2015 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
The effects of visual attention and visual context on image memorability
| Project/Area Number |
15H06100
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
李 キ 東京大学, 人文社会系研究科, 研究員 (30757711)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-08-28 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | image memorability / visual attention |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In FY 2015, two experiments were conducted to investigate the relationship between image memorability and visual attention.
Experiment 1 examined whether focused attention directed at a serial search task was influenced by irrelevant background images. Of specific interest was whether there was a difference in the influence of images having high and low memorability on the search task. The results revealed that visual search performance was significantly impaired by highly memorable images compared to less memorable images, suggesting that highly memorable images were difficult to ignore and thus captured visual attention automatically. The findings from this experiment have been presented at the 23rd Annual Workshop on Object Perception, Attention, and Memory held in Chicago, Illinois, USA (November, 2015).
Experiment 2 was performed to further investigate whether irrelevant images presented before search arrays could capture visual attention. The results show that visual search performance was facilitated by images with high memorability, suggesting that highly memorable images might have increased the responsiveness of incoming search stimuli. The findings from Experiment 2 have been presented at the 2016 Annual meeting of the Korean Society for Cognitive and Biological Psychology held in Jeju, South Korea (January, 2016).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The main purpose of this research project was to investigate the relationship between image memorability and visual attention. The experiments conducted in FY 2015 provide the first evidence that goal-irrelevant images with high memorability could either inhibit or facilitate visual search, depending on whether the images were presented simultaneously, or immediately before search arrays. These findings suggest that image memorability can be used flexible to facilitate or inhibit perceptual processing. A manuscript summarizing the two experiments has been submitted to a major journal within the field of psychophysics.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Theories on visual attention suggest that the extent to which irrelevant information is processed depends on the perceptual load of the primary task (e.g., perceptual-load theory, Lavie, 2005). The experiments conducted in FY 2015 showed that visual search performance is influenced by irrelevant images with high memorability. It is important to investigate whether this pattern of results is modulated by perceptual load. In FY 2016, a series of experiments will be conducted to investigate this issue.
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