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Regional effects of clutter on human target detection performance.
Matthew F Asher1, David J Tolhurst, Tom Troscianko
1School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. psmfa@bristol.ac.uk
Journal of Vision
|April 27, 2013
Summary
Computational models of visual clutter weakly correlate with human search performance in natural scenes. Different clutter measures impact search at varying scales, with Feature Congestion strongest at the target and Sub-band Entropy in surrounding regions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Computer Vision
- Psychology
Background:
- Visual clutter is prevalent in everyday environments and can impede object search.
- Existing computational models of clutter perform well in simplified search tasks.
- Human visual search performance in natural scenes remains a key area of investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the correlation between computational models of visual clutter and human performance in natural scene visual search.
- To determine which clutter measures best predict human search efficiency.
- To identify the spatial scales at which different clutter metrics influence search.
Main Methods:
- Correlated human visual search performance with four computational clutter models: Feature Congestion, Sub-band Entropy, Segmentation, and Edge Density.
- Analyzed correlations across target-centered subregions to generate a correlation profile.
- Utilized natural scenes for the visual search task.
Main Results:
- Overall clutter showed a weak correlation with search performance (r ≈ 0.2).
- Feature Congestion correlated most strongly with performance at the immediate target location.
- Sub-band Entropy showed the highest correlation in a 12° × 12° region around the target.
Conclusions:
- Computational models of visual clutter have limited predictive power for human search in natural scenes.
- Different clutter metrics capture distinct aspects of visual search difficulty.
- The spatial scale of analysis is critical when assessing the impact of clutter on visual search.
