Volume 5, Number 3, Article 9, Pages 257-274 doi:10.1167/5.3.9 http://journalofvision.org/5/3/9/ ISSN 1534-7362
Visual search for transparency and opacity: Attentional guidance by cue combination?
Jeremy M. Wolfe
Visual Attention Laboratory, Brigham & Women's Hospital, & Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
[home] [e-mail]
Randall S. Birnkrant
Visual Attention Laboratory, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
[home] [e-mail]
Melina A. Kunar
Visual Attention Laboratory, Brigham & Women's Hospital, & Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
[home] [e-mail]
Todd S. Horowitz
Visual Attention Laboratory, Brigham & Women's Hospital, & Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
[home] [e-mail]
Abstract

A series of seven experiments explored search for opaque targets among transparent distractors or vice versa. Static stimuli produced very inefficient search. With moving items, search for an opaque target among transparent distractors was quite efficient while search for transparent targets was less efficient (Experiment 1). Transparent and opaque items differed from each other on the basis of motion cues, luminance cues, and figural cues (e.g., junction type). Motion cues were not sufficient to support efficient search (Experiments 2-5). Violations of the luminance rules of transparency disrupt search (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 5 shows that search becomes inefficient if X-junctions are removed. Experiments 6 and 7 show that efficient search survives if X-junctions are occluded. It appears that guidance of attention to an opaque target is guidance based on "cue combination" (M. S. Landy, L. T. Maloney, E. B. Johnston, & M. Young, 1995). Several cues must be present to produce a difference between opaque and transparent surfaces that is adequate to guide attention.

View full-text

History
Received August 4, 2004; published March 30, 2005
Citation
Wolfe, J. M., Birnkrant, R. S., Kunar, M. A., & Horowitz, T. S. (2005). Visual search for transparency and opacity: Attentional guidance by cue combination? Journal of Vision, 5(3):9, 257-274, http://journalofvision.org/5/3/9/, doi:10.1167/5.3.9.
Keywords
transparency, opacity, visual search, cue combination, visual attention, surface perception
Downloads
386 Total; 0.366 /day (DemandFactor)
 
Search
for related articles by these authors
for papers that cite this paper
Get citation






jov