Facilitation of pattern recognition by cuing foveation with the luminance centroid as origin of the frame of...

The strategy for visual information processing must vary with the specific situation. We assume that in recognition of pre-learnt letter-like patterns under time-pressure conditions, mechanisms of selective attention are involved. We propose that, with simple stimuli, foveation is to the luminance centroids of such patterns, and if normally the latter has to be computed by the brain, cuing such information should improve performance. This assumption was tested on three subjects with five stimuli. In confirmation of the working hypothesis, we found significant improvements in performance (P = 0.01 or better) for each of the stimuli, with cuing to 'relevant' as compared with 'irrelevant' sites, and also when the point of foveation was nearer to the 'nodal' site. It is concluded that in pattern recognition processes, nodal regions are computed, the luminance centroid for example, for simple pattern stimuli.