Task switching and visual behavior

描述(申请人提供)：众所周知，视觉行为受到自下而上的视觉因素和自上而下的认知因素的影响。因此，许多研究试图确定不同的任务集对视觉行为的影响，不同任务集指的是观察者处理场景时的目标。例如，任务集已经被证明强烈地影响被注视的物体，记忆如何影响注视和探测检测，注视的时间和位置，以及相对于局部注意模式的全局注意的时间和持续时间等等。虽然任务集明显影响视觉行为，但大多数任务集研究要求参与者在单个图像上执行单个任务，或者在各种图像上连续执行单个任务。这些研究忽略了这样一个事实，即在现实世界中，个体的任务集可能会频繁而快速地改变，这是观察者意图的函数，在此期间，视觉输入可能会轻微改变、剧烈改变或保持不变。因此，为了了解任务集对视觉行为的影响，研究任务切换对视觉行为的影响是非常重要的。任务转换的研究在心理学上有着丰富的历史，有大量的证据表明，任务转换的要求会导致各种行为成本和收益。然而，令人惊讶的是，关于任务切换如何影响视觉行为的研究很少，现有的研究主要涉及执行扫视和反扫视所需的执行控制。要完全理解视觉行为受到先前经验影响的方式，关键是要确定当a)输入保持不变但观察者的目标改变时，以及b)当视觉输入改变但任务目标保持一致时，视觉输入的后续处理是否从根本上改变。本提案将通过进行16个实验来研究任务转换对视觉行为的影响，以解决这一知识缺口。这些实验旨在评估与任务转换(E1)相关的主要成本和收益，以及场景重复(E2，E6-8)、交替可预测性(E3，E5，E6，E8)、重复概率(E，E5，E7，E8)以及指令是否强调自下而上(E1-8)或自上而下(E9-16)因素如何调节这些成本和收益。拟议的研究具有理论和实际意义，因为它涉及 视觉行为受任务切换影响的方式。鉴于本研究涉及正常成人视觉系统的基本功能，它有助于科学 了解大脑中的视觉认知机制。此外，这项拟议的研究还涉及与支持有效凝视控制和眼动行为的视觉机制相关的成本和收益，这对各种领域的表现具有重要影响，其中视觉任务切换是日常表现的重要组成部分。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is well established that visual behavior is influenced by both bottom-up visual factors and top-down cognitive factors. Consequently, a number of investigations have sought to determine how visual behavior is influenced by different task sets, which refers to the goal of an observer when they process a scene. For example, task set has been shown to strongly influence which objects are fixated, how memory influences refixations and probe detection, the timing and location of fixations, and the timing and duration of global relative to local modes of attention to name just a few. Though task set clearly influences visual behavior, the majority of task set studies require participants to perform a single task on a singl image or continuously perform a single task on a variety of images. These investigations ignore the fact that, in the real world, the task set of an individual can change frequently and rapidly a a function of observer intent, during which the visual input could change slightly, change drastically, or remain constant. To understand the influence of task set on visual behavior, therefore, it is important to investigate the influence of task switching. The study of task switching has a rich history in psychology, with numerous demonstrations that the requirement to switch tasks leads to a variety of behavioral costs and benefits. Surprisingly, however, there have been few investigations of how task switching impacts visual behavior, with existing studies being primarily concerned with the executive control required to perform prosaccades and antisaccades. To fully understand the manner in which visual behavior is impacted by previous experiences, it is critical to determine whether subsequent processing of a visual input is fundamentally altered when a) the input remains the same but the observer's goal changes and b) when the visual input changes but the task goals remain consistent. The present proposal will address this gap in knowledge by conducting sixteen experiments examining the influence of task-switching on visual behavior. The experiments are designed to assess the primary costs and benefits associated with task-switching (E1) and how these are moderated by scene repetition (E2, E6-8), alternation predictability (E3, E5, E6, E8), repetition probability (E, E5, E7, E8), and whether the instructions emphasize bottom-up (E1-8) or top-down (E9-16) factors. The proposed research has both theoretical and practical implications as it relates to the manner in which visual behavior is influenced by task-switching. Given that the present study concerns the basic functioning of the normal, adult visual system, it contributes to the scientific understanding of visual-cognitive mechanisms in the brain. In addition, the proposed research concerns costs and benefits relating to visual mechanisms that support efficient gaze control and oculomotor behavior which has significant implications for performance across a variety of fields in which visual task- switching is an important component of everyday performance.