Visual search in scenes involves selective and nonselective pathways

Jeremy M Wolfe; Melissa L.-H. Võ; Karla K. Evans; Michelle R. Greene

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.12.001

Visual search in scenes involves selective and nonselective pathways

Jeremy M Wolfe, Melissa L.-H. Võ, Karla K. Evans, Michelle R. Greene

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

How does one find objects in scenes? For decades, visual search models have been built on experiments in which observers search for targets, presented among distractor items, isolated and randomly arranged on blank backgrounds. Are these models relevant to search in continuous scenes? This article argues that the mechanisms that govern artificial, laboratory search tasks do play a role in visual search in scenes. However, scene-based information is used to guide search in ways that had no place in earlier models. Search in scenes might be best explained by a dual-path model: a 'selective' path in which candidate objects must be individually selected for recognition and a 'nonselective' path in which information can be extracted from global and/or statistical information.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	77-84
Number of pages	8
Journal	Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume	15
Issue number	2
Early online date	10 Jan 2011
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.12.001
Publication status	Published - Feb 2011

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Discrimination (Psychology)
Exploratory Behavior
Eye Movements
Humans
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Problem Solving
Visual Pathways
Visual Perception

Access to Document

10.1016/j.tics.2010.12.001

Cite this

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abstract = "How does one find objects in scenes? For decades, visual search models have been built on experiments in which observers search for targets, presented among distractor items, isolated and randomly arranged on blank backgrounds. Are these models relevant to search in continuous scenes? This article argues that the mechanisms that govern artificial, laboratory search tasks do play a role in visual search in scenes. However, scene-based information is used to guide search in ways that had no place in earlier models. Search in scenes might be best explained by a dual-path model: a 'selective' path in which candidate objects must be individually selected for recognition and a 'nonselective' path in which information can be extracted from global and/or statistical information.",

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