Abstract
Change detection has frequently been studied in well-structured natural scenes, but relatively few studies have explored the degree to which this structure actually facilitates change detection. In these experiments, subjects searched for visual changes in scenes that were normal, jumbled (by rearranging six square sections), or inverted (by a 180 degree rotation). In Experiments 1 and 2, jumbling did decrease change detection. Experiment 3 tested whether the prevalence of terminators at the edges of jumbled sections is the source of the interference by “windowing” the jumbled sections with occluder strips. Again, jumbling reduced change detection. In contrast, inverting the scenes did not reduce change detection. Combined, these results point to the hypothesis that reconfiguration of scene sections reduces change detection by effectively adding new objects and surfaces to the scene.
Work supported by NSF grant SES0214969