Panoramic Search: The Interaction of Memory and Vision in Search Through a Familiar Scene.

Abstract

How do observers search through familiar scenes? A novel panoramic search method is used to study the interaction of memory and vision in natural search behavior. In panoramic search, observers see part of an unchanging scene larger than their current field of view. A target object can be visible, present in the display but hidden from view, or absent. Visual search efficiency does not change after hundreds of trials through an unchanging scene (Experiment 1). Memory search, in contrast, begins inefficiently but becomes efficient with practice. Given a choice between vision and memory, observers choose vision (Experiments 2 and 3). However, if forced to use their memory on some trials, they learn to use memory on all trials, even when reliable visual information remains available (Experiment 4). The results suggest that observers make a pragmatic choice between vision and memory, with a strong bias toward visual search even for memorized stimuli.

Human Learning of Contextual Priors for Object Search: Where does the time go?

“…These values do not change significantly with repetition (F<1). This result is compatible with previous findings [8] that despite high familiarity between a scene context and object location, human observers are reluctant to respond according to memory alone and repeatedly perform a visual search for the target object. Analyses of the overall RT, the scan time, and the gaze duration presented below are based on the trials in which the eye crossed into the target region.…”

“…A trend in the consistent condition suggests that search performance improves significantly at the outset and remains constant until a second period of improvement occurs over the final two epochs. Given the small number of subjects (8), however, the nature the learning curves cannot be discerned here with a measure of confidence. More data will be collected to determine whether the RT represents a plateau of slope efficiency.…”

“…Goal-directed action, such as visual search, represents an ecologically relevant facet of experience, as repeatedly performing a search in a similar environment can often influence search performance ( [2], [8], [16]). The search of my cluttered office for a cell phone, for example, is abbreviated by previously established knowledge that my phone is most likely located next to the lamp on my desk.…”

Visual working memory for trained and novel polygons

“…This conclusion is consistent with Wolfe and colleagues' findings in visual search. Repeatedly searching for different targets on the same search display led to no improvement in search slope (Oliva, Wolfe, & Arsenio, 2004;Wolfe, Klempen, & Dahlen, 2000).…”

Vision and the representation of the surroundings in spatial memory

“…Repeated viewings of scenes decrease search times, even when repetitions of the scene are separated by several intervening trials [43]. Oliva et al [44] considered the interplay between vision and memory by presenting scenes that extended beyond the bounds of what was visible on the monitor at any one time. Panoramic virtual scenes were presented by panning a virtual camera across an extended scene such that the observer was presented with a moving image on the monitor.…”