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Visual Selection: Usually Fast and Automatic; Seldom Slow and Volitional.

¹Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Institute Brain and Behavior Amsterdam (iBBA), NL.

Journal of Cognition

|September 14, 2019

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Visual selection is often driven by past experiences and learned biases, not just conscious control. These automatic, history-based processes shape our perception more than previously thought.

Keywords:

attention selection history top-down and bottom-up control

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Visual selection is traditionally explained by top-down (goal-directed) and bottom-up (stimulus-driven) processes.
A recent proposal suggests lingering biases from selection history significantly influence visual selection.
This has sparked debate regarding the precise definitions and roles of these selection mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

To clarify the definitions of top-down, bottom-up, and selection-history processes in visual selection.
To discuss controversies surrounding these terms and delineate effects attributable to selection history.
To differentiate the characteristics of top-down versus history-based visual selection.

Main Methods:

Literature review and conceptual analysis.
Definition and categorization of visual selection mechanisms.
Discussion of empirical evidence supporting different selection models.

Main Results:

Selection history effects include priming, reward/fear learning, and statistical learning.
Top-down selection is characterized as slow, effortful, and controlled.
History-based selection is fast, effortless, and automatic, enhancing feature representation subjectively.

Conclusions:

True top-down control in visual selection is less frequent than commonly assumed.
Visual selection predominantly relies on past experience and learned biases.
This highlights the significant, often automatic, role of selection history in shaping perception.