Influence of scene structure and content on visual search strategies

Abstract

When searching for a target within an image, our brain can adopt different strategies, but which one does it choose? This question can be answered by tracking the motion of the eye while it executes the task. Following many individuals performing various search tasks, we distinguish between two competing strategies. Motivated by these findings, we introduce a model that captures the interplay of the search strategies and allows us to create artificial eye-tracking trajectories, which could be compared with the experimental ones. Identifying the model parameters allows us to quantify the strategy employed in terms of ensemble averages, characterizing each experimental cohort. In this way, we can discern with high sensitivity the relation between the visual landscape and the average strategy, disclosing how small variations in the image induce changes in the strategy.