Foveal

About: Foveal is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2652 publications have been published within this topic receiving 94120 citations.

Perception and Action in Sports. On the Functionality of Foveal and Peripheral Vision.

Abstract: An optimal coupling between perception and action is crucial for successful performance in sports. In basketball, for example, a stable fixation onto the basket helps to gain precise visual information of the target to successfully throw a basketball into the basket. In basketball-defense situations, however, opposing players cutting to the basket can be detected by using peripheral vision as less precise information are sufficient to mark this player. Those examples elucidate that to solve a given task foveal and peripheral vision can be used to acquire the necessary information. Following this reasoning, the current state of our framework will be presented that allows one to predict the functionality of one or the other or both depending on the current situation and task demands. In more detail, for tasks that require high motor precision like in far-aiming tasks, empirical evidence suggests that stable foveal fixations facilitate inhibitory processes of alternative action parameterization over movement planning and control. However, more complex situations (i.e., with more than one relevant information source), require peripheral vision to process relevant information by positioning gaze at a functional location which might actually be in free space between the relevant information sources. Based on these elaborations, we will discuss complementarities, the role of visual attention as well as practical implications.

Diagnosing the Periphery: Using the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Drawing Test to Characterize Peripheral Visual Function

Abstract: Peripheral vision is strongly limited by crowding, the deleterious influence of neighboring stimuli on target perception Many quantitative aspects of this phenomenon have been characterized, but the specific nature of the perceptual degradation remains elusive We utilized a drawing technique to probe the phenomenology of peripheral vision, using the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure, a standard neuropsychological clinical instrument The figure was presented at 12° or 6° in the right visual field, with eye tracking to ensure that the figure was only presented when observers maintained stable fixation Participants were asked to draw the figure with free viewing, capturing its peripheral appearance A foveal condition was used to measure copying performance in direct view To assess the drawings, two raters used standard scoring systems that evaluated feature positions, spatial distortions, and omission errors Feature scores tended to decrease with increasing eccentricity, both within and between conditions, reflecting reduced resolution and increased crowding in peripheral vision Based on evaluation of the drawings, we also identified new error classes unique to peripheral presentation, including number errors for adjacent similar features and distinctive spatial distortions The multifaceted nature of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure-containing configural elements, detached compound features, and texture-like components-coupled with the flexibility of the free-response drawing paradigm and the availability of standardized scoring systems, provides a promising method to probe peripheral perception and crowding

Task and contrast effects on performance with parafoval stimulus pairs

Abstract: The effect on both detection and identification of placing a non-target character to the foveal or peripheral side of the position of a parafoveally presented target character was examined in two experiments. The experiments found more interference with both tasks when the nontarget was peripheral to the target position, but only when the target and nontarget were both darker or brighter than the background. If one character was darker than the background, and the other was brighter, the asymmetry appeared in neither task. In Experiment 2, performance in both tasks was poorer when the two characters had the same features, but this effect was independent of both nontarget position and target-nontarget contrast. While these results are inconsistent with a feature-mixing explanation of the asymmetry, contrast-specific lateral inhibition can account for the phenomena.