By: Diana Khinich
Selective Visual Attention
Background
What is it Selective Visual Attention?
Despite our impression that we retain all the visual details that we see in our surrounding, surprisingly, in many cases we are unable to detect the changes that are made in it.
The Project QuestionIn my project I wanted to explore
the selective visual attention phenomenon and check whether object movement, direction and type have influence on selective attention.
The Experiment65 people were divided into 5
groups of 13.Each group received a different
slide showAfter seeing the slide show each
participant needed to answer on some question on an answer sheet.
The Experiment
the participant needed to distinguish the word “RED" from words with different colors that where blinking on the screen and count how many times it blinked. While the participant was counting the blinking words some stimuli were made:
yellow
pink
RED
green
blue
RED
The Experiment In the first slideshow a zebra crossed the
screen from left to right. In the second slideshow a zebra crossed the
screen from right to left. In the third slideshow a zebra blinked on the
screen for few seconds on the left side. In the fourth slideshow a zebra blinked on
the screen for few seconds on the right side.On the fifth slideshow 3 different pictures
blinked randomly on the screen.
The ExperimentAfter seeing the slideshow. The
participants needed to answer the following question:
The Experiment
For the first two slideshows:Did you participate in tests like
this before?How many "RED" did you count?Did you notice the moving Zebra
in the first time?Did you notice the moving Zebra
in the second time?
The Experiment
For the 3rd and 4th slideshow:Did you participate in tests like
this before?How many "RED" did you count?Did you notice the blinking Zebra
in the first time?Did you notice the blinking Zebra
in the second time?
The Experiment
For the 5th slideshowDid you participate in tests like
this before?How many "RED" did you count?Did you see the picture; if your
answer is "yes" write what have you seen?
Results and ConclusionMost of the participants that participated in
experiment noticed the zebra on the first time.When the participants were told to watch the
blinking words slide again and look for something, Almost all participants recognized the zebra.
when the zebra moved from the left direction to the right, less participants noticed it.
When the zebra blinked on the left side less participants noticed it.
In the fifth experiment most of the participants recognized the Kuala bear and Albert Einstein but did not recognized the picture of Paris
Results and Conclusion
Conclusions:The knowledge of coming stimuli makes us
pay less attention on the current task and be more prepared for the coming stimuli.
It can be assumed from the first 4 slideshows that most of the contestants pay more attention to their right side then to their left.
The color and texture has impact on our attention even if the stimuli are familiar to us.
Thank you!
