No abstract

Selecting and remembering visual information is an active and competitive process. In natural environments, representations are tightly coupled to task. Objects that are task-relevant are remembered better due to a combination of increased selection for fixation and strategic control of encoding and/or retaining viewed information. However, it is not understood how physically manipulating objects when performing a natural task influences priorities for selection and memory. In this study, we compare priorities for selection and memory when actively engaged in a natural task with first-person observation of the same object manipulations. Results suggest that active manipulation of a task-relevant object results in a specific prioritization for object position information compared with other properties and compared with action observation of the same manipulations. Experiment 2 confirms that this spatial prioritization is likely to arise from manipulation rather than differences in spatial representation in real environments and the movies used for action observation. Thus, our findings imply that physical manipulation of task relevant objects results in a specific prioritization of spatial information about task-relevant objects, possibly coupled with strategic de-prioritization of colour memory for irrelevant objects.

No abstract

In his instructional art book, Andrew Loomis provides images and corresponding diagrams that indicate how the composition of the image should guide the viewer's eye. Using these images, we examined whether participants would follow the suggested cues. Participants' eyes were tracked as they viewed the images, allowing us to take measures of where they entered and exited the image, whether they attended to the focal part of the image, and what path they followed between these components. These measures could then be compared with Loomis' suggestions, to determine if the elements did indeed have the proposed influence. While viewers were attracted to the focal points, and spent the most time examining these, they did not use the entry and exit points marked by Loomis, and the suggested viewing paths were not closely followed. It appears that Loomis' suggested elements of composition do not strongly influence viewers' eye movements.

No abstract