Hue distinctiveness overrides category in determining performance in multiple object tracking

Abstract

The visual distinctiveness between targets and distractors can significantly facilitate performance in multiple object tracking (MOT), in which color is a feature that has been commonly used. However, the processing of color can be more than "visual." Color is continuous in chromaticity, while it is commonly grouped into discrete categories (e.g., red, green). Evidence from color perception suggested that color categories may have a unique role in visual tasks independent of its chromatic appearance. Previous MOT studies have not examined the effect of chromatic and categorical distinctiveness on tracking separately. The current study aimed to reveal how chromatic (hue) and categorical distinctiveness of color between the targets and distractors affects tracking performance. With four experiments, we showed that tracking performance was largely facilitated by the increasing hue distance between the target set and the distractor set, suggesting that perceptual grouping was formed based on hue distinctiveness to aid tracking. However, we found no color categorical effect, because tracking performance was not significantly different when the targets and distractors were from the same or different categories. It was concluded that the chromatic distinctiveness of color overrides category in determining tracking performance, suggesting a dominant role of perceptual feature in MOT.

Language Modulates Categorical Effects of Moving Color Objects

“…Within-category targets are easier to be grouped, consequently facilitating attention maintenance and location tracking relative to cross-category ones. While color, as a surface feature of moving objects, has been repetitively demonstrated to influence motion processing (Andersen et al, 2009;Martinovic et al, 2009;Sun et al, 2018;Wuerger et al, 2011), this study was the first to reveal CP effects in the MOT task. It suggested that color categories can modulate the way we track moving objects, not just the way we perceive color or colored objects, which has been the focus of most previous CP studies.…”

Object correspondence: Using perceived causality to infer how the visual system knows what went where

“…The large literature on multiple-object tracking that has emerged in the wake of the FINST theory has addressed the question of what role feature and semantic identity information plays in the covert tracking of multiple moving. The findings have been variable, with some studies showing evidence that feature and identity information is used to track objects and others that it is not (e.g., Cohen, Pinto, Howe, & Horowitz, 2011;Horowitz et al, 2007;Makovski & Jiang, 2009;Sun, Zhang, Fan, & Hu, 2018).…”

The effects of colour complexity and similarity on multiple object tracking performance

“…Pylyshyn, 2004; Scholl, 2007, 2009). Researchers have used objects with different surface features as tracking stimuli in MOT to investigate the effects of surface features of objects on attentive tracking performance (Cohen, Pinto, Howe, & Horowitz, 2011; Horowitz et al, 2007; Howard & Holcombe, 2008; Makovski & Jiang, 2009a, 2009b; Oksama & Hyönä, 2004, 2008; Stormer, Li, Heekeren, & Lindenberger, 2011; Sun, Zhang, Fan, & Hu, 2018; Wang, Zhang, Li, & Lyu, 2016; Wei, Zhang, Li, & Liu, 2018; Wei, Zhang, Lyu, & Li, 2016).…”