Abstract
In a visual search task, if target appears more frequently in one region of the scene, over time participants will search faster when the target appears in that region compared to regions appeared less frequently. Previous research has demonstrated that the attended locations are viewer centered and are not updated with viewer movement (Jiang & Swallow, 2012). In the current study, we reexamined the frame of reference in this type of learning using computer rendered illustrations of realistic 3D scenes displayed on a table. The scene consisted of an array of chairs randomly positioned on the ground but with coherent orientation. The viewpoint information was readily available visually from the orientation of the chairs and a landmark positioned in the periphery of the scene. Participants searched for and identified a target positioned on the seat of a chair. During training, participants performed search from one side of the table. The target appeared more often in a “rich” quadrant (50% probability) than in any one of the “sparse” quadrants (16.7% probability). Following training, participants moved to another side of the table, producing a 90 or 180 degree changes of their viewpoints within the horizontal plane. During testing, the target appeared randomly with 25% of the time in each quadrant. Results demonstrated probability cuing during training with lower reaction time in the rich quadrant compared to the sparse quadrants. During testing, participants showed lowest reaction time in the quadrant that maintained the same spatial relationship with the viewer as the previously rich quadrant. However, one third of the participants also showed comparably low reaction time in the original rich quadrant. These data suggest while for most participants, the attended locations are viewer centered without update with their movement, some participants could possibly update with their movements (at least sometimes).
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015