Optimal allocation of cognitive resources to spatial locations

From experiments showing that subjects differentially attend to parts of the visual field, psychologists have inferred a limitation on human visual information processing capacity. The model presented describes an optimal way to allocate a limited quantity of "cognitive resources," "a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance Vol. 3; no. 2; p. 201
Main Authors Shaw, M L, Shaw, P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.05.1977
Subjects
Adolescent
Attention
Cognition
Female
Form Perception
Humans
Male
Models, Theoretical
Probability
Visual Fields
Visual Perception
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:From experiments showing that subjects differentially attend to parts of the visual field, psychologists have inferred a limitation on human visual information processing capacity. The model presented describes an optimal way to allocate a limited quantity of "cognitive resources," "attention" or "mental effort". For this model, the sense of optimality is maximizing the probability of finding a target. In an experiment to test the model, subjects searched for a single target letter in an otherwise blank field. Two probability distributions were used to select a target location for a trial, but only one distribution was used for a session. For both distributions, the fit of the model was quite good. It is suggested that the model provides a promising way to test the assumption limited visual processing capacity.
ISSN:0096-1523
DOI:10.1037/0096-1523.3.2.201