Volume 6, Number 1, Article 8, Pages 87-96 doi:10.1167/6.1.8 http://journalofvision.org/6/1/8/ ISSN 1534-7362
An advantage for detecting dynamic targets in natural scenes
Quoc C. Vuong
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
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Andries F. Hof
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
Heinrich H. Bülthoff
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
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Ian M. Thornton
Department of Psychology, University of Wales Swansea, Swansea, United Kingdom
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Abstract

In the present study, we tested the extent to which observers use dynamic information to detect targets in natural scenes. For this purpose, we used composite stimuli in which target sequences were superimposed onto distractor sequences. We varied target visibility in the composite sequence, and the presence or absence of motion. Across four experiments, we found a dynamic advantage for target detection: Observers performed more accurately with dynamic than static target scenes. This advantage depended on the availability of target motion, irrespective of whether the target was upright or inverted in the image plane (Experiments 14). The magnitude of this advantage also depended on the availability of segmentation cues (Experiments 1 and 2) and on the distractors used (Experiments 2 and 4). Overall, the dynamic advantage reported extends previous work using isolated dynamic objects to more complex scenes.

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History
Received July 15, 2004; published January 31, 2006
Citation
Vuong, Q. C., Hof, A. F., Bülthoff, H. H., & Thornton, I. M. (2006). An advantage for detecting dynamic targets in natural scenes. Journal of Vision, 6(1):8, 87-96, http://journalofvision.org/6/1/8/, doi:10.1167/6.1.8.
Keywords
natural scenes, dynamic information, target detection
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