Institute of Psychology, Kiel University, Olshausenstr. 62, 24118, Kiel, Germany.
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Sci Rep. 2020 Dec 16;10(1):22057. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-78203-7.
Whether fixation selection in real-world scenes is guided by image salience or by objects has been a matter of scientific debate. To contrast the two views, we compared effects of location-based and object-based visual salience in young and older (65 + years) adults. Generalized linear mixed models were used to assess the unique contribution of salience to fixation selection in scenes. When analysing fixation guidance without recurrence to objects, visual salience predicted whether image patches were fixated or not. This effect was reduced for the elderly, replicating an earlier finding. When using objects as the unit of analysis, we found that highly salient objects were more frequently selected for fixation than objects with low visual salience. Interestingly, this effect was larger for older adults. We also analysed where viewers fixate within objects, once they are selected. A preferred viewing location close to the centre of the object was found for both age groups. The results support the view that objects are important units of saccadic selection. Reconciling the salience view with the object view, we suggest that visual salience contributes to prioritization among objects. Moreover, the data point towards an increasing relevance of object-bound information with increasing age.
在真实场景中，是基于图像显著度还是基于物体来进行注视选择一直是科学争论的问题。为了对比这两种观点，我们比较了基于位置和基于物体的视觉显著度对年轻和老年（65 岁以上）成年人注视选择的影响。广义线性混合模型用于评估显著度对视场中注视选择的独特贡献。在不考虑物体的情况下分析注视引导时，视觉显著度预测图像块是否被注视。这一效应在老年人中减弱，再现了早期的发现。当将物体作为分析单位时，我们发现高显著度的物体比低视觉显著度的物体更容易被选择进行注视。有趣的是，这一效应在老年人中更大。我们还分析了在选择物体后，观察者在物体内部的注视位置。发现两组观察者都更喜欢将注视点集中在物体的中心附近。结果支持了物体是扫视选择的重要单位的观点。为了调和显著度观点和物体观点，我们认为视觉显著度有助于在物体之间进行优先级排序。此外，数据表明，随着年龄的增长，基于物体的信息的相关性越来越大。
