Making Sense of Visual Search

描述（由申请人提供）：在我们的日常生活中，我们寻找我们的钥匙，在人群中寻找一个朋友，并试图找到我们的遥控器上的按钮。视觉搜索也是许多应用程序的重要组成部分，包括在乳房X光检查中搜索可能的肿瘤，或在行李X光检查中搜索威胁。30年来，人们一直在对搜索进行深入研究，但结果仍然令人困惑。有些搜索很容易，即使目标出现在许多“干扰”项目的背景下。其他搜索变得相当困难与许多干扰，即使当目标和干扰是相当不同的。我们缺乏一个计算模型，可以预测哪些搜索容易或困难，或者对任意显示的搜索性能进行定量预测。建议的研究的总体目标是更好地理解视觉搜索的洞察力的基础上，周边视觉的能力提供了一个基本的约束搜索性能。周边视觉能够在周边快速检测目标（目标似乎“弹出”），并引导眼球运动，直到最终观察者找到目标。拟议的工作建立在最近的周边视觉建模。这些最新的结果表明，周边视觉处理的不是单个项目，而是相当大的局部“补丁”，它代表了一组丰富的汇总统计数据（Balas，中野和罗森霍尔茨，2009）。拟议的研究有两个相互交织的目标。目标1是开发和测试模型的视觉搜索的基础上的假设，搜索是受周围的补丁包含一个目标（和一些干扰）的可辨别性，和那些只包含干扰。特别是，Rosenholtz博士将研究搜索性能可以通过以下方式预测的程度：（1）单个项目的外围区分度（2）较大、拥挤的斑块。(3)基于其汇总统计表示的目标存在与目标不存在的斑块的预测可辨别性;（4）找到目标所需的注视的定量模型。目的2是测试是否广泛的搜索现象可以解释为一个单一的周边视觉机制。Rosenholtz博士将特别研究：（1）搜索不对称性的优势，例如，在“O”中搜索“Q”比在“Q”中搜索“O”更容易;（2）搜索目标与干扰物之间的差异在于单一特征，特征的结合，以及基本特征的配置;（3）有些令人困惑的解释是什么构成了可以引导搜索的“基本特征”;（4）分组对视觉搜索的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In our daily lives, we search for our keys, look for a friend in a crowd, and try to find a button on our remote control. Visual search is an important part of many applications, as well, including search for a possible tumor in a mammogram, or search for a threat in a baggage x-ray. Search has been studied intensely for 30 years, but the results remain puzzling. Some searches are easy, even when the target appears against a background of many "distractor" items. Other searches become quite difficult with many distractors, even when the target and distractors are quite distinct. We lack a computational model that can predict which searches will be easy or hard, or make quantitative predictions of search performance for arbitrary displays. The overall goal of the proposed research is to better understand visual search based on the insight that the capabilities of peripheral vision provide a fundamental constraint on search performance. Peripheral vision enables fast target detection in the periphery (the target seems to "pop out"), and guides eye movements until, ultimately, the observer finds the target. The proposed work builds on recent modeling of peripheral vision. These recent results suggest that peripheral vision processes not individual items, but rather sizable local "patches," which it represents in terms of a rich set of summary statistics (Balas, Nakano, & Rosenholtz, 2009). The proposed research has two intertwined aims. Aim 1 is to develop and test models of visual search based on the hypothesis that search is constrained by the discriminability of peripheral patches containing a target (and a number of distractors), and those containing only distractors. In particular, Dr. Rosenholtz will examine the extent to which search performance can be predicted by: Peripheral discriminability of (1) individual items (2) larger, crowded patches. (3) Predicted discriminability of target present vs. target absent patches based upon their summary statistic representation; (4) A quantitative model of the fixations required to find a target. Aim 2 is to test whether a wide range of search phenomena can be accounted for by a single mechanism of peripheral vision. In particular, Dr. Rosenholtz will examine: (1) The predominance of search asymmetries, e.g. that it is easier to search for a 'Q' among 'O's than for an 'O' among 'Q's; (2) Differences between search for a target differing from distractors by a single feature, by a conjunction of features, and by a configuration of basic features; (3) Somewhat puzzling accounts of what constitutes a "basic feature" that can guide search; (4) The effects of grouping on visual search.