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Eye movements dissociate between perceiving, sensing, and unconscious change detection in scenes
Michelle M Ramey1,2,3, John M Henderson4,5, Andrew P Yonelinas4,6
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA. mmramey@ucdavis.edu.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|June 2, 2022
Summary
Visual change detection involves perceiving, sensing, or unconscious awareness. Perceiving changes involves revisiting scene areas, while unconscious detection shows clustered eye movements, indicating distinct attentional mechanisms.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Ophthalmology
Background:
- Visual change detection encompasses perceiving, sensing, and unconscious awareness.
- Distinct functional and neural processes underlie these detection types.
- Attentional mechanisms for these processes are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the distinct attentional mechanisms related to perceiving, sensing, and unconscious visual change detection.
- To analyze eye movement patterns during a change detection task with varying levels of awareness.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed a change detection task with manipulated scenes.
- Eye movements were tracked during scene presentations.
- Confidence ratings were used to differentiate perceiving, sensing, and unconscious change detection.
Main Results:
- Perceiving-based change detection showed increased resampling of changed regions within 250 ms.
- Unconscious change detection was associated with more clustered eye movements, especially when no change was consciously detected.
- Sensing-based and unconscious change detection did not show increased resampling.
Conclusions:
- Perceiving, sensing, and unconscious visual change detection are associated with distinct eye movement patterns.
- Early attentional mechanisms differentiate perceiving from other detection types.
- Evidence suggests change detection can occur outside conscious awareness, influencing behavior.
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