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Auteurs principaux: Zhang, Anqi, Geisler, Wilson S.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.12124
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author Zhang, Anqi
Geisler, Wilson S.
author_facet Zhang, Anqi
Geisler, Wilson S.
contents Visual search is a fundamental natural task for humans and other animals. We investigated the decision processes humans use in covert (single-fixation) search with briefly presented displays having well-separated potential target locations. Performance was compared with the Bayesian-optimal decision process under the assumption that the information from the different potential target locations is statistically independent. Surprisingly, humans performed slightly better than optimal, despite humans' substantial loss of sensitivity in the fovea (foveal neglect), and the implausibility of the human brain replicating the optimal computations. We show that three factors can quantitatively explain these seemingly paradoxical results. Most importantly, simple and fixed heuristic decision rules reach near optimal search performance. Secondly, foveal neglect primarily affects only the central potential target location. Finally, spatially correlated neural noise can cause search performance to exceed that predicted for independent noise. These findings have broad implications for understanding visual search tasks and other identification tasks in humans and other animals.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_12124
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal Visual Search with Highly Heuristic Decision Rules
Zhang, Anqi
Geisler, Wilson S.
Neurons and Cognition
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Applications
Visual search is a fundamental natural task for humans and other animals. We investigated the decision processes humans use in covert (single-fixation) search with briefly presented displays having well-separated potential target locations. Performance was compared with the Bayesian-optimal decision process under the assumption that the information from the different potential target locations is statistically independent. Surprisingly, humans performed slightly better than optimal, despite humans' substantial loss of sensitivity in the fovea (foveal neglect), and the implausibility of the human brain replicating the optimal computations. We show that three factors can quantitatively explain these seemingly paradoxical results. Most importantly, simple and fixed heuristic decision rules reach near optimal search performance. Secondly, foveal neglect primarily affects only the central potential target location. Finally, spatially correlated neural noise can cause search performance to exceed that predicted for independent noise. These findings have broad implications for understanding visual search tasks and other identification tasks in humans and other animals.
title Optimal Visual Search with Highly Heuristic Decision Rules
topic Neurons and Cognition
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.12124