We have a strong intuition that people's eyes are unique, socially informative stimuli. As such, it is reasonable to propose that humans have developed a fundamental tendency to preferentially attend to eyes in the environment. The empirical evidence to support this intuition is, however, remarkably thin. Over the course of eight chapters, the present thesis considers the area of social attention, and what special role (if any) the selection of eyes has in it. Chapters 2 and 3 demonstrate that when observers are shown complex natural scenes, they look at the eyes more frequently than any other region. This selection preference is enhanced when the social content and activity in the scene is high, and when the task is to report on the attentional states in the scene. Chapters 4 and 5 establish that the bias to select eyes extends to a variety of tasks, suggesting that it may be fundamental to human social attention. In addition, Chapter 5 shows that observers who are told that they will have to remember the scenes look more often at the eyes than observers who are unaware of the forthcoming memory test; moreover this difference between groups persists to scene recognition. Chapter 6 examines whether the preference for eyes can be explained by visual saliency. It cannot. Chapter 7 compares the selection of eyes to another socially communicative cue, the arrow. The results shed light on a recent controversy in the social attention field, and indicate again that there is a fundamental bias to select the eyes. Collectively the data suggest that for typically developing adults, eyes are rich, socially communicative stimuli that are preferentially attended to relative to other stimuli in the environment.

We have a strong intuition that people's eyes are unique, socially informative stimuli. As such, it is reasonable to propose that humans have developed a fundamental tendency to preferentially attend to eyes in the environment. The empirical evidence to support this intuition is, however, remarkably thin. Over the course of eight chapters, the present thesis considers the area of social attention, and what special role (if any) the selection of eyes has in it. Chapters 2 and 3 demonstrate that when observers are shown complex natural scenes, they look at the eyes more frequently than any other region. This selection preference is enhanced when the social content and activity in the scene is high, and when the task is to report on the attentional states in the scene. Chapters 4 and 5 establish that the bias to select eyes extends to a variety of tasks, suggesting that it may be fundamental to human social attention. In addition, Chapter 5 shows that observers who are told that they will have to remember the scenes look more often at the eyes than observers who are unaware of the forthcoming memory test; moreover this difference between groups persists to scene recognition. Chapter 6 examines whether the preference for eyes can be explained by visual saliency. It cannot. Chapter 7 compares the selection of eyes to another socially communicative cue, the arrow. The results shed light on a recent controversy in the social attention field, and indicate again that there is a fundamental bias to select the eyes. Collectively the data suggest that for typically developing adults, eyes are rich, socially communicative stimuli that are preferentially attended to relative to other stimuli in the environment.

We have a strong intuition that people's eyes are unique, socially informative stimuli. As such, it is reasonable to propose that humans have developed a fundamental tendency to preferentially attend to eyes in the environment. The empirical evidence to support this intuition is, however, remarkably thin. Over the course of eight chapters, the present thesis considers the area of social attention, and what special role (if any) the selection of eyes has in it. Chapters 2 and 3 demonstrate that when observers are shown complex natural scenes, they look at the eyes more frequently than any other region. This selection preference is enhanced when the social content and activity in the scene is high, and when the task is to report on the attentional states in the scene. Chapters 4 and 5 establish that the bias to select eyes extends to a variety of tasks, suggesting that it may be fundamental to human social attention. In addition, Chapter 5 shows that observers who are told that they will have to remember the scenes look more often at the eyes than observers who are unaware of the forthcoming memory test; moreover this difference between groups persists to scene recognition. Chapter 6 examines whether the preference for eyes can be explained by visual saliency. It cannot. Chapter 7 compares the selection of eyes to another socially communicative cue, the arrow. The results shed light on a recent controversy in the social attention field, and indicate again that there is a fundamental bias to select the eyes. Collectively the data suggest that for typically developing adults, eyes are rich, socially communicative stimuli that are preferentially attended to relative to other stimuli in the environment. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The aesthetic response is a multifaceted and subtle behavior that ranges in magnitude from sublime to mundane. Few studies have investigated the more subtle, weak aesthetic responses to mundane scenes. But all aesthetic responses rely upon sensory-perceptual processes, which serve as a crucial first step in contemporary models of the aesthetic response. As such, understanding the roles of perceptual processes in aesthetic responses to the mundane provides insights into all aesthetic responses. Variation in the physical properties of aesthetic objects must cause such responses, but to understand the relationship, such physical properties must be quantified. Then, the mechanism can be determined. Here, I present the theoretical basis and reason for interest in such a test of mundane aesthetic responses in Chapter I. In Chapter II, I present metrics that quantify the physical properties of natural scenes, using computer-generated images that model the complexity of natural scenes to validate these measurement techniques. The methods presented in Chapter II are adapted to analyze the physical properties of natural scenes in Chapter III, extending the analysis to photographs and clarifying the relationship between the properties fractal dimension and spectral scaling decay rate. A behavioral study is presented in Chapter IV that investigates the extent that perceptual responses about complexity serve as an intermediary between aesthetic ratings and the physical properties of the images described in Chapters II and III. Chapter V summarizes the results of these studies and explores future directions. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished coauthored material.

Master of Science / Department of Psychological Sciences / Lester C. Loschky / Past research has argued that scene gist, a holistic semantic representation of a scene acquired within a single fixation, is extracted using purely feed-forward mechanisms. Many scene gist recognition studies have presented scenes from multiple categories in randomized sequences. We tested whether rapid scene categorization could be facilitated by priming from sequential expectations. We created more ecologically valid, first-person viewpoint, image sequences, along spatiotemporally connected routes (e.g., an office to a parking lot). Participants identified target scenes at the end of rapid serial visual presentations. Critically, we manipulated whether targets were in coherent or randomized sequences. Target categorization was more accurate in coherent sequences than in randomized sequences. Furthermore, categorization was more accurate for a target following one or more images within the same category than following a switch between categories. Likewise, accuracy was higher for targets more visually similar to their immediately preceding primes. This suggested that prime-to-target visual similarity may explain the coherent sequence advantage. We tested this hypothesis in Experiment 2, which was identical except that target images were removed from the sequences, and participants were asked to predict the scene category of the missing target. Missing images in coherent sequences were more accurately predicted than missing images in randomized sequences, and more predictable images were identified more accurately in Experiment 1. Importantly, partial correlations revealed that image predictability and prime-to-target visual similarity independently contributed to rapid scene gist categorization accuracy suggesting sequential expectations prime and thus facilitate scene recognition processes.

The human visual system is adept at detecting and encoding statistical regularities in its spatio-temporal environment. Here we report an unexpected failure of this ability in the context of perceiving inconsistencies in illumination distributions across a scene. Contrary to predictions from previous studies [Enns and Rensink, 1990; Sun and Perona, 1996a, 1996b, 1997], we find that the visual system displays a remarkable lack of sensitivity to illumination inconsistencies, both in experimental stimuli and in images of real scenes. Our results allow us to draw inferences regarding how the visual system encodes illumination distributions across scenes. Specifically, they suggest that the visual system does not verify the global consistency of locally derived estimates of illumination direction.

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Unwanted and distressing visual imagery is a persistent and emotionally taxing symptom characteristic of several mental illnesses, including depression, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Intrusive imagery symptoms have been linked to maladaptive memory formation, abnormal visual cortical activity during viewing, gaze pattern deficits, and trait characteristics of mental imagery. Emotional valence of visual stimuli has been shown to alter perceptual processes that influence the direction of attention to visual information, which may result in enhanced attention to suboptimal and generalizable visual properties. This study tested the hypothesis that aberrant gaze patterns to central and peripheral image regions influence the formation of decontextualized visual details which may facilitate involuntary and emotionally negative mental imagery experiences following a stressful or traumatic event. Gaze patterns and hemodynamic response from occipital cortical locations were recorded while healthy participants (N = 39) viewed and imagined scenes with negative or neutral emotional valence. Self-report behavioral assessments of baseline vividness of visual imagery and various cognitive factors were combined with these physiological measures to investigate the potential relationship between visual perception and mental recreation of negative scenes. Results revealed significant effects of task and valence conditions on specific fixation measures and hemodynamic response patterns in ventral visual areas, which interacted with cognitive factors such as imagery vividness and familiarity. Findings further suggest that behaviors observed during mental imagery reveal processes related to representational formation over and above perceptual performance and may be applied to the study of disorders such as PTSD. / Ph. D. / Intrusive imagery describes the visual components of flashbacks that are common to mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia. Several explanations for this symptom have been suggested, including incomplete memories, changes in visual brain structures and function, inappropriate viewing patterns, and an individual’s ability to imagine visual scenes in detail. The emotional tone of a scene has also been shown to affect viewing patterns, which may lead to attention being narrowly directed toward specific visual details while ignoring surrounding information. This study tested whether inappropriate viewing patterns to central and outer image regions in negative images influence narrow focus to emotional details, thereby allowing flashback-type imagery to occur following a traumatic or stressful event. Viewing patterns and blood flow in brain regions were measured while participants (<i>N</i> = 39) viewed and imagined scenes with negative or neutral emotional tone. Self-reported detail of voluntary mental imagery and other cognitive factors such as content familiarity and pleasantness were used to investigate a relationship between viewing and imagery of emotionally negative scenes. Results showed that certain cognitive factors as well as the type of visual task significantly affected particular eye movements and patterns of blood flow in visual regions of the brain. These measures interacted with cognitive factors such as imagery detail and content familiarity. Findings further suggest that behaviors observed during mental imagery reveal cognitive processes over and above those during viewing and may be useful in the study of disorders such as PTSD.

Context. Most games make use of graphics to create an environment that fits the mood they wish to convey. To use a game's graphical attributes such as colour, shape and texture to their utmost ability, knowing how these are perceived could help. Objective. This paper tries to determine how graphical attributes such as colour, texture, and shapes affect the perceived safety of a path inside a 3d environment. Method. To reach the objective, an experiment was conducted with 20 participants. The experiment was a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) test of 38 pairs of images, where each pair contained two versions of a tunnel entrance scene rendered using different graphical attributes. Each difference was based around either colour (warm and cold colour schemes), shape (round, wide, angular and thin), or texture (rugged, neutral and sterile). Results. The experiment generated results that varied compared to the expected results. For instance, the wider shapes were seen as safer compared to the thinner shapes, as was the same result with rounder shapes being perceived safer than angular shapes. Although a few preferred the cold colour scheme, the warmer colour scheme was seen as safer by the majority. While expected to be perceived as less safe than neutral textures but more than the rugged ones, the sterile texture was actually most commonly seen as safe. Conclusions. The main conclusion that was made is that colour, texture and shape can be applied to change the perception of safety in a scene. However, when opposing attributes are used in combination, the result might be based on how dominant the attribute is. The dominance of the graphical attributes could be an interesting topic for future work.