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

Scene context guides eye movements during visual search.

Mark B Neider1, Gregory J Zelinsky

  • 1Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA.

Vision Research
|October 21, 2005
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

Multiple patterns of selectivity in superior colliculus control visual search.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

MATCH: A toolbox to assess the primary color of real-world objects and generate color-matching stimuli.

Behavior research methods·2025
Same author

Top-down categorical information can be utilized in distractor suppression.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2025
Same author

How robust is categorial distractor suppression? Assessing the impact of additional categories and increased set size.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2025
Same author

Evaluating theories of neural information integration during visual search.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2024
Same author

The attentive reconstruction of objects facilitates robust object recognition.

PLoS computational biology·2024
Same journal

Impact of crowding on visual appearance and performance in amblyopia.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Editorial for VSI Amblyopia: Advances in Amblyopia Research.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Computational and mathematical models in vision: Quantitative approaches to understanding visual perception.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Complex interactions between lightness, chroma, and hue in color ensemble perception.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Driving with autism spectrum disorder: Exploring the impact of tactile hazard warnings on gaze behavior and hazard responses.

Vision research·2026
Same journal

Early visual processing in adults with ADHD: evidence from contrast sensitivity, spatial integration, and external noise.

Vision research·2026
See all related articles

Scene context significantly speeds up visual search for expected targets by guiding eye movements to relevant areas. However, search is not strictly limited, as shown by fixations on unlikely locations.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Visual perception
  • Scene understanding

Background:

  • Visual search is influenced by contextual information.
  • Understanding how scene context guides attention is crucial for explaining visual search efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how scene context influences visual search behavior.
  • To determine if scene context directs search to likely target locations and affects search efficiency.

Main Methods:

  • Participants searched for targets in scenes under conditions where the target was either scene-constrained or scene-unconstrained.
  • Eye movements (saccades and fixations) were recorded during the search tasks.
  • Detection times and search patterns were analyzed.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Scene-constrained targets were detected faster and required fewer eye movements compared to scene-unconstrained targets.
  • Initial eye movements (saccades) were more frequently directed towards regions consistent with the target's expected location within the scene.
  • Search time was longer in target-consistent regions, but final fixations on inconsistent regions occurred, especially in target-absent trials.

Conclusions:

  • Scene context rapidly biases visual search behavior towards target-consistent regions.
  • While scene context guides search effectively, it does not strictly limit exploration, allowing for thorough checking of potential target locations.