Carryover of eye-movements in natural scenes is influenced by a preceding unrelated visual task : Individual differences and practical implications

Hills, PJ; Thompson, C; Painter, L; Pake, JM

Abstract

Thompson and Crundall (2011) reported an effect whereby eye-movements from one task (counting vowels in letter strings) carried over to a secondary unrelated task (rating the hazard of a driving scene). Two experiments are reported here that extend this effect by establishing whether the magnitude of the carryover effect can be predicted by individual differences in inhibition and visual working memory and if the carryover impacts on hazard perception accuracy and reaction time. Using the same paradigm as Thompson and Crundall, participants searched letters presented horizontally, vertically, or in a random array. Following this, they saw a driving scene and rated the hazard of the scene (Experiment 1) or identify the hazard (Experiment 2). Carryover of eye-movements from the letter scanning to the driving scene were observed and this effect was stronger for those who showed a larger Stroop effect and a smaller Symbol Span. Results also showed that horizontal and vertical scanning caused participants to respond quicker to the hazard, whilst being less accurate at hazard detection than following scanning the random array. These results indicate that carryover is modulated by the ability to inhibit and can influence task performance. This has important implications for situations where particular scanning strategies might be affected from one task to a second task performance (e.g. driving safety).

Citation

Hills, P., Thompson, C., Painter, L., & Pake, J. (2012, August). Carryover of eye-movements in natural scenes is influenced by a preceding unrelated visual task : Individual differences and practical implications. Presented at British Psychological Society Cognitive Psychology Section, Glasgow, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: British Psychological Society Cognitive Psychology Section
• Conference Location: Glasgow, UK
• Start Date: Aug 29, 2012
• End Date: Aug 31, 2012
• Deposit Date: Jul 7, 2015
• Publisher: The British Psychological Society
• Publisher URL: http://abstracts.bps.org.uk/index.cfm?&ResultsType=Abstracts&ResultSet_ID=8503&FormDisplayMode=view&frmShowSelected=true&localAction=details
• Related Public URLs: http://www.bps.org.uk/networks-and-communities/member-microsite/cognitive-psychology-section/2012
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference