Identifying objects from a haptic glance

Subjects identified common objects under conditions of a “haptic glance,” a brief haptic exposure that placed severe spatial and temporal constraints on stimulus processing. They received no advance cue, a superordinate-level name as cue, or a superordinate and basic-level name as cue. The objects varied in size relative to the fingertip and in the most diagnostic attribute, either texture or shape. The data suggest that object recognition can occur when global volumetric primitives cannot directly be extracted. Even with no cue, confusion errors resembled the target object and indicated extraction of material and local shape information, which was sufficient to provide accuracy above 20%. Performance improved with cuing, and the effect of exposure duration was observed primarily with minimal cuing, indicating compensatory effects of top-down processing.     

Rapid detection of person information in a naturalistic scene

A preferential-looking paradigm was used to investigate how gaze is distributed in naturalistic scenes. Two scenes were presented side by side: one contained a single person (person-present) and one did not (person-absent). Eye movements were recorded, the principal measures being the time spent looking at each region of the scenes, and the latency and location of the first fixation within each trial. We studied gaze patterns during free viewing, and also in a task requiring gender discrimination of the human figure depicted. Results indicated a strong bias towards looking to the person-present scene. This bias was present on the first fixation after image presentation, confirming previous findings of ultra-rapid processing of complex information. Faces attracted disproportionately many fixations, the preference emerging in the first fixation and becoming stronger in the following ones. These biases were exaggerated in the gender-discrimination task. A tendency to look at the object being fixated by the person in the scene was shown to be strongest at a slightly later point in the gaze sequence. We conclude that human bodies and faces are subject to special perceptual processing when presented as part of a naturalistic scene.     

Hierarchisation and dominance assessment at first glance

In this study 97 subjects were observed during free discussions in same sex triads and dyads. In earlier research, it has been found that rank-ordering in ad hoc groups occurs at a very early phase of the interaction. In this study it is shown that, in the absence of status characteristics, rank-ordering occurs not only right from the beginning of group interactions, but even exists after a first glance, before one word has been spoken. Not only nonverbal behaviours that are usually associated with the development or maintenance of a dominance position appear to be predictive for the amount of talking in the discussion to follow, but also personality measures. As the verbal interactions do not result in a change of the first glance rank-ordering, our data support the view that rapid judgements of interpersonal relationships may occur without much cognitive information processing.     

The revealing glance: Eye gaze behavior to concealed information

We explored the usefulness of eye fixation durations as a dependent measure in a concealed knowledge test, drawing on Ryan, Hannula, and Cohen (2007), who found eye fixations on a familiar face to be longer than fixations on an unknown face. However, in their study, participants always had to select the known face out of three faces; thus, recognition and response intention could not be differentiated. In the experimental phase of our experiment, participants saw six faces per trial and had to select one of them. We had three conditions: In the first, one of the six faces was a known face, and the participants had to conceal that knowledge and select another face (concealed display); in another, one of the six faces was a known face, and the participants had to select that face (revealed display); or finally, all six faces were unknown, and participants had to select any of the six faces (neutral display). Using fixation durations as the dependent measure, we found a pure and early recognition effect; that is, fixations on the concealed faces (known but not selected) were longer than fixations on the nonselected unknown target faces in the neutral display. In addition, we found a response intention effect; that is, fixation durations on the selected known faces were longer than those on concealed faces (known but not selected).     

Visual stimulus input, saccadic suppression, and detection of information from the postsaccade scene

Tachistoscopic presentation of saccadic stimulus sequences to fixating subjects produced saccadic suppression curves only when the pre- and postsaccade fixation fields were structured. Displacement in the sense either of movement of the intrasaccade display or of change from pre- to postsaccade fixation field was not required. Variation of intrasaccade displays from contours moving at saccadic rates to a stationary gray field had no effect. When one structured field immediately followed another, the change of sensitivity mimicked suppression, but an interposed grayout magnified the loss and therefore probably reduced carryover from the first fixation field. Interposed grayout also delayed recovery but reduced the latency of detection of information from the postfield, so that it appears to have reduced stimulus overload from the sudden presentation of the second field.     

Perceptual information for batting can be extracted throughout a ball's trajectory

Studies of batters' eye movements have demonstrated that batters do not (or cannot) maintain fixation on the ball throughout its trajectory. In addition, the velocity of a pitched ball, together with the limitations of human reaction time, seems to imply that only the first portions of the ball's trajectory provide information to batters. We prevented nine experienced fast pitch softball players from viewing the ball during the first, middle, or last third of its trajectory and found that seeing the first third of the ball's trajectory is not as critical as had been thought: batters are very good at making do with whichever two-thirds of the ball's trajectory is visible. The results demonstrate the importance of peripheral vision and indicate that batters can extract perceptual information for batting throughout the flight of the ball.     

Orthographic learning at a glance: on the time course and developmental onset of self-teaching

Experiment 1 examined the time course of orthographic learning among Grade 3 children. A single encounter with a novel orthographic string was sufficient to produce reliable recall of orthographic detail. Moreover, newly acquired orthographic information was retained 1 month later. These data support the logistic learning functions featured in contemporary connectionist models of reading rather than a "threshold" model of orthographic learning. Experiments 2 and 3 examined self-teaching among novice readers. In contrast to the findings from less regular orthographies such as English and Dutch, beginning readers of a highly regular orthography (Hebrew) appear to be relatively insensitive to word-specific orthographic detail, reading in a nonlexical "surface" fashion. These results suggest fundamental differences between shallow and deep orthographies in the development of orthographic sensitivity.     

The importance of information localization in scene gist recognition

People can recognize the meaning or gist of a scene from a single glance, and a few recent studies have begun to examine the sorts of information that contribute to scene gist recognition. The authors of the present study used visual masking coupled with image manipulations (randomizing phase while maintaining the Fourier amplitude spectrum; random image structure evolution [RISE]; J. Sadr & P. Sinha, 2004) to explore whether and when unlocalized Fourier amplitude information contributes to gist perception. In 4 experiments, the authors found that differences between scene categories in the Fourier amplitude spectrum are insufficient for gist recognition or gist masking. Whereas the global 1/f spatial frequency amplitude spectra of scenes plays a role in gist masking, local phase information is necessary for gist recognition and for the strongest gist masking. Moreover, the ability to recognize the gist of a target image was influenced by mask recognizability, suggesting that conceptual masking occurs even at the earliest stages of scene processing.     

Ultrafast scene detection and recognition with limited visual information

Humans can detect target colour pictures of scenes depicting concepts like picnic or harbour in sequences of six or 12 pictures presented as briefly as 13?ms, even when the target is named after the sequence. Such rapid detection suggests that feedforward processing alone enabled detection without recurrent cortical feedback. There is debate about whether coarse, global, low spatial frequencies (LSFs) provide predictive information to high cortical levels through the rapid magnocellular (M) projection of the visual path, enabling top-down prediction of possible object identities. To test the “Fast M” hypothesis, we compared detection of a named target across five stimulus conditions: unaltered colour, blurred colour, greyscale, thresholded monochrome, and LSF pictures. The pictures were presented for 13–80?ms in six-picture rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sequences. Blurred, monochrome, and LSF pictures were detected less accurately than normal colour or greyscale pictures. When the target was named before the sequence, all picture types except LSF resulted in above-chance detection at all durations. Crucially, when the name was given only after the sequence, performance dropped and the monochrome and LSF pictures (but not the blurred pictures) were at or near chance. Thus, without advance information, monochrome and LSF pictures were rarely understood. The results offer only limited support for the Fast M hypothesis, suggesting instead that feedforward processing is able to activate conceptual representations without complementary reentrant processing.     

On the construction of weak orders from fragmentary information

An iterative method is proposed for constructing a weak order from a partial order on a set of stimuli that is based on individual pairwise comparison data. The method generalizes Duncan Luce's construction of the weak order induced by a semiorder. Various aspects of the iterative procedure are discussed, including its rationale, the number of iterations required to obtain a weak order, and the extent to which the data support additions to the initial partial order as a function of the number of iterations performed before the additions occur.This work was supported in part by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to The Institute for Advanced Study.The computer simulation programs for this study were written and run by William Gehrlein. I am grateful to him for his assistance.     

The effect of the first glimpse at a scene on eye movements during search

Previewing scenes briefly makes finding target objects more efficient when viewing is through a gaze-contingent window (windowed viewing). In contrast, showing a preview of a randomly arranged search display does not benefit search efficiency when viewing during search is of the full display. Here, we tested whether a scene preview is beneficial when the scene is fully visible during search. Scene previews, when presented, were 250 ms in duration. During search, the scene was either fully visible or windowed. A preview always provided an advantage, in terms of decreasing the time to initially fixate and respond to targets and in terms of the total number of fixations. In windowed visibility, a preview reduced the distance of fixations from the target position until at least the fourth fixation. In full visibility, previewing reduced the distance of the second fixation but not of later fixations. The gist information derived from the initial glimpse of a scene allowed for placement of the first one or two fixations at information-rich locations, but when nonfoveal information was available, subsequent eye movements were only guided by online information.     

On the concept and consequences of the primal scene.

The concept of the primal scene is in need of redefinition and clarification. The primal scene is not identical with its regressive transformations or later derivatives. Because of the different implications for normal development and for psychopathology, the primal scene as a universal fantasy should be differentiated from the primal scene as real experience. The effects of exposure to the primal scene are considered in relation to the developmental level of the child, other problems in the parent-child relationship, and cultural attitudes.     

Facial attractiveness is appraised in a glance

Those who are physically attractive reap many benefits--from higher average wages to a wider variety of mate choices. Recent studies have investigated what constitutes beauty and how beauty affects explicit social judgments, but little is known about the perceptual or cognitive processing that is affected by aesthetic judgments of faces and why beauty affects our behavior. In this study, the authors show that beauty is perceived when information is minimized by masking or rapid presentation. Perceiving and processing beauty appear to require little attention and to bias subsequent cognitive processes. These facts may make beauty difficult to ignore, possibly leading to its importance in social evaluations.     

An integration of color and motion information in visual scene analyses

To analyze complex scenes efficiently, the human visual system performs perceptual groupings based on various features (e.g., color and motion) of the visual elements in a scene. Although previous studies demonstrated that such groupings can be based on a single feature (e.g., either color or motion information), here we show that the visual system also performs scene analyses based on a combination of two features. We presented subjects with a mixture of red and green dots moving in various directions. Although the pairings between color and motion information were variable across the dots (e.g., one red dot moved upward while another moved rightward), subjects' perceptions of the color-motion pairings were significantly biased when the randomly paired dots were flanked by additional dots with consistent color-motion pairings. These results indicate that the visual system resolves local ambiguities in color-motion pairings using unambiguous pairings in surrounds, demonstrating a new type of scene analysis based on the combination of two featural cues.     

Driver glance behavior towards displayed images on in-vehicle information systems under real driving conditions

Intelligent vehicle technologies like driver assistance systems and in-vehicle information systems, enhance convenience of the driving experience for drivers and passengers. At the same time, these systems may increase driver distraction and workload. Guidelines developed for this purpose include principles, methods, and assessments which are widely agreed upon, with some being singled out for a particular recommendation or requirement. Especially the display of graphical or photographic images are generally assumed to distract the driver from safely operating the vehicle and should be blocked during driving under all circumstances (so called per se lock outs). This study investigates the effect of displaying graphical and photographical images during driving on driveŕs glance behavior during real-world driving. Findings presented in this paper provide empirical evidence for the unobtrusiveness of these stimuli: Participants didn’t exhibit longer glance durations towards in-vehicle information systems, nor a deterioration of driver distraction parameters such as total eyes off road time and long glance proportion when being compared to driving without displaying any photographic images.     

Central sources of visual masking: Indexing structures supporting seeing at a single,brief glance

Summary When two briefly exposed, spatially overlapping visual fields are presented dichoptically, the identifiability of the first field is a J-shaped function of the interval separating their onsets. Three distinct sources of central masking are inferred from the selective influence of variables at different onset asynchronies. In integration through common synthesis, two fields presented at or near simultaneous onset yield one iconic representation. The distinctiveness of this source is inferred from the selective influence of eye dominance at and near simultaneous onset. At longer onset asynchronies, the selective influence of variables such as mask contrast and degree of contour overlap imply a second source of masking. This source was identified with the inhibition of sustained channels by transient channels reported elsewhere. Interchannel inhibition is proposed to affect the fidelity of the iconic representation, but here the imprecision is due to loss of form-relevant information on the first field. At yet longer onset asynchronies, where the fields are phenomenally separate, a third set of variables (e.g., words vs. nonwords and left vs. right visual fields) show their influence. These effects are taken as evidence of a replacement principle: the iconic representation of the second field directs attention from that of the first field. Here, first-field identifiability is constrained by time rather than by impoverished data.In a final series of experiments, central three-field interactions are demonstrated. A field, inserted into the temporal gap between two fields, is perceptually impaired even though it is separated from the first and third fields by intervals at which, individually, neither field is an effective mask. This second-field depression is accompanied by a first-field enhancement. The three sources of central masking are hard pressed to account for the three-field effects.     

Criminal profiling from crime scene analysis

Since the 1970s, investigative profilers at the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (now part of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime) have been assisting local, state, and federal agencies in narrowing investigations by providing criminal personality profiles. An attempt is now being made to describe this criminal-profile-generating process. A series of five overlapping stages lead to the sixth stage, or the goal of apprehension of the offender: (1) profiling inputs, (2) decision-process models, (3) crime assessment, (4) the criminal profile, (5) investigation, and (6) apprehension. Two key feedback filters in the process are: (a) achieving congruence with the evidence, with decision models, and with investigation recommendations, and (b) the addition of new evidence.