Collaborative Research: Control and Adaptation of Attentional Processing: Empirical and Computational Investigations

University Of Iowa, Iowa City IA

Investigators

Abstract

Human vision is exceptionally flexible. Consider searching for a familiar face in a crowd, finding car keys in a cluttered kitchen, chasing down an opponent in football, or threading through a crowded restaurant to find a table. How does vision accommodate such a variety of visual environments and achieve such diverse goals? One key is selective attention, which allows a person to focus on relevant aspects of the visual environment. But how does the mind determine what is relevant? What is the nature of control of visual attention? With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Shaun Vecera and Dr. Michael Mozer propose research to investigate selective attention. Dr. Vecera will conduct experimental studies that explore human behavior in novel tasks and unfamiliar environments to investigate how people exploit visual cues in the environment to enhance performance. Dr. Mozer will build computer simulation models to explain the experimental results. Broader impacts of this research include building artificial systems with the flexibility of human vision and improving the design of user interfaces for computer systems and mechanical or electronic devices. Additionally the proposed research may inform the diagnosis of control deficits due to brain damage. A computer model of human control can be damaged in various ways, to simulate brain damage, leading to a better understanding of the consequences and strategies for remediation.