The Influences Of Characteristics And Location Of Visual Stimulus On Visual Search: An Eye Movement Study

Theories of visual attention distinguish stimulus-driven selection from goal-driven selection. Attention is affected by lots of factors during the visual search, such as abrupt onset, shape and color, etc. This research aimed to investigate how these factors and the target influence visual search when the stimulus presented in the foveal, parafoveal or peripheral region. We used the visual search paradigm. In this study, observers searched for a target along with 3 distracters, while an abrupt onset appeared or not. The reaction time and eye movements were recorded. The effects of top-down control and stimulus-driven changed were found during visual search task, depending on the visual fields. These findings indicate the larger the visual angle change, the stronger the influence of stimulus-driven becomes, whereas the weaker the influence of top-down control becomes. And there were significant differences between information processing of shape and color. We concluded that, (1) shape and color processing are differences in time course and location, and the influences of the abrupt onset on them are different; (2) there is local region effect on visual selection. (3) there are different characters within endogenous and exogenous attentional selection. (4) both the top-down control and the button-up characters influence the attention, and the efficacy of them are changed within different visual regions and different static characters.