title: A simple saliency model predicts a number of motion popout phenomena.
abstract: Visual search for a moving target among stationary distractors is more efficient than searching for a stationary target among moving distractors, and searching for a fast target among slow distractors is more efficient than vice versa. This indicates that the ease of search for a target with a particular motion is not determined simply by the difference between target and distractor velocities. We suggest a simple model for predicting ease of search for a unique motion, based upon a quantitative measure of target saliency. Essentially, search will be easier the more the target motion deviates from the general pattern of velocities in the scene. Our model predicts a number of well-known motion search phenomena, and suggests that one control for target saliency as well as target discriminability when drawing conclusions about visual system mechanisms from search experiments.
authors.affiliation: Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. rruth@parc.xerox.com
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosenholtz
mesh_terms: D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*