Institute for Psychology, University of Münster, 48143, Münster, Germany.
Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, 48143, Münster, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Apr 17;14(1):8907. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-59657-5.
In natural environments, head movements are required to search for objects outside the field of view (FoV). Here we investigate the power of a salient target in an extended visual search array to facilitate faster detection once this item comes into the FoV by a head movement. We conducted two virtual reality experiments using spatially clustered sets of stimuli to observe target detection and head and eye movements during visual search. Participants completed search tasks with three conditions: (1) target in the initial FoV, (2) head movement needed to bring the target into the FoV, (3) same as condition 2 but the periphery was initially hidden and appeared after the head movement had brought the location of the target set into the FoV. We measured search time until participants found a more salient (O) or less salient (T) target among distractors (L). On average O's were found faster than T's. Gaze analysis showed that saliency facilitation occurred due to the target guiding the search only if it was within the initial FoV. When targets required a head movement to enter the FoV, participants followed the same search strategy as in trials without a visible target in the periphery. Moreover, faster search times for salient targets were only caused by the time required to find the target once the target set was reached. This suggests that the effect of stimulus saliency differs between visual search on fixed displays and when we are actively searching through an extended visual field.
在自然环境中，需要头部运动来搜索视野（FoV）之外的物体。在这里，我们研究了在扩展视觉搜索阵列中突出目标的力量，以通过头部运动将该项目引入 FoV 后更快地进行检测。我们使用空间聚类的刺激物集进行了两项虚拟现实实验，以观察视觉搜索期间的目标检测以及头部和眼睛运动。参与者在三种条件下完成搜索任务：（1）目标在初始 FoV 中，（2）需要头部运动将目标带入 FoV，（3）与条件 2 相同，但外围最初隐藏，在头部运动将目标集的位置带入 FoV 后出现。我们测量了参与者找到更突出（O）或不那么突出（T）目标的搜索时间，其中干扰物为（L）。平均而言，O 的发现速度比 T 快。注视分析表明，只有当目标在初始 FoV 内时，目标的显著性促进才会发生。当目标需要头部运动才能进入 FoV 时，参与者遵循与外围没有可见目标的试验相同的搜索策略。此外，对于显著目标的更快搜索时间仅归因于一旦目标集被找到所需的时间。这表明，刺激显著性的影响在固定显示器上的视觉搜索和我们主动通过扩展视野进行搜索时有所不同。
