A mathematical model of local and global attention in natural scene viewing

PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 Dec 14;16(12):e1007880. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007880. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Understanding the decision process underlying gaze control is an important question in cognitive neuroscience with applications in diverse fields ranging from psychology to computer vision. The decision for choosing an upcoming saccade target can be framed as a selection process between two states: Should the observer further inspect the information near the current gaze position (local attention) or continue with exploration of other patches of the given scene (global attention)? Here we propose and investigate a mathematical model motivated by switching between these two attentional states during scene viewing. The model is derived from a minimal set of assumptions that generates realistic eye movement behavior. We implemented a Bayesian approach for model parameter inference based on the model's likelihood function. In order to simplify the inference, we applied data augmentation methods that allowed the use of conjugate priors and the construction of an efficient Gibbs sampler. This approach turned out to be numerically efficient and permitted fitting interindividual differences in saccade statistics. Thus, the main contribution of our modeling approach is two-fold; first, we propose a new model for saccade generation in scene viewing. Second, we demonstrate the use of novel methods from Bayesian inference in the field of scan path modeling.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Attention*
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Eye Movements*
  • Fixation, Ocular*
  • Humans
  • Likelihood Functions
  • Models, Theoretical

Grants and funding

NMS, MO,SR,LS,SAS,RE have been funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - SFB 1294/1 - 318763901. https://www.sfb1294.de/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.