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Description
Our eyes never stop moving, even during attempted gaze fixation. Fixational eye movements, which include tremor, drift, and microsaccades, are necessary to prevent retinal image adaptation, but may also result in unstable vision. Fortunately, the nervous system can suppress the retinal displacements induced by fixational eye movements and consequently kee

Our eyes never stop moving, even during attempted gaze fixation. Fixational eye movements, which include tremor, drift, and microsaccades, are necessary to prevent retinal image adaptation, but may also result in unstable vision. Fortunately, the nervous system can suppress the retinal displacements induced by fixational eye movements and consequently keep our vision stable. The neural correlates of perceptual suppression during fixational eye movements are controversial. Also, the contribution of retinal versus extraretinal inputs to microsaccade-induced neuronal responses in the primary visual cortex (i.e. area V1) remain unclear. Here I show that V1 neuronal responses to microsaccades are different from those to stimulus motions simulating microsaccades. Responses to microsaccades consist of an initial excitatory component followed by an inhibitory component, which may be attributed to retinal and extraretinal signals, respectively. I also discuss the effects of the fixation target's size and luminance on microsaccade properties. Fixation targets are frequently used in psychophysical and electrophysiological research, and may have uncontrolled influences on experimental results. I found that microsaccade rates and magnitudes change linearly with fixation target size, but not with fixation target luminance. Finally, I present ion a novel variation of the Ouchi-Spillmann illusion, in which fixational eye movements may play a role.
ContributorsNajafian Jazi, Ali (Author) / Buneo, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Martinez-Conde, Susana (Thesis advisor) / Macknik, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
When people look for things in their environment they use a target template - a mental representation of the object they are attempting to locate - to guide their attention around a scene and to assess incoming visual input to determine if they have found that for which they are

When people look for things in their environment they use a target template - a mental representation of the object they are attempting to locate - to guide their attention around a scene and to assess incoming visual input to determine if they have found that for which they are searching. However, unlike laboratory experiments, searchers in the real-world rarely have perfect knowledge regarding the appearance of their target. In five experiments (with nearly 1,000 participants), we examined how the precision of the observer's template affects their ability to conduct visual search. Specifically, we simulated template imprecision in two ways: First, by contaminating our searchers' templates with inaccurate features, and second, by introducing extraneous features to the template that were unhelpful. In those experiments we recorded the eye movements of our searchers in order to make inferences regarding the extent to which attentional guidance and decision-making are hindered by template imprecision. We also examined a third way in which templates may become imprecise; namely, that they may deteriorate over time. Overall, our findings support a dual-function theory of the target template, and highlight the importance of examining template precision in future research.
ContributorsHout, Michael C (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Thesis advisor) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Reichle, Erik (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
During attempted fixation, the eyes are not still but continue to produce so called "fixational eye movements", which include microsaccades, drift, and tremor. Microsaccades are thought to help prevent and restore vision loss during fixation, and to correct fixation errors, but how they contribute to these functions remains a matter

During attempted fixation, the eyes are not still but continue to produce so called "fixational eye movements", which include microsaccades, drift, and tremor. Microsaccades are thought to help prevent and restore vision loss during fixation, and to correct fixation errors, but how they contribute to these functions remains a matter of debate. This dissertation presents the results of four experiments conducted to address current controversies concerning the role of microsaccades in visibility and oculomotor control.

The first two experiments set out to correlate microsaccade production with the visibility of foveal and peripheral targets of varied spatial frequencies, during attempted fixation. The results indicate that microsaccades restore the visibility of both peripheral targets and targets presented entirely within the fovea, as a function of their spatial frequency characteristics.

The last two experiments set out to determine the role of microsaccades and drifts on the correction of gaze-position errors due to blinks in human and non-human primates, and to characterize microsaccades forming square-wave jerks (SWJs) in non-human primates. The results showed that microsaccades, but not drifts, correct gaze-position errors due to blinks, and that SWJ production and dynamic properties are equivalent in human and non-human primates.

These combined findings suggest that microsaccades, like saccades, serve multiple and non-exclusive functional roles in vision and oculomotor control, as opposed to having a single specialized function.
ContributorsCostela, Francisco M (Author) / Crook, Sharon M (Committee member) / Martinez-Conde, Susana (Committee member) / Macknik, Stephen L. (Committee member) / Baer, Stephen (Committee member) / McCamy, Michael B (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Current theoretical debate, crossing the bounds of memory theory and mental imagery, surrounds the role of eye movements in successful encoding and retrieval. Although the eyes have been shown to revisit previously-viewed locations during retrieval, the functional role of these saccades is not known. Understanding the potential role of eye

Current theoretical debate, crossing the bounds of memory theory and mental imagery, surrounds the role of eye movements in successful encoding and retrieval. Although the eyes have been shown to revisit previously-viewed locations during retrieval, the functional role of these saccades is not known. Understanding the potential role of eye movements may help address classic questions in recognition memory. Specifically, are episodic traces rich and detailed, characterized by a single strength-driven recognition process, or are they better described by two separate processes, one for vague information and one for the retrieval of detail? Three experiments are reported, in which participants encoded audio-visual information while completing controlled patterns of eye movements. By presenting information in four sources (i.e., voices), assessments of specific and partial source memory were measured at retrieval. Across experiments, participants' eye movements at test were manipulated. Experiment 1 allowed free viewing, Experiment 2 required externally-cued fixations to previously-relevant (or irrelevant) screen locations, and Experiment 3 required externally-cued new or familiar oculomotor patterns to multiple screen locations in succession. Although eye movements were spontaneously reinstated when gaze was unconstrained during retrieval (Experiment 1), externally-cueing participants to re-engage in fixations or oculomotor patterns from encoding (Experiments 2 and 3) did not enhance retrieval. Across all experiments, participants' memories were well-described by signal-detection models of memory. Source retrieval was characterized by a continuous process, with evidence that source retrieval occurred following item memory failures, and additional evidence that participants partially recollected source, in the absence of specific item retrieval. Pupillometry provided an unbiased metric by which to compute receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, which were consistently curvilinear (but linear in z-space), supporting signal-detection predictions over those from dual-process theories. Implications for theoretical views of memory representations are discussed.
ContributorsPapesh, Megan H (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Thesis advisor) / Brewer, Gene A. (Committee member) / Reichle, Erik D. (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
Geoscience educators commonly teach geology by projecting a photograph in front of the class. Geologic photographs often contain animals, people, and inanimate objects that help convey the scale of features in the photograph. Although scale items seem innocuous to instructors and other experts, the presence of such items is distracting

Geoscience educators commonly teach geology by projecting a photograph in front of the class. Geologic photographs often contain animals, people, and inanimate objects that help convey the scale of features in the photograph. Although scale items seem innocuous to instructors and other experts, the presence of such items is distracting and has a profound effect on student learning behavior. To evaluate how students visually interact with distracting scale items in photographs and to determine if cueing or signaling is an effective means to direct students to pertinent information, students were eye tracked while looking at geologically-rich photographs. Eye-tracking data revealed that learners primarily looked at the center of an image, focused on faces of both humans and animals if they were present, and repeatedly returned to looking at the scale item (distractor) for the duration an image was displayed. The presence of a distractor caused learners to look at less of an image than when a distractor was not present. Learners who received signaling tended to look at the distractor less, look at the geology more, and surveyed more of the photograph than learners who did not receive signaling. The San Antonio area in the southern part of the Baja California Peninsula is host to hydrothermal gold deposits. A field study, including drill-core analysis and detailed geologic mapping, was conducted to determine the types of mineralization present, the types of structures present, and the relationship between the two. This investigation revealed that two phases of mineralization have occurred in the area; the first is hydrothermal deposition of gold associated with sulfide deposits and the second is oxidation of sulfides to hematite, goethite, and jarosite. Mineralization varies as a function of depth, whereas sulfides occurring at depth, while minerals indicative of oxidation are limited to shallow depths. A structural analysis revealed that the oldest structures in the study area include low-grade to medium-grade metamorphic foliation and ductile mylonitic shear zones overprinted by brittle-ductile mylonitic fabrics, which were later overprinted by brittle deformation. Both primary and secondary mineralization in the area is restricted to the later brittle features. Alteration-bearing structures have an average NNW strike consistent with northeast-southwest-directed extension, whereas unaltered structures have an average NNE strike consistent with more recent northwest-southeast-directed extension.
ContributorsCoyan, Joshua (Author) / Reynolds, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Arrowsmith, Ramon (Committee member) / Chi, Michelene (Committee member) / Piburn, Michael (Committee member) / Semken, Steven (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
The label-feedback hypothesis (Lupyan, 2007) proposes that language can modulate low- and high-level visual processing, such as “priming” a visual object. Lupyan and Swingley (2012) found that repeating target names facilitates visual search, resulting in shorter reaction times (RTs) and higher accuracy. However, a design limitation made their

The label-feedback hypothesis (Lupyan, 2007) proposes that language can modulate low- and high-level visual processing, such as “priming” a visual object. Lupyan and Swingley (2012) found that repeating target names facilitates visual search, resulting in shorter reaction times (RTs) and higher accuracy. However, a design limitation made their results challenging to assess. This study evaluated whether self-directed speech influences target locating (i.e. attentional guidance) or target identification after location (i.e. decision time), testing whether the Label Feedback Effect reflects changes in visual attention or some other mechanism (e.g. template maintenance in working memory). Across three experiments, search RTs and eye movements were analyzed from four within-subject conditions. People spoke target names, nonwords, irrelevant (absent) object names, or irrelevant (present) object names. Speaking target names weakly facilitates visual search, but speaking different names strongly inhibits search. The most parsimonious account is that language affects target maintenance during search, rather than visual perception.
ContributorsHebert, Katherine P (Author) / Goldinger, Stephen D (Thesis advisor) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Committee member) / McClure, Samuel M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Visual attention (VA) is the study of mechanisms that allow the human visual system (HVS) to selectively process relevant visual information. This work focuses on the subjective and objective evaluation of computational VA models for the distortion-free case as well as in the presence of image distortions.



Existing VA models are

Visual attention (VA) is the study of mechanisms that allow the human visual system (HVS) to selectively process relevant visual information. This work focuses on the subjective and objective evaluation of computational VA models for the distortion-free case as well as in the presence of image distortions.



Existing VA models are traditionally evaluated by using VA metrics that quantify the match between predicted saliency and fixation data obtained from eye-tracking experiments on human observers. Though there is a considerable number of objective VA metrics, there exists no study that validates that these metrics are adequate for the evaluation of VA models. This work constructs a VA Quality (VAQ) Database by subjectively assessing the prediction performance of VA models on distortion-free images. Additionally, shortcomings in existing metrics are discussed through illustrative examples and a new metric that uses local weights based on fixation density and that overcomes these flaws, is proposed. The proposed VA metric outperforms all other popular existing metrics in terms of the correlation with subjective ratings.



In practice, the image quality is affected by a host of factors at several stages of the image processing pipeline such as acquisition, compression, and transmission. However, none of the existing studies have discussed the subjective and objective evaluation of visual saliency models in the presence of distortion. In this work, a Distortion-based Visual Attention Quality (DVAQ) subjective database is constructed to evaluate the quality of VA maps for images in the presence of distortions. For creating this database, saliency maps obtained from images subjected to various types of distortions, including blur, noise and compression, and varying levels of distortion severity are rated by human observers in terms of their visual resemblance to corresponding ground-truth fixation density maps. The performance of traditionally used as well as recently proposed VA metrics are evaluated by correlating their scores with the human subjective ratings. In addition, an objective evaluation of 20 state-of-the-art VA models is performed using the top-performing VA metrics together with a study of how the VA models’ prediction performance changes with different types and levels of distortions.
ContributorsGide, Milind Subhash (Author) / Karam, Lina J (Thesis advisor) / Abousleman, Glen (Committee member) / Li, Baoxin (Committee member) / Reisslein, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016