Effects of Distance and Grouping on Visual Attention for Static and Dynamic Displays

Naturally, our visual system receives a staggering amount of information from the environment. Mechanisms are needed to filter irrelevant information and select the most significant for our task. Since the static stimuli have been intensely researched, we are focusing mainly on dynamic stimuli. The goal of this research was to investigate the deployment of exogenous attention to the dynamic stimuli forming perceptual groups. We conducted three experiments both in dynamic and in static conditions with novel features. Particularly, we examined how attention spreads within or outside of a moving object and how perceptual grouping by color and motion affects the allocation of attention. The results demonstrate clearly the effects of distance, color and motion on the allocation of visual attention. Exogenous attention follows the reference frame moving with the stimulus. Also the exogenous attention is allocated not just to the cued element but also to all elements forming the group.