CAREER: Quantitative Evaluation Of Attention Models Of Visual Search

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Visual search is a process that humans engage in on a daily basis. Looking for a friend in a crowd, a car in a parking lot, or a tumor in an x-ray mammogram are all examples of visual search. Visual search involves two processes, (1) scrutinizing the visual scene by making eye movements to orient the high-resolution fovea to the regions of interest and (2) attending to different points in the visual scene independent of the eye position to select relevant visual information. For over three decades, investigators have studied visual attention and offered different theories about its function and its processing limitations during search. This research will test a number of existing and newly proposed theories using novel mathematical/computer implementations of models of visual attention. The results will allow for a better understanding of the function of visual attention during visual search. The research will also provide a new theoretical and quantitative framework to study the types of attentional disorders present in patients with schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, attentional deficit/hyperactive disorders, and hemi-neglect. The education plan will incorporate the use of computer and mathematical models in the study of visual attention in undergraduate and graduate education. In addition, the education plan will include implementation of a website that will allow students and researchers worldwide Internet access to use and test computer models of visual attention.