Intact Contextual Cueing for Search in Realistic Scenes with Simulated Central or Peripheral Vision Loss

Abstract

Search in repeatedly presented visual search displays can benefit from implicit learning of the display items' spatial configuration. This effect has been named contextual cueing. Previously, contextual cueing was found to be reduced in observers with foveal or peripheral vision loss. Whereas this previous work used symbolic (T among L-shape) search displays with arbitrary configurations, here we investigated search in realistic scenes. Search in meaningful realistic scenes may benefit much more from explicit memory of the target location. We hypothesized that this explicit recall of the target location reduces visuospatial working memory demands on search considerably, thereby enabling efficient search guidance by learnt contextual cues in observers with vision loss. Methods: Two experiments with gaze-contingent scotoma simulation (Experiment 1: central scotoma, Experiment 2: peripheral scotoma) were carried out with normalsighted observers (total n = 39/40). Observers had to find a cup in pseudorealistic indoor scenes and discriminate the direction of the cup's handle. Results: With both central and peripheral scotoma simulation, contextual cueing was observed in repeatedly presented configurations. Conclusions: The data show that patients suffering from central or peripheral vision loss may benefit more from memory-guided visual search than would be expected from scotoma simulation and patient studies using abstract symbolic search displays. Translational Relevance: In the assessment of visual search in patients with vision loss, semantically meaningless abstract search displays may gain insights into deficient search functions, but more realistic meaningful search scenes are needed to assess whether search deficits can be compensated.

Simulated central vision loss impairs implicit location probability learning

“…One possibility is that CVL may interfere more with mechanisms related to conscious goal-driven attention than implicit attentional biases. In this respect, our findings are consistent with work showing that explicit (but not implicit) contextual cueing is intact during search with simulated CVL, albeit smaller than in search without CVL (Pollmann, Geringswald, Wei, & Porracin, 2020). This possibility is also consistent with recent theories that implicit location probability learning relies on different mechanisms of attentional guidance than goal-driven attention, whether goal-driven attention is induced via task instructions or incidentally through conscious awareness of target probabilities (Jiang, 2018).…”

Simulated central vision loss impairs implicit location probability learning

“…Whatever the reason for similar results in Experiment 1's aware and unaware participants, the divergence of location probability learning between awareness groups in Experiment 2 suggests that mechanisms of learning may differ between participants who consciously use learned information to guide top-down attention and those who implement learned biases implicitly. This is comparable to recent evidence that explicit contextual cueing is intact during search with simulated CVL, albeit smaller than in search without CVL (Pollmann et al, 2020). The dependence on awareness can be explained by theories that implicit location probability learning relies on different mechanisms of attentional guidance than goal-driven attention (Jiang, 2018), though notably this pattern diverges from results during no-scotoma search, where location probability learning tends to be similar in magnitude regardless of awareness (Experiment 1; see also Jiang et al, 2018).…”

Simulated central vision loss does not impair implicit location probability learning when participants search through simple displays

“…This is consistent with evidence from contextual cueing suggesting that scene information induces explicit awareness of, and voluntary attention based on, repeated target-distractor relationships (Brockmole & Henderson, 2006a, 2006b. Related work on contextual cueing with a simulated scotoma suggest that implicit, but not explicit, effects of contextual cueing paradigms are eliminated by simulated scotomas: learning is partly intact when people have some explicit awareness due to scene context (Pollmann et al, 2020), but absent when participants search simple displays that are unlikely to produce awareness (Geringswald et al, 2012;Geringswald & Pollmann, 2015). In probability learning, on the other hand, search among scenes shows no evidence of implicitly learned biases (because only aware participants showed learning), whereas implicit location probability learning appeared intact in scotoma search in the present study's simple displays.…”

“…Scene-based contextual cueing is not only explicit in a way that letter-based cueing is not, but when both are independently predictive of the target location, the explicit scene-based effect completely eliminates learning of target-distractor letter associations . A similar pattern has been shown in a recent report investigating the effects of simulated central vision loss on contextual cueing, with different results in learning with and without visual scenes (Pollmann et al, 2020). Contextual cueing was largely intact in search with a simulated scotoma for items in visual scenes, which the authors attribute to explicit recall of the locations of targets in specific scenes.…”

“…These implicit influences on attention may play major roles in guiding everyday search behavior (Awh et al, 2012;Jiang, 2018) and may compensate for deficits in goal-driven attention in clinical populations (e.g., due to Autism Spectrum Disorders, Parkinson's, or central vision loss; Addleman et al, 2021;Jiang, Capistrano, et al, 2013;Sisk et al, 2018). Thus, recent research has focused on investigating the effects of central vision loss on implicit attention (Addleman et al, 2021;Geringswald & Pollmann, 2015;Pollmann et al, 2020).…”