Eye movements and scene perception: memory for things observed.
In this study, we examined the characteristics of on-line scene representations, using a partial-report procedure. Subjects inspected a simple scene containing seven objects for 1, 3, 5, 9, or 15 fixations; shortly after scene offset, a marker cued one scene location for report. Consistent with previous research, the results indicated that scene representations are relatively sparse; even after 15 fixations on a scene, the subjects remembered the position/identity pairings for only about 78% of the objects in the scene, or the equivalent of about five objects-worth of information. Report of the last three objects that were foveated and of the object about to be foveated was very accurate, however, suggesting that recently attended information in a scene is represented quite well. Information about the scene appeared to accumulate over multiple fixations, but the capacity of the on-line scene representation appeared to be limited to about five items. Implications for recent theories of scene representation are discussed.
Irwin
David E
DE
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign 61820, USA. dirwin@s.psych.uiuc.edu
Zelinsky
Gregory J
GJ
D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*