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Journal ArticleDOI

A feature-integration theory of attention

01 Jan 1980-Cognitive Psychology (Cogn Psychol)-Vol. 12, Iss: 1, pp 97-136
TL;DR: A new hypothesis about the role of focused attention is proposed, which offers a new set of criteria for distinguishing separable from integral features and a new rationale for predicting which tasks will show attention limits and which will not.
About: This article is published in Cognitive Psychology.The article was published on 1980-01-01. It has received 11452 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Object-based attention & Visual search.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that cognitive control stems from the active maintenance of patterns of activity in the prefrontal cortex that represent goals and the means to achieve them, which provide bias signals to other brain structures whose net effect is to guide the flow of activity along neural pathways that establish the proper mappings between inputs, internal states, and outputs needed to perform a given task.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract The prefrontal cortex has long been suspected to play an important role in cognitive control, in the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals. Its neural basis, however, has remained a mystery. Here, we propose that cognitive control stems from the active maintenance of patterns of activity in the prefrontal cortex that represent goals and the means to achieve them. They provide bias signals to other brain structures whose net effect is to guide the flow of activity along neural pathways that establish the proper mappings between inputs, internal states, and outputs needed to perform a given task. We review neurophysiological, neurobiological, neuroimaging, and computational studies that support this theory and discuss its implications as well as further issues to be addressed

10,943 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a visual attention system inspired by the behavior and the neuronal architecture of the early primate visual system is presented, where multiscale image features are combined into a single topographical saliency map.
Abstract: A visual attention system, inspired by the behavior and the neuronal architecture of the early primate visual system, is presented. Multiscale image features are combined into a single topographical saliency map. A dynamical neural network then selects attended locations in order of decreasing saliency. The system breaks down the complex problem of scene understanding by rapidly selecting, in a computationally efficient manner, conspicuous locations to be analyzed in detail.

10,525 citations

01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: A visual attention system, inspired by the behavior and the neuronal architecture of the early primate visual system, is presented, which breaks down the complex problem of scene understanding by rapidly selecting conspicuous locations to be analyzed in detail.

8,566 citations


Cites background or methods or result from "A feature-integration theory of att..."

  • ...The model was able to reproduce human performance for a number of pop-out tasks [7], using images of the type shown in Fig....

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  • ...Both results have been widely observed in humans [7] and are discussed in Section 3....

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  • ...It is related to the so-called “feature integration theory,” explaining human visual search strategies [7]....

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  • ...Although the concept of a saliency map has been widely used in FOA models [1], [3], [7], little detail is usually provided about its construction and dynamics....

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  • ...The type of performance which can be expected from this model critically depends on one factor: Only object features explicitly represented in at least one of the feature maps can lead to pop-out, that is, rapid detection independent of the number of distracting objects [7]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The two basic phenomena that define the problem of visual attention can be illustrated in a simple example and selectivity-the ability to filter out un­ wanted information is illustrated.
Abstract: The two basic phenomena that define the problem of visual attention can be illustrated in a simple example. Consider the arrays shown in each panel of Figure 1. In a typical experiment, before the arrays were presented, subjects would be asked to report letters appearing in one color (targets, here black letters), and to disregard letters in the other color (nontargets, here white letters). The array would then be briefly flashed, and the subjects, without any opportunity for eye movements, would give their report. The display mimics our. usual cluttered visual environment: It contains one or more objects that are relevant to current behavior, along with others that are irrelevant. The first basic phenomenon is limited capacity for processing information. At any given time, only a small amount of the information available on the retina can be processed and used in the control of behavior. Subjectively, giving attention to any one target leaves less available for others. In Figure 1, the probability of reporting the target letter N is much lower with two accompa­ nying targets (Figure la) than with none (Figure Ib). The second basic phenomenon is selectivity-the ability to filter out un­ wanted information. Subjectively, one is aware of attended stimuli and largely unaware of unattended ones. Correspondingly, accuracy in identifying an attended stimulus may be independent of the number of nontargets in a display (Figure la vs Ie) (see Bundesen 1990, Duncan 1980).

7,642 citations


Cites background from "A feature-integration theory of att..."

  • ...According to serial search accounts, scenes are searched element by element by a spotlight of attention (Olhausen et al 1993, Schneider & Shiffrin 1977, Treisman & Gelade 1980), unless the target pops out from the background on the basis of an elemental feature difference....

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  • ...In easy cases, the target appears to "pop out" of the array, as if attention were drawn directly to it (Donderi & Zelnicker 1969, Treisman & Gelade 1980)....

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  • ...A common view is that attention helps solve the binding problem by linking together different features at the attended location (Treisman & Gelade 1980, Treisman & Schmidt 1982)....

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  • ...The array would then be briefly flashed, and the subjects, without any opportunity for eye movements, would give their report....

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  • ...An increase of 50 ms in target detection time for each nontarget added to the array is typical (Treisman & Gelade 1980), though in fact, this a) • • • o • • b) Q P 3 C J X Figure 3 Selectivity in visual search....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A wide variety of data on capacity limits suggesting that the smaller capacity limit in short-term memory tasks is real is brought together and a capacity limit for the focus of attention is proposed.
Abstract: Miller (1956) summarized evidence that people can remember about seven chunks in short-term memory (STM) tasks. How- ever, that number was meant more as a rough estimate and a rhetorical device than as a real capacity limit. Others have since suggested that there is a more precise capacity limit, but that it is only three to five chunks. The present target article brings together a wide vari- ety of data on capacity limits suggesting that the smaller capacity limit is real. Capacity limits will be useful in analyses of information processing only if the boundary conditions for observing them can be carefully described. Four basic conditions in which chunks can be identified and capacity limits can accordingly be observed are: (1) when information overload limits chunks to individual stimulus items, (2) when other steps are taken specifically to block the recoding of stimulus items into larger chunks, (3) in performance discontinuities caused by the capacity limit, and (4) in various indirect effects of the capacity limit. Under these conditions, rehearsal and long-term memory cannot be used to combine stimulus items into chunks of an unknown size; nor can storage mechanisms that are not capacity- limited, such as sensory memory, allow the capacity-limited storage mechanism to be refilled during recall. A single, central capacity limit averaging about four chunks is implicated along with other, noncapacity-limited sources. The pure STM capacity limit expressed in chunks is distinguished from compound STM limits obtained when the number of separately held chunks is unclear. Reasons why pure capacity estimates fall within a narrow range are discussed and a capacity limit for the focus of attention is proposed.

5,677 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tested the 2-process theory of detection, search, and attention presented by the current authors (1977) in a series of experiments and demonstrated the qualitative difference between 2 modes of information processing: automatic detection and controlled search.
Abstract: Tested the 2-process theory of detection, search, and attention presented by the current authors (1977) in a series of experiments. The studies (a) demonstrate the qualitative difference between 2 modes of information processing: automatic detection and controlled search; (b) trace the course of the

7,032 citations


"A feature-integration theory of att..." refers background in this paper

  • ...” Treisman et al. (1977) obtained evidence that schematic faces are treated as conjunctions of local features (e....

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01 Jan 1977

3,219 citations


"A feature-integration theory of att..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Shiffrin and Schneider (1977) found that subjects could learn to search in parallel for a particular set of letters, provided that targets and distracters never interchanged their roles....

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Book
01 Jan 1976

2,718 citations

Book
15 Aug 2014

2,228 citations


"A feature-integration theory of att..." refers background in this paper

  • ...There is both behavioral and physiological evidence for the idea that stimuli are initially analyzed along functionally separable dimensions, although not necessarily by physically distinct channels (Shepard, 1964; Garner, 1974; De Valois & De Valois, 1975)....

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Book
01 Jan 1978

2,175 citations


"A feature-integration theory of att..." refers result in this paper

  • ...Our finding that feature targets can be identified without being even approximately localized seems inconsistent with a new account of visual attention by Posner (1978)....

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  • ...Our finding that feature targets can be identified without being even approximately localized seems inconsistent with a new account of visual attention by Posner (1978). Posner suggests that the orientation of attention to the location of a target is a necessary prior condition for conscious detection in the visual domain....

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