A unified system-level model of visual attention and object substitution masking (OSM) F Beuth, F Hamker |
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Artificial Intelligence, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
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| The phenomena of visual attention (Hamker, 2005, Cerebral Cortex, 15(4):431-47) and object substitution masking (OSM; DiLollo and Enns, 2000, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 129(4):481-507) are supposed to rely on different processes. However, Põder (2012, Journal of Experimental Psychology) already suggested that attentional gating is sufficient and reentrant hypothesis testing is not required to explain OSM. However, present computational models have not been demonstrated to account for both phenomena at the same time. Based on a previous model of the frontal eye field (FEF) and the ventral stream (Zirnsak et al., 2011, European Journal of Neuroscience, 33(11):2035-45) we developed a novel neuro-computational model that allows to simulate OSM and common visual attention experiments, like biased competition and visual search. In biased competition and in OSM setups, multiple stimuli or stimulus and mask compete for visual representation by means of inhibitory connections, which accounts for the mask duration dependency in OSM. OSM also requires a high number of distracters (set size effect). Our model explains this observation by spatially reentrant processing via a recurrent FEF-V4 processing loop. We conclude that OSM can be accounted for by well known attentional mechanisms within a unified model. |
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