Visual Search Behavior Research Articles

The Role of Visual Search Behavior and the Verbal Report in Anticipation Skill of Skilled and None-Skilled Badminton Players in Smash Hits

Introduction: The importance and prerequisite of anticipation in success is not overlooked in many sports skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of anticipation skills, visual search behavior, and verbal reports of skilled and non-skilled badminton's players in smash hits. Materials and Methods: The participants in this study were 22 women aged 20-30 years divided into two groups of skilled (n = 10) and non-skilled (n = 12). Participants viewed 18 video clips from smash hits in different positions and anticipated the landing in less than 3 seconds. Visual Search Behavior (number, duration, and position of fixation) of skilled and non-skilled players was surveyed using the Pupil Model Vision Detector that recorded a spot of gaze at 60 HZ (60 frames per second). After completing the test, using the questionnaire, they recorded the verbal reports of the participants in order to compare them with the visual search results. To compare the data, independent t and Friedman’s tests were used. Results: There was not a significant difference in anticipation accuracy between the two groups. In the study of visual search behavior, there was a significant difference between the two groups in the number (P = 0.010) and duration (P = 0.005) of fixations in the position of rockets. However, there was no significant difference regarding the number and duration of fixations on the position of the wrists, balls, and legs, as well as the other positions. The results of the verbal report indicated that the focus of the attention of skilled players on anticipation skills was the position of the rocket. Conclusion: Generally, in the case of anticipation skills, it can be said that skilled players spent more time looking for rocket position. Using these results in the trial of non-skilled individuals can be useful in promotion of correct anticipation, and facilitating the process of learning skills.

Visual Scanpath Prediction Using IOR-ROI Recurrent Mixture Density Network.

A visual scanpath represents the human eye movements when scanning the visual field for acquiring and receiving visual information. Predicting visual scanpaths when a certain stimulus is presented plays an important role in modeling overt human visual attention and search behavior. In this paper, we presented an 'Inhibition of Return - Region of Interest' (IOR-ROI) recurrent mixture density network based framework learning to produce human-like visual scanpaths under task-free viewing conditions. The proposed model simultaneously predicts a sequence of ordered fixation positions and their corresponding fixation durations. Our model integrates bottom-up features and semantic features extracted by convolutional neural networks. Then the integrated feature maps are fed into the IOR-ROI Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) which is the core component of the proposed model. The IOR-ROI LSTM is a dual LSTM unit, i.e., the IOR-LSTM and the ROI-LSTM, capturing IOR dynamics and gaze shift behavior simultaneously. IOR-LSTM simulates the visual working memory to adaptively maintain and update visual information regarding previously fixated regions. ROI-LSTM is responsible for predicting the next possible ROIs given the spatially inhibited image feature maps on the feature-wise basis. Fixation duration is predicted by a regression neural network given the viewing history and image feature maps corresponding to currently fixated ROI. Considering the eye movement pattern variations among subjects, a mixture density network is adopted to model the next fixation distribution as Gaussian mixtures and the fixation duration is also modeled using Gaussian distribution. Our model is evaluated on the OSIE and MIT low resolution eye-tracking datasets and experimental results indicate that the proposed method can achieve superior performance in predicting visual scanpaths. The code will be publicly available on URL: https://github.com/sunwj/scanpath.

Visual Search in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

Changes to visual search have shown specific patterns in a number of dementia subtypes. The cortical regions involved in the control of visual search overlap with the regions affected in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Previous literature has examined visual search in bvFTD with smaller array sizes. To examine the pattern of behavior shown by bvFTD patients while undertaking visual search in the presence of larger numbers of distractors to model increased cognitive load. 15 bvFTD and 17 control participants undertook three visual search tasks: color, orientation, and conjunction searches. A wide range of array sizes was used, from 16 to 100 items arranged as a square. Behavior was quantified using accuracy, response time, and eye movements. BvFTD participants displayed a reduction in accuracy and an increased response time across all task types. BvFTD participants displayed an increase in number of objects examined and number of fixations made for color and conjunction tasks. Fixation duration was increased for orientation and conjunction (the more difficult tasks) but not color search. Results indicated the increase in time to response to be due to an increased intercept, with no significant difference in slope for the different tasks. BvFTD participants display a pattern of visual search behavior consisting of a decrease in accuracy, an increase in response time, and a corresponding increase in the number and length of eye movements made during visual search. The pattern seen corresponds to studies of frontal lobe damage, while differing in pattern from that seen in a range of other cognitive conditions.

Higher cue utilization in driving supports improved driving performance and more effective visual search behaviors

IntroductionOnce qualified, drivers rarely receive objective feedback concerning their performance. This is especially the case in the context of cognitive skills such as situation assessment. The aim of this study was to test the construct validity of an online assessment of motor-vehicle driver cue utilization that forms the foundation for situation assessment. Method: Seventy-one undergraduate Psychology students with broadly comparable driving experience completed a motor-vehicle driving version of EXPERTise 2.0, an online tool that enables inferences concerning the utilization of cues based on responses to task-related stimuli. They also completed a simulated driving task while fitted with an eye tracking device, during which a range of hazards were presented with participants’ responses recorded. Results: The results indicated that higher cue utilization was associated with fewer driving errors and collisions, fewer visual fixations, and fewer saccades in comparison to participants with lower cue utilization. Conclusion: The results provide support for the construct validity of EXPERTise 2.0 as an effective measure of cue utilization in the context of driving. Practical applicationsProviding comparative feedback to drivers concerning their development of situation assessment skills may provide opportunities for further training and development, thereby reducing the likelihood of motor-vehicle accidents.

Visual search behaviour in young cyclists: A naturalistic experiment

Visual search behaviour in young cyclists: A naturalistic experiment

Towards a Multimodal Model of Cognitive Workload Through Synchronous Optical Brain Imaging and Eye Tracking Measures.

Recent advances in neuroimaging technologies have rendered multimodal analysis of operators’ cognitive processes in complex task settings and environments increasingly more practical. In this exploratory study, we utilized optical brain imaging and mobile eye tracking technologies to investigate the behavioral and neurophysiological differences among expert and novice operators while they operated a human-machine interface in normal and adverse conditions. In congruence with related work, we observed that experts tended to have lower prefrontal oxygenation and exhibit gaze patterns that are better aligned with the optimal task sequence with shorter fixation durations as compared to novices. These trends reached statistical significance only in the adverse condition where the operators were prompted with an unexpected error message. Comparisons between hemodynamic and gaze measures before and after the error message indicated that experts’ neurophysiological response to the error involved a systematic increase in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activity accompanied with an increase in fixation durations, which suggests a shift in their attentional state, possibly from routine process execution to problem detection and resolution. The novices’ response was not as strong as that of experts, including a slight increase only in the left dlPFC with a decreasing trend in fixation durations, which is indicative of visual search behavior for possible cues to make sense of the unanticipated situation. A linear discriminant analysis model capitalizing on the covariance structure among hemodynamic and eye movement measures could distinguish experts from novices with 91% accuracy. Despite the small sample size, the performance of the linear discriminant analysis combining eye fixation and dorsolateral oxygenation measures before and after an unexpected event suggests that multimodal approaches may be fruitful for distinguishing novice and expert performance in similar neuroergonomic applications in the field.

The speed of perception: the effects of over-speed video training on pitch recognition in collegiate softball players.

During interceptive motor tasks, experts demonstrate distinct visual search behavior (from novices) that is reflective of information extraction from optimal environmental cues, which subsequently aids anticipatory movements. While some forms of visual training have been employed in sport, over-speed video training is rarely applied to perceptual-cognitive sport contexts. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether over-speed video training can enhance visual information processing and augment visual behavior for a pitch-recognition task. Twelve collegiate softball players were recruited for the study. A between-subjects, repeated measures design was implemented to assess changes in participants' pitch recognition on a video-based occlusion task after one of two training interventions: (A) over-speed video training (n = 6) or (B) regular video training (n = 6). Both training interventions required individuals to view 400 videos of different pitches over the span of 10days. The over-speed group viewed the videos at gradually increasing video speeds (+ 0.05 × each day). Performance (i.e., identifyingpitch type and location),quiet-eye duration (i.e., total QE, QE-early and QE-late) and cortical activation (i.e., alpha wave activity/asymmetry; F3/F4 and P7/P8) were measured during the pitch-recognition tasks. Results showed significant performance improvements across groups, but no differences between groups. Both interventions were associated with a reduction in alpha wave activity for P8, an increase in alpha activity for F3, and a significant increase in QE-late. An increase in QE-late was associated with a decrease in P7/P8 alpha asymmetry and improvements in pitch-type recognition. Consistent with the extant literature, our results support the importance of a later QE offset for successful performance on perceptual tasks, potentially extending to perceputal-motor tasks. Although participants in the over-speed condition did not experience significantly larger improvements in performance than controls, this study highlights the association between QE and brain activity reflective of expertise.

The Role of Latency and Task Complexity in Predicting Visual Search Behavior.

Latency in a visualization system is widely believed to affect user behavior in measurable ways, such as requiring the user to wait for the visualization system to respond, leading to interruption of the analytic flow. While this effect is frequently observed and widely accepted, precisely how latency affects different analysis scenarios is less well understood. In this paper, we examine the role of latency in the context of visual search, an essential task in data foraging and exploration using visualization. We conduct a series of studies on Amazon Mechanical Turk and find that under certain conditions, latency is a statistically significant predictor of visual search behavior, which is consistent with previous studies. However, our results also suggest that task type, task complexity, and other factors can modulate the effect of latency, in some cases rendering latency statistically insignificant in predicting user behavior. This suggests a more nuanced view of the role of latency than previously reported. Building on these results and the findings of prior studies, we propose design guidelines for measuring and interpreting the effects of latency when evaluating performance on visual search tasks.

Whereof one cannot speak: How language and capture of visual attention interact

Our research addresses the important question whether language influences cognition by studying crosslinguistic differences in nonlinguistic visual search tasks. We investigated whether capture of visual attention is mediated by characteristics corresponding to concepts that are differently expressed across different languages. Korean grammatically distinguishes between tight- (kkita) and loose-fit (nehta) containment whereas German collapses them into a single semantic category (in). Although linguistic processing was neither instructed nor necessary to perform the visual search task, we found that Korean speakers showed attention capture by non-instructed but target-coincident (Experiment 1) or distractor-coincident (Experiments 4 and 5) spatial fitness of the stimuli, whereas German speakers were not sensitive to it. As the tight- versus loose-fit distinction is grammaticalized only in the Korean but not the German language, our results demonstrate that language influences which visual features capture attention even in non-linguistic tasks that do not require paying attention to these features. In separate control experiments (Experiments 2 and 3), we ruled out cultural or general cognitive group differences between Korean and German speaking participants as alternative explanations. We outline the mechanisms underlying these crosslinguistic differences in nonlinguistic visual search behaviors. This is the first study showing that linguistic spatial relational concepts held in long-term memory can affect attention capture in visual search tasks.

Can a Machine Learn from Radiologists' Visual Search Behaviour and Their Interpretation of Mammograms-a Deep-Learning Study.

Visual search behaviour and the interpretation of mammograms have been studied for errors in breast cancer detection. We aim to ascertain whether machine-learning models can learn about radiologists' attentional level and the interpretation of mammograms. We seek to determine whether these models are practical and feasible for use in training and teaching programmes. Eight radiologists of varying experience levels in reading mammograms reviewed 120 two-view digital mammography cases (59 cancers). Their search behaviour and decisions were captured using a head-mounted eye-tracking device and software allowing them to record their decisions. This information from radiologists was used to build an ensembled machine-learning model using top-down hierarchical deep convolution neural network. Separately, a model to determine type of missed cancer (search, perception or decision-making) was also built. Analysis and comparison of variants of these models using different convolution networks with and without transfer learning were also performed. Our ensembled deep-learning network architecture can be trained to learn about radiologists' attentional level and decisions. High accuracy (95%, p value ≅ 0 [better than dumb/random model]) and high agreement between true and predicted values (kappa = 0.83) in such modelling can be achieved. Transfer learning techniques improve by < 10% with the performance of this model. We also show that spatial convolution neural networks are insufficient in determining the type of missed cancers. Ensembled hierarchical deep convolution machine-learning models are plausible in modelling radiologists' attentional level and their interpretation of mammograms. However, deep convolution networks fail to characterise the type of false-negative decisions.

Evidence of a Link Between Fall-Related Anxiety and High-Risk Patterns of Visual Search in Older Adults During Adaptive Locomotion

BackgroundOlder adults deemed to be at a high risk of falling will often display visual search behaviors likely to impair movement planning when negotiating environmental hazards. It has been proposed that these behaviors may be underpinned by fall-related anxiety. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the effects of fall-related anxiety on visual search and stepping behaviors during adaptive gait.MethodsForty-four community-dwelling older adults (mean age = 74.61; standard deviation = 6.83) walked along a path and stepped into two raised targets. All participants completed walks at ground level, whereas participants deemed to be at a low risk of falling (n = 24) also completed walks under conditions designed to induce fall-related anxiety (walkway elevated 0.6 m). Participants’ movement kinematics and gaze behavior were measured.ResultsDuring ground trials, “high-risk” participants visually prioritized the immediate walkway areas 1–2 steps ahead, at the expense of previewing future stepping constraints. This reduced planning appeared to negatively affect safety, with greater stepping errors observed for future constraints. When completing walks on the elevated walkway, “low-risk” participants similarly prioritized immediate walkway areas, at the expense of planning future stepping actions. These behaviors were associated with greater attention directed toward consciously processing walking movements.ConclusionsThese findings provide evidence of a link between heightened fall-related anxiety and “high-risk” visual search behaviors associated with greater stepping errors. This information enhances our understanding of why high-risk older adults are less able to safely navigate environmental constraints.

Developmental changes in visual search are determined by changing visuospatial abilities and task repetition: A longitudinal study in adolescents

Using a longitudinal study design, a group of 94 adolescents participated in a visual search task and a visuospatial ability task yearly for four consecutive years. We analyzed the association between changes in visuospatial ability and changes in visual search performance and behavior and estimated additional effects of age and task repetition. Visuospatial ability was measured with the Design Organization Test (DOT). Search performance was analyzed in terms of reaction time and response accuracy. Search behavior was analyzed in terms of the number of fixations per trial, the saccade amplitude, and the distribution of fixations over different types of elements. We found that both the increase in age and the yearly repetition of the DOT had a positive effect on visuospatial ability. We show that the acceleration of visual search during childhood can be explained by the increase in visuospatial abilities with age during adolescence. With the yearly task repetition, visual search became faster and more accurate, while fewer fixations were made with larger saccade amplitudes. The combination of increasing visuospatial ability and task repetition makes visual search more effective and might increase the performance of many daily tasks during adolescence.

Eye Movements of Drivers with Glaucoma on a Visual Recognition Slide Test.

Glaucoma has been shown to impair hazard detection ability and increase crash risk compared to controls. Differences in visual search behavior of the driving scene may explain these differences; however, there has been limited investigation of this issue with inconsistent findings. Through eye movement tracking of older drivers with glaucoma, we explored their visual search behavior in comparison with controls while performing the DriveSafe, a slide recognition test purported to predict fitness to drive. Thirty-one drivers with glaucoma (mean age, 71.7 ± 6.3 years; average better-eye mean defect,-3 dB; average worse-eye mean defect,-12 dB) and 25 age-matched controls underwent measurements of their visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual fields, and useful field of view (visual processing speeds). Participants' eye movements were recorded while they completed the DriveSafe test, which consists of brief presentations of static, real-world driving scenes containing various road users (pedestrians, bicycles, vehicles). Participants reported the types, positions, and direction of travel of road users in each image; the score was the total number of correctly reported items (maximum, 128). Drivers with glaucoma had significantly worse DriveSafe scores (P = .03), fixated on road users for shorter durations (P < .001), and exhibited smaller saccades (P = .02) compared with controls. For all participants, longer fixation times on road users (P < .001) was the eye movement measure most strongly associated with better DriveSafe scores; this relationship was not significantly different between groups. Useful field-of-view divided attention was the strongest visual predictor of DriveSafe scores. Eye movement changes in the glaucoma group may reflect increased difficulty in identifying relevant objects in the visual scene, which may be related to their lower DriveSafe scores. Given the DriveSafe's potential utility in assessing drivers with visual impairment before on-road testing, further investigations on how DriveSafe performance and eye movement patterns compare to those during on-road driving are warranted.

LA INTERCEPCIÓN DE UN LANZAMIENTO DE CÓRNER DESDE LA TEORÍA DE LOS LIMITADORES

Motor behavior arises from the continuous interaction between three constraints (organism, environment and task), which never act in isolation. This paper studies the effect of the constraints on the performance, motor behavior and visual search behavior of soccer goalkeepers during the corner kick. 31 participants, divided into three groups depending on the level of play, tried to catch the ball out of a corner kick in two situations (static and dynamic), while their eye movements were recorded. Among the results it is observed that the experts have a more stable performance, while the other groups perform worse in the most difficult situation; that the experts make a later start of their run up towards the ball and a faster motor pattern to catch it; and that the that the information of the players involved is not relevant, goalkeepers dedicate values close to 0% of their visual total time to them.

The impact of physiological load on anticipation skills in badminton: From testing to training

ABSTRACTResearch remains unclear on the impact of physiological load on perceptual-cognitive skills in sport. Moreover, no study has examined the training of perceptual-cognitive skills under physiological load. The current study comprised two phases. Firstly, we examined the impact of badminton-specific physiological load on anticipatory skills in expert badminton players (n = 13), including key underlying mechanisms, such as gaze behaviour. Under high physiological load, participants displayed less efficient visual search behaviour and showed a reduction in response accuracy. Secondly, we examined the effects of combining perceptual-cognitive simulation training with the high physiological load. Ten of the expert badminton players were assigned to a combined training group, where the simulation training and the physiological load intervention occurred simultaneously or an independent training group, whereby the two components were completed independently. The combined training group showed a positive change in the efficiency of their visual search behaviours compared to the independent training group, but no significant performance improvements were found. Overall, findings demonstrate that high physiological load is detrimental to experts’ anticipatory skills. However, combining perceptual-cognitive simulation training with high physiological load can potentially negate these debilitating effects.

Effects of magnification modes and location cues on visual inspection performance.

Image magnification often results in disorientation through loss of orientation and location during inspection. This study investigated the effects of three different magnification modes viz. full screen, circular, and fixed-area on visual inspection performance. Also, to improve participants’ global orientation with respect to the original product, location cues in the form of halftone landmarks were introduced as a job aid and their effectiveness on inspection performance was examined. Twenty-eight undergraduates participated in the experiment. Significant magnification mode effect was found, but the location cue effect was found non-significant. The results suggested that the presentation of content/contextual information on one single screen should be considered together with the nature of the visual task and participants’ search behaviors, and that the aid of location cues might be useful when the visual task demanded a high level of search memory and/or an unsystematic search strategy was employed by inspectors.

Effect of Smartphone Usage on Cognition and Balance in Geriatric Individuals

Introduction: Smartphone is a device which has features of both a computer and a mobile device. These new technologies appear to be associated with greater integration into peer groups and even increased cognitive abilities such as faster task-switching. Mobile phones adoption is increasing amongst elderly population and the potential benefits of mobile phone usage. Over the age of 65, 1 in every 3 adults will suffer from fall, and given the explosion in the number people living today over 65 years of age, falls are major healthcare crisis. Mobile phone users adapt their visual search behavior and gait to incorporate mobile phone use in a safe manner when negotiating static floor based obstacles. It’s improving their balance while using phones. Objectives: The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of Smartphone usage on Cognition and balance on geriatric individuals. Method: 135 geriatric individuals in the age group of 60-75 are selected having a graduate degree and are using smart phone. Individuals should have independent according to Functional independence scale. After the selection on the basis of criteria, geriatric individuals will be divided into 3 groups of 45 each. Group A will be the subjects who do not use smart phone, Group B will be the subjects who use smart phone less than 4 hours and Group C will be the subjects who use smart phone more 4 hours. All the three groups will be measured for cognition with the help of Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination and balanced will be assessed through Berg Balance Scale. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive Statistics, ANOVA test

Searching with and against each other: Spatiotemporal coordination of visual search behavior in collaborative and competitive settings

Although in real life people frequently perform visual search together, in lab experiments this social dimension is typically left out. Here, we investigate individual, collaborative and competitive visual search with visualization of search partners’ gaze. Participants were instructed to search a grid of Gabor patches while being eye tracked. For collaboration and competition, searchers were shown in real time at which element the paired searcher was looking. To promote collaboration or competition, points were rewarded or deducted for correct or incorrect answers. Early in collaboration trials, searchers rarely fixated the same elements. Reaction times of couples were roughly halved compared with individual search, although error rates did not increase. This indicates searchers formed an efficient collaboration strategy. Overlap, the proportion of dwells that landed on hexagons that the other searcher had already looked at, was lower than expected from simulated overlap of two searchers who are blind to the behavior of their partner. The proportion of overlapping dwells correlated positively with ratings of the quality of collaboration. During competition, overlap increased earlier in time, indicating that competitors divided space less efficiently. Analysis of the entropy of the dwell locations and scan paths revealed that in the competition condition, a less fixed looking pattern was exhibited than in the collaborate and individual search conditions. We conclude that participants can efficiently search together when provided only with information about their partner’s gaze position by dividing up the search space. Competing search exhibited more random gaze patterns, potentially reflecting increased interaction between searchers in this condition.

A review of factors influencing radiologists' visual search behaviour.

This narrative literature review aims to identify the various factors that have significant impact on radiologists' visual search patterns. Identifying the factors that influences readers' visual search behaviour helps to understand their perception and interpretation of medical images, which in turn could lead to the development and implementation of effective strategies that could aid in improving the ability to detect abnormalities. Databases including PubMed, MedLine, Web of Science and ScienceDirect were searched using terms 'visual search', 'eye-tracking', 'radiology OR radiography', 'mammogram OR mammography' published since the early 1960s until June 30, 2016. Some of the factors that have been identified to significantly influence radiologists' visual search patterns were (i) readers' expertise, (ii) Satisfaction of Search, (iii) readers' visual fatigue, (iv) readers' confidence in reporting abnormalities, (v) training received and (vi) readers' prior knowledge. Readers' level of expertise was the factor that has been identified to have the most significant impact on their visual search pattern. Eye-tracking studies have shown the differences in visual search patterns of readers with different levels of experience and not so surprisingly, more experienced readers have shown effective visual search strategies. Readers' expertise has also been found to have significant impact in their confidence in reporting abnormalities and their ability to discriminate lesions from background structures in medical images.

Fixation Differences in Visual Search of Accident Scenes by Novices and Expert Emergency Responders.

We sought to investigate whether expert-novice differences in visual search behavior found in other domains also apply to accident scenes and the emergency response domain. Emergency service professionals typically arrive at accidents only after being dispatched when a civilian witness has called an emergency dispatch number. Differences in visual search behavior between the civilian witness (usually a novice in terms of emergency response) and the professional first responders (experts at emergency response) could thus result in the experts being given insufficient or erroneous information, which would lead them to arrive unprepared for the actual situation. A between-subjects, controlled eye-tracking experiment with 20 novices and 17 experts (rescue and ambulance service personnel) was conducted to explore expert-novice differences in visual search of accident and control images. The results showed that the experts spent more time looking at task-relevant areas of the accident images than novices did, as predicted by the information reduction hypothesis. The longer time was due to longer fixation durations rather than a larger fixation count. Expert-novice differences in visual search are present in the emergency domain. Given that this domain is essential to saving lives and also relies heavily on novices as the first link in the chain of response, such differences deserve further exploration. Visual search behavior from experts can be used for training purposes. Eye-tracking studies of novices can be used to inform the design of emergency dispatch interviews.