Visual Attention Drawn to Meaning, Not What Stands Out

Andy Fell — September 25, 2017 - 3:54pm

Our visual attention is drawn to parts of a scene that have meaning, rather than to those that are salient or “stick out,” according to new research from the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis. The findings, published Sept. 25 in the journal Nature Human Behavior, overturn the widely-held model of visual attention.

“A lot of people will have to rethink things,” said psychology professor John Henderson, who led the research. “The saliency hypothesis really is the dominant view.”

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Visual Attention Drawn to Meaning, Not What Stands Out