Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Attention-based visual routines: sprites.

P Cavanagh1, A T Labianca, I M Thornton

  • 1Vision Sciences Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. patrick@wjh.harvard.edu

Cognition
|March 14, 2001
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

First- and second-order transformational apparent motion rely on common shape representations.

Vision research·2021
Same author

Visual search for feature and conjunction targets with an attention deficit.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2013
Same author

The visual perception of human locomotion.

Cognitive neuropsychology·2012
Same author

Holographic and trace strength models of rehearsal effects in the item recognition task.

Memory & cognition·2011
Same author

Attentional resolution.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2011
Same author

Optokinetic technique for measuring infants' responses to color.

Applied optics·2010
Same journal

Corrigendum to 'Consonant, vowel, and tone cues in early wordform recognition: Evidence from Cantonese-learning infants' [Cognition 275 (2026) 106624].

Cognition·2026
Same journal

Identifying distinct sources of whole number interference in children's decimal comparison: the role of numerical magnitude and inhibitory control.

Cognition·2026
Same journal

Evidence for abstract spatial concept learning in young animals.

Cognition·2026
Same journal

Blurred lines or clear boundaries? Synchrony and social dominance shape domain-specific self-other processing.

Cognition·2026
Same journal

Knowability predicts curiosity and learning.

Cognition·2026
Same journal

Throwing good effort after bad: Evidence for a sunk-cost effect in cognitive effort-based decision-making.

Cognition·2026
See all related articles

Visual attention is crucial for describing complex object motions, like a bouncing pencil or walking human. Even simple dynamic patterns require focused visual attention for perception.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Visual attention generates object descriptions beyond early visual processing.
  • High-level descriptions involve recognizing dynamic patterns of familiar objects in motion.
  • Examples include object actions like a bouncing pencil or a butterfly in flight.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if attention mediates the perception of high-level dynamic action patterns.
  • To determine if attention acts as a high-level animation or 'sprite' for these patterns.

Main Methods:

  • Studied the discrimination of dynamic patterns using rigidly linked sets of points.
  • Utilized displays of orbiting point pairs and 11 points mimicking human biological motion.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Discrimination of simple dynamic patterns, such as orbiting points, was examined.
  • Perception of biological motion patterns was also investigated.
  • Findings indicate that attention is necessary for discriminating these dynamic patterns.

Conclusions:

  • The perception of complex, high-level dynamic patterns requires focused visual attention.
  • Attention is essential for interpreting object actions, even those composed of simple motion elements.