Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 19, 2026

Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions
Published on: May 2, 2019
The FeatureGate model of visual selection
1Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, UK. kyle.r.cave@vanderbilt.edu
Abstract:
The model presented here is an attempt to explain the results from a number of different studies in visual attention, including parallel feature searches and serial conjunction searches. Variations in such slope with variations in feature contrast and individual subject differences, attentional gradients triggered by cueing, feature-driven spatial selection, split attention, inhibition of distractor locations, and flanking inhibition. The model is implemented in a neural network consisting of a hierarchy of spatial maps. Attentional gates control the flow of information from each level of the hierarchy to the next. The gates are jointly controlled by a Bottom-Up System favoring locations with unique features and a Top-Down System favoring locations with features designated as target features. Because the gating of each location depends on the features presented there, the model is called FeatureGate.
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