to 31-month-old children (n = 66, 38 females) while generalizing novel nouns. We replicate prior findings of more attention to shape when generalizing novel nouns, and a relation to vocabulary development. However, we also find that following a naming event, children who produce fewer nouns take longer to look at the objects they eventually select and make more transitions between objects before making a generalization decision. Children who produce more nouns look to the objects they eventually select more quickly following the naming event and make fewer looking transitions. We discuss these findings in the context of prior proposals regarding children's few-shot category learning, and a developmental cascade of multiple perceptual, cognitive, and word-learning processes that may operate in cases of both typical development and language delay. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Examined how novel words guide visual attention by coding frame-by-frame where children look when asked to generalize novel names. Gaze patterns differed with vocabulary size: children with smaller vocabularies attended to generalization targets more slowly and did more comparison than those with larger vocabularies. Demonstrates a relationship between vocabulary size and attention to object properties during naming. This work has implications for looking-based tests of early cognition, and our understanding of children's few-shot category learning.

Remote Eye Gaze Tracking Research: A Comparative Evaluation on Past and Recent Progress

Several decades of eye related research has shown how valuable eye gaze data are for applications that are essential to human daily life. Eye gaze data in a broad sense has been used in research and systems for eye movements, eye tracking, and eye gaze tracking. Since early 2000, eye gaze tracking systems have emerged as interactive gaze-based systems that could be remotely deployed and operated, known as remote eye gaze tracking (REGT) systems. The drop point of visual attention known as point of gaze (PoG), and the direction of visual attention known as line of sight (LoS), are important tasks of REGT systems. In this paper, we present a comparative evaluation of REGT systems intended for the PoG and LoS estimation tasks regarding past to recent progress. Our literature evaluation presents promising insights on key concepts and changes recorded over time in hardware setup, software process, application, and deployment of REGT systems. In addition, we present current issues in REGT research for future attempts.

The process of early self-control: an observational study in two- and three-year-olds

Early individual differences in self-control are predictive of numerous developmental outcomes, such as physical health and risk-taking behaviours. Therefore, it is important to improve our understanding of how young children manage to exert self-control. This study investigates two- and three-year-old children’s behaviours during two self-control tasks and the association between the occurrence of these behaviours and task success. Furthermore, the study examines relations between timing and occurrence of these behaviours and caregiver-rated self-control. Two- and three-year-olds (N = 62) were given a snack and gift delay of gratification task to measure self-control. The following behaviours were coded second-by-second during the delay: direction of visual attention and the body (directed towards or away from the reward), distracting with the hands (fidgeting), and actively ‘withholding’ the hands (e.g., holding one hand with the other). To assess caregiver-rated self-control, parents and teachers filled out a selected set of items from the Early Childhood Behaviour Questionnaire inhibitory control scale (Putnam et al. 2006). The percentage of time that children looked away and withheld their hands from the reward positively predicted task success, suggesting that these behaviours are strategic at this young age. Average latency of initiating these behaviours was <10 s for successful children. Teacher-rated (but not parent-rated) self-control related to both the timing and co-occurrence of these behaviours, supporting the ecological validity of the observations. These findings call for future studies to examine further how individual and contextual factors shape the fine-grained dynamics of strategy use in self-control early in life.

Visual Attention Affects the Amplitude of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation-associated Motor-evoked Potential: A Preliminary Study With Clinical Utility.

The transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-elicited motor-evoked potential (MEP) is a valuable measure for clinical evaluations of various neurological disorders and is used to determine resting motor threshold for repetitive TMS dosing. Although MEP amplitude is primarily associated with motor system function, there is evidence that nonmotor factors may also influence amplitude. This experiment tested the hypotheses that manipulation of 2 factors (visual attention, cognitive regulation) in human participants would significantly affect MEP amplitude. Blocks of MEPs were recorded from the dominant right hand as participants (N=20) were instructed to shift their visual attention (toward and away from the hand) and cognitively regulate the MEPs (rest, attenuate MEP amplitude, potentiate MEP amplitude) using their thoughts (6 blocks, 20 pulses/block, randomized, 110% resting motor threshold). MEP amplitude was significantly affected by the direction of visual attention; looking away from the hand led to higher amplitudes (P=0.003). The relationship with cognitive regulation was nonsignificant. The significant effect of visual attention on MEP suggests that this should be a standardized parameter in clinical and research studies. These data underscore the importance of rigorous reporting of methods and use of standardized practices for MEP acquisition and TMS dosing to ensure consistent clinical measurement and treatment.

Fixated and Not Fixated Regions of Mammograms: A Higher-Order Statistical Analysis of Visual Search Behavior

Visual search is an inhomogeneous yet efficient sampling process accomplished by the saccades and the central (foveal) vision. Areas that attract the central vision have been studied for errors in interpretation of medical imaging. In this study, we extend existing visual search studies to understand what characterizes areas that receive direct visual attention and elicit a mark by the radiologist (True and False Positive decisions) from those that elicit a mark but were captured by the peripheral vision. We also investigate if there are any differences between these areas and those that are never fixated by radiologists.Eight radiologists participated in this fully crossed multi-reader multi-case visual search study of digital mammography (DM) involving 120 two-view cases (59 cancers). From these DM images, 3 types of areas, namely Fixated Clusters (FC), Marked Peripherally Fixated Clusters (MPFC) and Never Fixated Clusters (NFC), were extracted and analysed using statistical information theory (in the form of third and fourth-order cumulants and polyspectrum [specifically bispectrum and trispectrum]) in addition to traditional second-order statistics (in the form of power spectrum) and other nonspectral features to characterize these types of areas.Our results suggest that energy profiles of FC, MPFC, and NFC areas are distinct. We found evidence that energy profiles and dwell time of these areas influence radiologists' decisions (and confidence in such decisions). We also noted that foveated areas are selected on the basis of being most informative.We show that properties of these areas influence radiologists' decisions and their confidence in the decisions made.

Intentional gaze shift to neglected space: a compensatory strategy during recovery after unilateral spatial neglect.

Unilateral spatial neglect is a common neurological syndrome following predominantly right hemispheric stroke. While most patients lack insight into their neglect behaviour and do not initiate compensatory behaviours in the early recovery phase, some patients recognize it and start to pay attention towards the neglected space. We aimed to characterize visual attention capacity in patients with unilateral spatial neglect with specific focus on cortical processes underlying compensatory gaze shift towards the neglected space during the recovery process. Based on the Behavioural Inattention Test score and presence or absence of experience of neglect in their daily life from stroke onset to the enrolment date, participants were divided into USN+‰‰+ (do not compensate, n = 15), USN+ (compensate, n = 10), and right hemisphere damage groups (no neglect, n = 24). The patients participated in eye pursuit-based choice reaction tasks and were asked to pursue one of five horizontally located circular objects flashed on a computer display. The task consisted of 25 trials with 4-s intervals, and the order of highlighted objects was randomly determined. From the recorded eye tracking data, eye movement onset and gaze shift were calculated. To elucidate the cortical mechanism underlying behavioural results, electroencephalagram activities were recorded in three USN+‰‰+, 13 USN+ and eight patients with right hemisphere damage. We found that while lower Behavioural Inattention Test scoring patients (USN+‰‰+) showed gaze shift to non-neglected space, some higher scoring patients (USN+) showed clear leftward gaze shift at visual stimuli onset. Moreover, we found a significant correlation between Behavioural Inattention Test score and gaze shift extent in the unilateral spatial neglect group (r = -0.62, P < 0.01). Electroencephalography data clearly demonstrated that the extent of increase in theta power in the frontal cortex strongly correlated with the leftward gaze shift extent in the USN+‰‰+ and USN+ groups. Our results revealed a compensatory strategy (continuous attention to the neglected space) and its neural correlates in patients with unilateral spatial neglect. In conclusion, patients with unilateral spatial neglect who recognized their own neglect behaviour intentionally focused on the neglected space as a compensatory strategy to avoid careless oversight.

Eye Contact Is Crucial for Referential Communication in Pet Dogs.

Dogs discriminate human direction of attention cues, such as body, gaze, head and eye orientation, in several circumstances. Eye contact particularly seems to provide information on human readiness to communicate; when there is such an ostensive cue, dogs tend to follow human communicative gestures more often. However, little is known about how such cues influence the production of communicative signals (e.g. gaze alternation and sustained gaze) in dogs. In the current study, in order to get an unreachable food, dogs needed to communicate with their owners in several conditions that differ according to the direction of owners’ visual cues, namely gaze, head, eyes, and availability to make eye contact. Results provided evidence that pet dogs did not rely on details of owners’ direction of visual attention. Instead, they relied on the whole combination of visual cues and especially on the owners’ availability to make eye contact. Dogs increased visual communicative behaviors when they established eye contact with their owners, a different strategy compared to apes and baboons, that intensify vocalizations and gestures when human is not visually attending. The difference in strategy is possibly due to distinct status: domesticated vs wild. Results are discussed taking into account the ecological relevance of the task since pet dogs live in human environment and face similar situations on a daily basis during their lives.

Effects of shelter housing on dogs' sensitivity to human social cues

Abstract Dogs are known to be skilled at using human social signals such as pointing at a target, gaze, visual direction of attention, and facial emotional cues. Two nonmutually exclusive hypotheses have been proposed to explain these abilities: the domestication hypothesis and the hypothesis. One way to test the Two-Stage hypothesis is to compare subpopulations of dogs with different histories with humans. For example, the abilities of pet dogs, who live in human homes and have developed strong affiliative bonds with humans, can be compared with those of shelter dogs, who live in social isolation and are deprived of extended contact with humans. Here, we review the extant literature on studies comparing these 2 subpopulations using identical protocols. Pet dogs perform better than shelter dogs at following human pointing and at estimating humans' attentional state or direction of visual attention. Shelter dogs seem to be more socially driven to gaze and interact with humans compared to pet dogs. Shelter dogs' impoverished contact with humans is the best candidate explanation for these results. We summarize survey results highlighting the importance of life experience and learning in determining dogs' abilities to use human social cues and argue that shelter dogs may have learned not to respond to human cues that are not useful to them or have lost some previously acquired skills due to a lack of exposure to humans. Finally, we encourage further research that adds to both our theoretical and practical understanding of the impaired abilities of shelter dogs to use human social cues, and its link with the effect of life experiences.

Where Children With ADHD Direct Visual Attention During Emotion Knowledge Tasks: Relationships to Accuracy, Response Time, and ADHD Symptoms

Objective: Inattention may contribute to emotion recognition deficits in children with ADHD. In the current study, we compared the viewing patterns for emotion stimuli between children with and without ADHD and examined the relationship between viewing patterns, emotion knowledge accuracy, response time, and ADHD symptoms. Method: Eye-tracking technology recorded viewing patterns for emotion stimuli among 45 children (60% male; control n = 26, ADHD n = 19). Results: Overall, viewing patterns of children with and without ADHD were strikingly similar; however, small to large effect sizes (Cohen’s d = −0.73 to 0.93) across emotions suggest that, for some emotions, children with ADHD spend less time viewing relevant areas of images and take longer to respond (i.e., detect an emotion) compared with children without ADHD. Conclusion: Children with ADHD view some emotions differently from children without ADHD. The results provide an important foundation for additional work in this area.

How the Layout of a Price Label Influences Unit Price Visual Attention and Choice During Grocery Shopping

Unit pricing (i.e. displaying prices per unit volume or weight) is deemed helpful for grocery shoppers. Many countries mandate that supermarkets provide unit prices. Consumer usage of unit price information however has been suboptimal. Consumer advocates attribute this to the poor and inconsistent presentation of the unit price information on price labels. The present research tested how layout of the unit price information, in particular (1) font size, signposting, colour coding and position; and (2) consistency of the format across categories, affects attention to unit price when consumers shop for supermarket items. Eye-movements and purchase decisions observed during a natural but experimentally designed shopping task reveal how the prominence and consistency of the layout direct visual attention to the unit price and how this, in turn, influences purchase decisions. Findings indicate that displaying unit prices in a prominent manner leads consumers to better notice and longer attend to unit prices, which in turn relates to an increased incidence of choosing lower unit priced products. Conversely, inconsistency in display format resulted in a reduced incidence of choosing such products.

Are dogs able to communicate with their owners about a desirable food in a referential and intentional way?

The ability of dogs to use human communicative signals has been exhaustively studied. However, few studies have focused on the production of communicative signals by dogs. The current study investigated if dogs are able to communicate by using directional signals towards some desirable object in the environment and also if they show an apparent intention to manipulate their owner’s behavior in order to receive it. Some operational criteria were used to investigate referential and intentional communication: the signal should be influenced by the audience and by the recipient’s direction of visual attention; the sender should display gaze alternations between the recipient and the object and attention-getting behaviors, and, finally, the sender should persist and elaborate the communication when attempts to manipulate the recipient failed. Aiming to investigate these criteria in dogs, 29 subjects were tested using an experimental set up in which they could see a desirable but unreachable food and they needed the cooperation of their owners in order to receive it. This study found evidence of all operational criteria, especially for gaze alternation between the owner and the food, which suggested that some dogs’ communicative behaviors could be functionally referential and intentional. Nevertheless, similar to other studies about social cognition in animals, it is not possible to distinguish if the dog’s behaviors are based on simple mechanisms or on a theory of mind about their owners.

Visual attention for a desktop virtual environment with ambient scent

In the current study participants explored a desktop virtual environment (VE) representing a suburban neighborhood with signs of public disorder (neglect, vandalism, and crime), while being exposed to either room air (control group), or subliminal levels of tar (unpleasant; typically associated with burned or waste material) or freshly cut grass (pleasant; typically associated with natural or fresh material) ambient odor. They reported all signs of disorder they noticed during their walk together with their associated emotional response. Based on recent evidence that odors reflexively direct visual attention to (either semantically or affectively) congruent visual objects, we hypothesized that participants would notice more signs of disorder in the presence of ambient tar odor (since this odor may bias attention to unpleasant and negative features), and less signs of disorder in the presence of ambient grass odor (since this odor may bias visual attention toward the vegetation in the environment and away from the signs of disorder). Contrary to our expectations the results provide no indication that the presence of an ambient odor affected the participants’ visual attention for signs of disorder or their emotional response. However, the paradigm used in present study does not allow us to draw any conclusions in this respect. We conclude that a closer affective, semantic, or spatiotemporal link between the contents of a desktop VE and ambient scents may be required to effectively establish diagnostic associations that guide a user’s attention. In the absence of these direct links, ambient scent may be more diagnostic for the physical environment of the observer as a whole than for the particular items in that environment (or, in this case, items represented in the VE).

Space-Time Compatibility Effects in the Auditory Modality

Previous research suggests that past and future temporal concepts are spatially represented from left to right along a mental line. And these concepts can both prime motor responses to left or right space and direct visual spatial attention. The present study aimed at investigating the nature of this space-time conceptual metaphor in different auditory tasks. In the first experiment, subjects categorized time-related words (past or future) that were presented binaurally. In the second experiment, subjects detected left-ear or right-ear targets following time-related words. The similar space-time compatibility effects were found in these two experiments. Our results demonstrate that the activation of temporal concepts can both prime motor responses to left or right space and influence the orientation of auditory spatial attention, suggesting that the modality of the stimulus input is unimportant for the left-right mapping of time. These results are explained by the "intermediate coding" account.

Why does the gaze of others direct visual attention?

Viewing another person directing his or her gaze can produce automatic shifts of covert visual attention in the same direction. This holds true even when the task‐relevant target is much more likely to occur at the uncued location. These findings, along with other evidence, have been taken to suggest that gaze represents a “special” stimulus—the foundation of a social cognition system that can make inferences about the mental states of other people. However, gaze‐driven cueing effects could simply be due to spatial compatibility between cue and target. We compared the attentional effects of gaze shifts to a face with the tongue extended laterally to the left or right. When tongue direction was a nonpredictive cue, we found cueing effects from tongues that were indistinguishable from those produced by gaze. However, in contrast to previous findings with gaze, tongue cues did not overcome a validity manipulation in which targets were four times more likely to appear at the uncued location. We conclude that simple attentional cueing effects from gaze may be better explained by spatial compatibility, and that more complex, unique features of cueing from gaze may be better indices into perceptual systems specialized for social cognition.

Synchrony unbound: a critical evaluation of the temporal binding hypothesis.

Synchrony unbound: a critical evaluation of the temporal binding hypothesis.

Directed attention in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (TS) is a basal ganglia (BG) disorder, associated not only with hyperkinetic movements but also with attentional impairments. This experiment sought to ascertain whether overt direct visual attention would influence tactile attentional performance in TS, via the use of a vibrotactile choice reaction time procedure involving biased probabilities of event occurrence. Participants were required to look (i.e., direct gaze) either at the hand receiving the most (expected) vibrations, or the hand less often stimulated (the unexpected), for both crossed and uncrossed arm postures. Contrary to our predictions, gaze did not influence attentional performance in TS patients. Furthermore, patients were found not to be sensitive to distributions of event probability; that is, they did not demonstrate normal expectancy effects like controls. Attentional deficits in TS (as in Parkinson's disease, another BG disorder) may pertain more to difficulties in holding rather than in shifting the focus of attention. Moreover, directing attention towards the unexpected locus in the crossed arm posture improved overall performance in both patients and controls, suggesting that increased task demands (e.g., crossed arm posture), and/or unexpected stimulus location, may be alleviated by directed attention. These impairments may stem from dysfunction in the circuits linking the frontal lobes with the BG.

What Mothers Do to Support Infant Visual Attention: Sensitivities to Age and Hearing Status

This article presents a descriptive, longitudinal study of maternal use of communicative strategies to accommodate and direct infant visual attention. The two questions that guided our research were whether maternal use of particular attention-related strategies changed as the child developed from 9 to 18 months of age and whether the mother's ability to make appropriate modifications in strategy use was disrupted when she was using a new mode of communication. Four groups of mother-infant dyads were included: deaf mothers with deaf children (Dd), hearing mothers with deaf children (Hd), deaf mothers with hearing children (Dh), and hearing mothers with hearing children (Hh) (n = 77). When the infants were 9, 12, and 18 months old, they were videotaped while they engaged in free play with their mothers. Using a time-sampling technique, videotapes were coded to determine the frequency with which mothers used specific attention-related strategies. Our findings showed group differences in the attention-related strategies used by deaf and hearing mothers. These group differences were consistent with the hypothesis that while mothers appeared to be sensitive to and tried to accommodate their children's communication needs, the mothers may have been limited by their own communicative experiences. With regard to changes in mothers' use of attention-related strategies over time, our hypothesis of a developmental transition in the chosen strategies was only partially supported. Attention strategies related to language did evidence a pattern of developmental progression; however, maternal use of strategies that directed the children's visual focus to an object or a social partner did not show any such trend. Overall, the patterns indicated in the data from this study suggest that bidirectional influences were operating to some degree in each of the four groups. Among mothers whose hearing status differs from their children, the use of certain attention-related strategies might need to be taught, particularly the use of specific strategies that may scaffold deaf infants' developing abilities to alternate attention between objects and persons.

The Benefits of Auditory Spatial Information in Visual Processing

Techniques for the production of externalized, “3-dimensional” sound images for acoustic signals presented via headphone were developed in the past decade. These 3-D sound systems simulate both interaural time and intensity cues, and cues based on the action of the pinnae on incoming sound sources (e.g. Wenzel, Wightman and Foster, 1988). It has been anticipated that these 3-D sound systems would be useful in the cockpit and other work settings because they provide a natural method directing an operator to some event in the environment. This symposium is a progress report on research which has either examined potential applications of 3-D sound systems in the workplace, or attempted to understand how auditory spatial cues direct visual attention. Researchers at NASA Ames Research Center and Wright Patterson Air Force Base have identified cockpit tasks that can benefit from auditory spatial cueing. Some of these tasks include gate identification, blunder avoidance, and traffic identification of approaching and receding targets. The benefits of audio spatial cueing are usually measured by determining the reduction in search latency that is realized when searching for targets with and without auditory spatial cues. These benefits can be explained by the findings that both simple detection and identification times are faster and more constant across the frontal hemifield when auditory spatial cues are presented with the target. Furthermore, for sounds presented in the central visual field, auditory spatial cues can either supplement or substitute for abrupt visual onsets in directing visual attention.

Evidence for an Independent Stimuluscentered Spatial Reference Frame from a Case of Visual Hemineglect

Previous experiments with patients suffering from visual hemineglect have provided evidence relevant to the organization of the human spatial representation system. We examined the hypothesis that one reference frame used to represent the location of objects in the environment is based on the spatial extent of the stimulation that needs to be processed at a specific point in time; in current terminology, a stimulus-centered reference frame. The paradigm used was one of filtering, and variation of the location of the target within a horizontal array of items (stimulus-relative location was independent of the target location relative to the subject and to stable reference points in the environment. Results showed that stimulus-relative target location provided an independent contribution to the magnitude of the neglect symptoms. This is taken as an indication that a stimulus-centered spatial reference frame contributes to the representation of the location of visual objects in human vision and that this representation may serve to direct visual attention.

CEREBRAL CONTROL OF DIRECTED VISUAL ATTENTION AND ORIENTING SACCADES

The object of this experiment was to identify the contribution of the frontal and parietal lobes to the control of visual attention and voluntary saccades. A symbolic spatial cue (arrow) was used to indicate validly or invalidly the location of a visual target located to the left or right of the cue. Manual reaction time and reaction time to initiate a saccade to the target were measured. Patients with damage to the left frontal lobe (n = 6), right frontal lobe (n = 7) and right parietal lobe (n = 7) were compared with normal control subjects (n = 20). A sex difference was found for the right cerebral hemisphere patients in the manual reaction time data. Right parietal males and right frontal females showed an overall elevation in manual reaction time, reflecting an inability to maintain a normal level of visual arousal and/or motor activation. Conversely, right frontal males and right parietal females were not influenced significantly by cue validity, suggesting that they were unable to direct visual attention in a covert manner. All subjects showed a normal effect of cue validity on saccade reaction time. Thus the cortical areas studied do not appear to be necessary for directing visual attention with a saccade. Cue validity, however, affected saccade amplitude, especially in the left visual field of patients with right hemisphere damage. The cue validity effect depended both on the sex of the subject and the anterior/posterior location of damage in the right hemisphere. Damage to the right frontal lobe resulted in an 'under' reaction to the spatial cues, especially in the male patients. Saccades were smaller than normal following the valid cues, but larger than normal following the invalid cues. The effect was opposite following damage to the right parietal lobe. In this case, saccade amplitude reflected an 'over' reaction to the spatial cues, especially in the female patients. Saccades were larger than normal following valid cues and smaller than normal following invalid cues.