Attending to structure in the visual field

我们的环境包含的视觉信息比我们的视觉系统在任何给定时刻都能处理的要多得多。正因为如此，我们将视觉注意力的焦点从一个位置移动到另一个位置，从一个物体移动到另一个物体，跨越视野来选择信息，以便在我们的大脑中进行更详细的处理。视觉认知研究中的一个关键问题涉及到这个过程；人类如何在我们遇到的视觉场景中分配我们的注意力？过去，这个问题的答案主要集中在构成物体的直接物理特征上，如颜色、形状和大小。事实上，关于哪些直接的身体特征吸引了我们的注意力，我们已经学到了很多。但物体远比它们各部分的总和复杂得多，这项拟议的研究将研究如何将注意力分配给物体中的物理属性关系(我将其称为“结构”)。因此，可以说物体具有良好的结构(稳定、支持并符合我们对物理的直觉理解)或糟糕的结构(不稳定、不支持、与我们对物理的直觉理解不匹配)。为了回答这些问题，我们提出了两个研究方案。在每个项目中，计划使用各种实验设计进行多项研究，其中一些是对众所周知的实验程序的改编，而另一些是针对手头的问题而新设计的。鉴于结构在组织我们的视觉环境中的普遍作用，以及我们如何与这种环境互动，本研究将为启动注意研究的新领域提供基础工作。此外，这项研究符合最近注意力方法的广泛领域，这些方法超越了考察简单的身体特征(颜色、形状、大小)、所有权、生命力和背景。这项研究的意义延伸到工程、工业、建筑、民用规划以及设计和艺术的所有方面。简单地说，了解我们的注意力系统过程结构意味着更完整地理解我们在我们居住的结构化视觉环境(包括自然和人工)中所感知的东西。

Our environments contain much more visual information than our visual system can process at any given moment. Because of this, we move the focus of our visual attention from location to location, and from object to object, across the visual field to select information for more detailed processing in our brains. One of the key questions in the study of visual cognition concerns this process; how do humans allocate our attention across the visual scenes we encounter? In the past, the answer to this question has focused on the direct physical features that make up objects, such as colour, shape, and size. Indeed, we have learned much about what direct physical features capture our attention. But objects are much more complex than simply the sum of their parts, and this proposed research will examine how attention is allocated to the relationship of physical properties in objects (which I will term "structure"). Our interactions with environments have taught us to expect certain structures; for example, stable objects have larger bases and smaller tops, objects resting on other objects need to be roughly vertically aligned (or they will fall over), and removing a supporting lower object is precarious for upper objects being supported. Thus, objects may be said to have good structure (stable, supportive, and match our intuitive understanding of physics) or bad structure (unstable, unsupportive, do not match our intuitive understanding of physics). The present research will answer two questions regarding good and bad structure; does either (or both) guide our attention across the visual field (i.e., does structure capture attention) and is structure treated as a fundamental feature (as is color, shape, and size) by our attentional system? To answer these questions, two programs of research are proposed. Within each program, multiple studies are planned using a variety of experimental designs, some of which are adaptations of well-known experimental procedures while others are newly designed for the questions at hand. Given the ubiquitous role that structure plays in the organization of our visual environments, and how we interact with such environments, this research will provide the foundational work to launch a new field of attentional research. Moreover, this research fits into the broad domain of the recent approaches to attention that go beyond examining simple physical features (colour, shape, size) to ownership, animacy, and the context. The implications for the research extend into engineering, industry, architecture, civil planning, and all manners of design and art. Simply put, understanding how our attention system processes structure means a more complete understanding of what we perceive in the structured visual environments (both natural and human-made) that we inhabit.