Modelling the role of task in the control of gaze

Abstract

Gaze changes and the resultant fixations that orchestrate the sequential acquisition of information from the visual environment are the central feature of primate vision. How are we to understand their function? For the most part, theories of fixation targets have been image based: The hypothesis being that the eye is drawn to places in the scene that contain discontinuities in image features such as motion, colour, and texture. But are these features the cause of the fixations, or merely the result of fixations that have been planned to serve some visual function? This paper examines the issue and reviews evidence from various image-based and task-based sources. Our conclusion is that the evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of fixation control being essentially task based.

Keywords:

• Gaze control
• Saliency
• Task modeling
• Saccades

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants RR02983, MH60624, and EY05729. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the reviewers whose detailed comments and suggestions greatly improved the paper.