Are Fixations in Static Natural Scenes a Useful Predictor of Attention in the Real World?
Research investigating scene perception normally involves laboratory experiments using static images. Much has been learned about how observers look at pictures of the real world and the attentional mechanisms underlying this behaviour. However, the use of static, isolated pictures as a proxy for st...
| Published in: | Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale Vol. 71; no. 2; pp. 172 - 182 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Canadian Psychological Association
Jun2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=123429159&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 123429159 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 11961961 CJX jtl: Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale issn: 11961961 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2017 vid: 71 iid: 2 pid: 98 pub: Canadian Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 123429159 10.1037/cep0000125 ppf: 172 ppct: 10 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 5.1MB tig: atl: Are Fixations in Static Natural Scenes a Useful Predictor of Attention in the Real World? aug: au: Foulsham, Tom Kingstone, Alan affil: University of Essex University of British Columbia su: Attention Ecology Sensory perception Eye movements Vision Inter-observer reliability sug: subj: Attention Ecology Sensory perception Eye movements Vision Inter-observer reliability keyword: attention eye movements scene perception mouvements oculaires perception des scènes attention eye movements scene perception mouvements oculaires perception des scènes ab: Research investigating scene perception normally involves laboratory experiments using static images. Much has been learned about how observers look at pictures of the real world and the attentional mechanisms underlying this behaviour. However, the use of static, isolated pictures as a proxy for studying everyday attention in real environments has led to the criticism that such experiments are artificial. We report a new study that tests the extent to which the real world can be reduced to simpler laboratory stimuli. We recorded the gaze of participants walking on a university campus with a mobile eye tracker, and then showed static frames from this walk to new participants, in either a random or sequential order. The aim was to compare the gaze of participants walking in the real environment with fixations on pictures of the same scene. The data show that picture order affects interobserver fixation consistency and changes looking patterns. Critically, while fixations on the static images overlapped significantly with the actual real-world eye movements, they did so no more than a model that assumed a general bias to the centre. Remarkably, a model that simply takes into account where the eyes are normally positioned in the head--independent of what is actually in the scene--does far better than any other model. These data reveal that viewing patterns to static scenes are a relatively poor proxy for predicting real world eye movement behaviour, while raising intriguing possibilities for how to best measure attention in everyday life. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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