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 Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The spontaneous prioritization of "unfinishedness" in perception: A visual Zeigarnik effect.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2026
Same author

The El Greco Fallacy, this Time with Feeling: How (not) to Measure Group Differences in Emotional Intensity.

Affective science·2025
Same author

Pouring, scooping, bouncing, rolling, twisting, and rotating: Does spontaneous categorical perception of dynamic event types reflect verbal encoding or visual processing?

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2025
Same author

Attending to attention: Reverse correlation reveals subtle cues to attentiveness in others' faces.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2025
Same author

Computational models reveal that intuitive physics underlies visual processing of soft objects.

Nature communications·2025
Same author

Effector independence in writing.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2025

Automated Visual Cognitive Tasks for Recording Neural Activity Using a Floor Projection Maze
11:15

Automated Visual Cognitive Tasks for Recording Neural Activity Using a Floor Projection Maze

Published on: February 20, 2014

13.1K

Spontaneous path tracing in task-irrelevant mazes: Spatial affordances trigger dynamic visual routines.

Kimberly W Wong1, Brian J Scholl1

  • 1Department of Psychology, Yale University.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. General
|July 18, 2024
PubMed
Summary

Seeing a maze can automatically trigger mental path tracing, even without a goal. This incidental visual routine suggests automatic processing in vision.

More Related Videos

Utilizing a Reconfigurable Maze System to Enhance the Reproducibility of Spatial Navigation Tests in Rodents
04:41

Utilizing a Reconfigurable Maze System to Enhance the Reproducibility of Spatial Navigation Tests in Rodents

Published on: December 2, 2022

2.7K
Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions
07:09

Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions

Published on: May 2, 2019

6.1K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 20, 2025

Automated Visual Cognitive Tasks for Recording Neural Activity Using a Floor Projection Maze
11:15

Automated Visual Cognitive Tasks for Recording Neural Activity Using a Floor Projection Maze

Published on: February 20, 2014

13.1K
Utilizing a Reconfigurable Maze System to Enhance the Reproducibility of Spatial Navigation Tests in Rodents
04:41

Utilizing a Reconfigurable Maze System to Enhance the Reproducibility of Spatial Navigation Tests in Rodents

Published on: December 2, 2022

2.7K
Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions
07:09

Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions

Published on: May 2, 2019

6.1K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Visual Perception
  • Affordance Theory

Background:

  • Mental path tracing is often assumed to be goal-directed, requiring conscious intent.
  • Gibson's affordance theory suggests that environmental properties directly prompt action.
  • Visual routines are sequences of eye movements and attention shifts during visual processing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether mental path tracing can occur incidentally, without a voluntary goal.
  • To explore if visual routines, like path tracing, can be stimulus-driven and automatic.
  • To test if the visual structure of a maze affords incidental path tracing.

Main Methods:

  • Participants compared visual probes presented within a maze.
  • The maze was task-irrelevant; participants' only task was probe comparison.
  • Reaction times were measured to assess processing efficiency along maze paths.

Main Results:

  • Participants were slower to compare probes farther apart along maze paths, irrespective of linear distance.
  • This effect persisted even when controlling for basic visual properties.
  • Similar results were observed with other obstacle-rich, unfamiliar visual displays.

Conclusions:

  • Visual perception of environmental structure can automatically afford mental path tracing.
  • Some visual routines may operate incidentally, as a stimulus-driven process.
  • This challenges the notion that all visual routines require voluntary goals.