RT list: PS to relevance in visual attention

1) I forgot one of the authors of the paper, sorry! The proper reference
is:

Henderson, J. M., Malcolm, G. L., & Schandl, C. (2009). Searching in the
dark: Cognitive relevance drives attention in real-world scenes. *Psychonomic
Bulletin & Review, 16*, 850-856.

2) the paper is available here:
http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/people/jhender9/Henderson_PBR_09.pdf

<http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/people/jhender9/Henderson_PBR_09.pdf>

2010/4/19 Dan Sperber <dan.sperber@gmail.com>

> It should follow from the cognitive principle of relevance that attention
> tends to go to the most relevant stimuli available (as opposed, say, to the
> most salient). Here is a recent article that addresses the issue (using a
> commonsense notion of relevance rather than Relevance Theory's, but the
> results and discussion are pertinent all the same):
>
> John M. Henderson and George L. Malcolm (2009). Searching in the dark:
> Cognitive relevance drives attention in real-world scenes. *Psychonomic
> Bulletin & Review*, 16, 850-856
>
> Abstract:
> "We investigated whether the deployment of attention in scenes is better
> explained by visual salience or by cognitive relevance. In two experiments,
> participants searched for target objects in scene photographs. The objects
> appeared in semantically appropriate locations but were not visually salient
> within their scenes. Search was fast and efficient, with participants much
> more likely to look to the targets than to the salient regions. This
> difference was apparent from the first fixation and held regardless of
> whether participants were familiar with the visual form of the search
> targets. In the majority of trials, salient regions were not fixated. The
> critical effects were observed for all 24 participants across the two
> experiments. We outline a cognitive relevance framework to account for the
> control of attention and fixation in scenes."
>
>
>
>
> --
> www.dan.sperber.fr
> www.cognitionandculture.net
>
>

-- 
www.dan.sperber.fr
www.cognitionandculture.net