Disentangling vision and attention in multiple object tracking: How crowding and collisions affect gaze anchoring and dual-task performance.

Vater, Christian; Kredel, Ralf; Hossner, Ernst-Joachim (2017). Disentangling vision and attention in multiple object tracking: How crowding and collisions affect gaze anchoring and dual-task performance. Journal of vision, 17(5), pp. 1-13. ARVO 10.1167/17.5.21

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Previous studies of multiple-object tracking have shown
that gaze behavior is affected by target collisions and
target–distractor crowding. Therefore, in order to
experimentally disentangle this collision-crowding
confound, we examined events of target collisions with
the bordering frame and crowding with distractors. We
hypothesized that collisions are particularly demanding
for covert attentional processing, whereas crowding
particularly challenges peripheral vision. Results show
that gaze is located closer to targets when they are
crowded, as would be expected to reduce negative
crowding effects by utilizing the higher spatial acuity of
foveal vision. However, saccades, which interrupt visual
information processing, were instead initiated as a
function of target collisions with the bordering frame.
Consequently, in a dual-task condition that required the
detection of target changes, participants more
frequently missed changes if they occurred in time
intervals around a collision. Based on these results,
superior performance should be expected if foveal gaze
is optimally anchored among crowded targets and if
potential target changes are monitored with peripheral
vision. In addition to the implications for further
laboratory research of multiple-object tracking, these
findings are relevant to a multitude tasks that require
the monitoring of several targets and the simultaneous
detection of certain events in the visual periphery, as it is
commonly the case, for instance, in sports.

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