Scene Structure and Surfaces: Viewing strategies effects on attention, learning, and memory

视觉搜索是许多任务中不可或缺的一部分；当我们在城市中穿行、做三明治或修理漏水的水龙头时，我们会搜索地标、物体和工具。传统上，视觉搜索过程中的注意机制是通过视觉阵列来研究的，在视觉阵列中，物品在一个人工的、均匀的视野中均匀分布。******我的学员和我研究注意力控制机制如何在更复杂、更自然的环境中运作。我们发现，使用人工阵列开发的基本理论不容易推广到现实世界的场景，部分原因是场景环境提供了基于知识和经验的强烈偏见和期望。解释这些差异的一种方法是对象和场景在空间上是如何联系在一起的（Castelhano scene），信息是如何被处理的，以及当期望被满足或违背时，这些过程是如何随时间变化的。在三个项目中，我们的目标是研究如何：***1。注意力是否分布在整个场景中，以及无关区域的处理是否被主动抑制（项目1），***2。策略会随着时间的推移而变化（从利用先前的经验和知识转变为当这些期望没有得到满足时探索环境），以及它们如何影响对场景信息的学习和记忆（项目2）***3。视觉搜索在3D环境中会发生变化，其中即时决策的成本效益比随着人们的走动而变化（项目3）。******我的研究计划的目标是开发一个更详细的理论说明，说明如何将感知信息、一般世界知识和以前的经验结合起来，以允许在现实世界环境中进行高效和有效的视觉搜索。表面指导框架，通过产生可测试的假设，使发展新的概念，范式和新的理论认识机制的注意和信息处理在视觉复杂的环境。******这项提议的工作对于理解现实世界场景信息的基本认知过程以及理解这些过程如何随着时间的推移而组合和变化都是革命性的。我的受训者和我将使用这个新颖的理论框架作为第一步，以更全面地理解复杂、自然环境中的认知加工。

Visual search is an integral part of many tasks; while navigating through a city, making a sandwich or fixing a leaky faucet, we search for landmarks, objects, and tools. Traditionally, attentional mechanisms during visual search have been investigated using visual arrays, in which items are equally spaced across an artificial, uniform visual field. ******My trainees and I study how mechanisms of attentional control operate in more complex, naturalistic environments. We have found that basic theories, developed using artificial arrays, do not easily generalize to the real-world scenes, in part because the scene context provides strong biases and expectations based on knowledge and experience. One way to account for these differences lies in how object and scenes are linked spatially (Castelhano cene, how information is processed and how these processes change over time when expectations are met or violated. Across three projects, we aim to examine how:***1. attention is distributed across the scene and whether processing in irrelevant regions is actively suppressed (Project 1), ***2. strategies shift over time (from one of exploiting previous experience and knowledge to one exploring the environment when those expectations are not met) and how they affect learning and memory for scene's information (Project 2) ***3. visual search changes in a 3D environment, where the cost-benefit ratio of moment-to-moment decisions change as people walk around (Project 3).******The goal of my research program is to develop a more detailed theoretical account of how perceptual information, general world knowledge, and previous experience is combined to allow for efficient and effective visual search within real-world environments. The Surface Guidance Framework, by generating testable hypotheses, enables the development of new concepts, paradigms and a new theoretical understanding of mechanisms of attention and the processing of information in visually complex environments. ******This proposed work is transformational both for the understanding of basic cognitive processes of real-world scene information and for understanding how these processes combine and change over time. My trainees and I will use this novel theoretical framework as a first step in developing a fuller understanding of cognitive processing in complex, naturalistic environments.