Invariant spatial context is learned but not retrieved in gaze-contingent tunnel-view search.

Abstract

Our visual brain is remarkable in extracting invariant properties from the noisy environment, guiding selection of where to look and what to identify. However, how the brain achieves this is still poorly understood. Here we explore interactions of local context and global structure in the long-term learning and retrieval of invariant display properties. Participants searched for a target among distractors, without knowing that some "old" configurations were presented repeatedly (randomly inserted among "new" configurations). We simulated tunnel vision, limiting the visible region around fixation. Robust facilitation of performance for old versus new contexts was observed when the visible region was large but not when it was small. However, once the display was made fully visible during the subsequent transfer phase, facilitation did become manifest. Furthermore, when participants were given a brief preview of the total display layout prior to tunnel view search with 2 items visible, facilitation was already obtained during the learning phase. The eye movement results revealed contextual facilitation to be coupled with changes of saccadic planning, characterized by slightly extended gaze durations but a reduced number of fixations and shortened scan paths for old displays. Taken together, our findings show that invariant spatial display properties can be acquired based on scarce, para-/foveal information, while their effective retrieval for search guidance requires the availability (even if brief) of a certain extent of peripheral information.

Response time modeling reveals multiple contextual cuing mechanisms

“…For example, fixation duration could increase as the total number of fixations decreases, implying that people might become better at planning a sequence of saccades, but not necessarily becoming more efficient in terms of how quickly they search through the display, or process distractor elements, while searching for the target. Zang, Jia, Müller, and Shi (2015) reported exactly this pattern of eye-movement data under gaze-contingent viewing conditions, suggesting that contextual cuing might not necessarily produce faster searches for the target, but could nevertheless improve the efficiency with which searches are conducted, in terms of the number of eye movements made. The observations of Zang et al are somewhat at odds with other studies that reported no influence of cuing on fixation duration (e.g., Tseng & Li, 2004;Zhao et al, 2012).…”

“…It is possible that the abbreviated nonproductive stage of search corresponds to more rapid growth of a familiarity signal for repeated displays. The finding that fixation durations are longer for repeated displays (Zang et al, 2015) is readily accommodated under this view, as it suggests that once a search display has achieved a critical level of familiarity, search can proceed more strategically, now guided by the information present at the point of fixation-consistent with the reduced number of saccades needed to reach the target (e.g., Beesley et al, 2017;Harris & Remington, 2017;Manginelli & Pollmann, 2009;Peterson & Kramer, 2001;Tseng & Li, 2004;Zhao et al, 2012). Increased fixation duration coupled with fewer fixations for repeated displays meshes intuitively with the idea that more strategic processes-such as those commonly associated with criterion setting in simple decision tasks (Ratcliff & Rouder, 1998)-may be recruited during the search itself (e.g., deliberating where to direct the next eye movement).…”

Investigating implicit statistical learning mechanisms through contextual cueing

“…The formation and reinforcement of this perceptual unit across repetitions might be accompanied by an enhancement of its visual saliency [59]. Such a hypothesis in terms of attentional selection might account for a large body of results reported with the standard task, and in particular the enhancement of the N2pc component in repeated contexts, regardless of its involvement in attentional processes, but also the requirement for a limited amount of peripheral information for the expression of CC [56].…”

“…Note, however, that separating the context and target by empty space does not abolish learning, suggesting that chunk formation is more constrained by the perceptual organization of items in the display rather than spatial distance per se [54]. Furthermore, although the global context does not need to be repeated, the local benefit is nevertheless dependant both on its relative position in the display and on the availability of a limited amount of peripheral information [56].…”

Contextual cueing in 3D visual search depends on representations in planar-, not depth-defined space

“…Similar to our previous study (Zang, Jia, Müller, & Shi, 2015), both T-shaped and L-shaped stimuli were composed of two equal-length lines-one with horizontal and one with vertical orientation. For the Tshaped stimulus, the lines contact point was at the tip of the vertical line and, respectively, the center point of the horizontal line.…”