Abstract
Previous reports suggest that eye-of-origin information contributes to performance on visual search and on 3D motion tasks. We investigated whether eye-of-origin information could be utilized by the attentional mechanisms involved in 2D multiple object tracking (MOT). We predicted that if attention could be directed towards information from one eye, performance of an MOT task would be better when the tracked objects were presented to one eye and the distractors to the other (dichoptic viewing) than when all objects were presented to both eyes (binocular viewing). The MOT stimulus consisted of 10 pseudo-randomly moving dots (1° diameter, 10°/s) presented within a 14 x 14° field. Participants tracked 4 dots for 5 seconds while fixating a central cross. Stimuli were viewed through frame sequential shutter-glasses. The target dots were cued for 2 seconds in a static presentation of the first stimulus frame prior to each trial. At the end of each trial a dot changed color and the participant indicated whether or not it was a target dot within a 2-AFC procedure. Sensory eye dominance was also estimated using a dichoptic global motion procedure. Participants with normal vision completed 60 trials for each of three conditions: 1) binocular viewing, 2) dichoptic viewing with target dots to the dominant eye and, 3) dichoptic viewing with target dots to the non-dominant eye. There were no significant differences in task accuracy between these three conditions (binocular viewing mean = 80% correct, SD 11%; dominant eye targets = 77%, SD 8%; non-dominant eye targets = 78%, SD 10%). These results imply that the attentional mechanisms involved in MOT do not utilize eye-of-origin information.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016