title: Distractor effect at initial stages of recognition depends on visual image properties.
abstract: In the present study, we describe a new method for estimation of distractor effect at image viewing. Dynamics of gaze fixation duration was compared at presentation of distractor during recognition of two types of target stimuli: fading-in contour images and black static cross. Circular blue distractor was applied to a target stimulus at some fixation points during initial stages of image recognition. All stimuli were presented in the center of computer screen inside the foveal part of the vision field. Subjects received the following instructions: to fixate their gaze on target image, recognize target stimulus as quick as possible and press the keyboard button to stop a trial. Our experiments have shown that (i) the median of the distractor effect (increase of fixation duration) was significantly less in trials with fading-in contour images, than in trials with cross image presentation (415 and 610 ms, p < 0.05); (ii) fixation duration without distractors had no significant difference between fading-in image trials (390 ± 10 ms) and cross image trials (438 ± 22 ms); (iii) mean recognition time for fading-in images was significantly more than for cross image (13.9 ± 4.3 s, and 2.47 ± 0.84 s). Possible prospective to use the presented method are discussed.
authors.affiliation: A. B. Kogan Research Institute for Neurocybernetics, Southern Federal University, Stachki Prospect, 194/1, 344090, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
authors.forename: Tatyana I
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Koltunova
authors.forename: Lubov N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Podladchikova
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult