Familiar shapes attract attention in figure-ground displays

Nelson, Rolf; Palmer, Stephen

doi:10.3758/bf03193759

Cited by 44 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Insert Figure 4 Nelson and Palmer's (2007) results: Participants' RTs were faster for targets located on the concave (ground) region (652.3 ms) rather than the convex (figure) region (660.1 ms; see Figure 5A). There was also a main effect of SOA, F(3, 33) = 74.62, p < .001: RTs were shorter for longer SOAs ( Figure 5B Nelson and Palmer (2007) replicating the pattern observed in Experiment 1A:…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Experiment 1, we explored whether we could extend Nelson and Palmer's (2007) findings that targets are detected faster when they appear on figures rather than on grounds, obtained when figures were defined by familiarity, to the figural property of convexity. We reasoned that if figures automatically attract attention, their finding should generalize to convexity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, Nelson and Palmer (2007) directly addressed the question of whether figures attract attention. They used vertically elongated rectangular displays divided in half (bipartite displays) by a contour that suggested a portion of a familiar object on one side ( Figure 2).…”

Section: Insert Figure 1 About Herementioning

confidence: 99%

“…We began by testing whether Nelson and Palmer's (2007) effects generalize to another figural property -convexity. We found that they do but only when participants are uncertain regarding when and where the target will appear and must search for it.…”

Section: Précismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using the Rubin Vase/Faces stimulus, Wong and Weisstein (1982) showed enhanced orientation discrimination for targets presented on a given region (e.g., the center black region or the surrounding white region in Figure 1) when participants reported they were perceiving that region as the figure rather than the other region. Wong and Weisstein's design may have led participants to attend to the region they were perceiving as figure in order to monitor whether they were maintaining that percept; thus, Wong and Weisstein's findings may reflect strategic rather than automatic attentional allocation (cf., Nelson & Palmer, 2007;Peterson & Gibson, 1993).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Figural properties are prioritized for search under conditions of uncertainty: Setting boundary conditions on claims that figures automatically attract attention

Peterson

Mojica

Salvagio

et al. 2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Nelson and Palmer (2007) concluded that figures/figural properties automatically attract attention after finding that participants were faster to detect/discriminate targets appearing where a portion of a familiar object was suggested in an otherwise ambiguous display. We investigated whether these effects are truly automatic and whether they generalize to another figural propertyconvexity. We found that Nelson and Palmer's results do generalize to convexity but only when participants are uncertain regarding when and where the target will appear. Dependence on uncertainty regarding target location/timing was also observed for familiarity. Thus, although we can replicate and extend Nelson and Palmer's results, our experiments show that figures do not automatically draw attention. In addition, our research went beyond Nelson and Palmer's in that we were able to separate figural properties from perceived figures. Because figural properties are regularities that predict where objects lie in the visual field, our results join other evidence that regularities in the environment can attract attention. More generally, our results are consistent with Bayesian theories in which priors are given more weight under conditions of uncertainty.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Insert Figure 1 About Herementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Précismentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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