title: An efficient technique for revealing visual search strategies with classification images.
abstract: We propose a novel variant of the classification image paradigm that allows us to rapidly reveal strategies used by observers in visual search tasks. We make use of eye tracking, 1/f noise, and a grid-like stimulus ensemble and also introduce a new classification taxonomy that distinguishes between foveal and peripheral processes. We tested our method for 3 human observers and two simple shapes used as search targets. The classification images obtained show the efficacy of the proposed method by revealing the features used by the observers in as few as 200 trials. Using two control experiments, we evaluated the use of naturalistic 1/f noise with classification images, in comparison with the more commonly used white noise, and compared the performance of our technique with that of an earlier approach without a stimulus grid.
authors.affiliation: Center for Perceptual Systems, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. atavasso@ece.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Abtine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tavassoli
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van der Linde
authors.forename: Alan C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Bovik
authors.forename: Lawrence K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Cormack
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012438:Saccades; D014794:Visual Fields