uncertainty compensation in human attention evidence from response times and fixation durations补偿不确定性在人类关注响应时间和固定时间的证据.pdf

Uncertainty Compensation in Human Attention: Evidence from Response Times and Fixation Durations 1 2 S. Lee Hong *, Melissa R. Beck 1 Department of Kinesiology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America, 2 Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America Abstract Background: Uncertainty and predictability have remained at the center of the study of human attention. Yet, studies have only examined whether response times (RT) or fixations were longer or shorter under levels of stimulus uncertainty. To date, no study has examined patterns of stimuli and responses through a unifying framework of uncertainty. Methodology/Principal Findings: We asked 29 college students to generate repeated responses to a continuous series of visual stimuli presented on a computer monitor. Subjects produced these responses by pressing on a keypad as soon a target was detected (regardless of position) while the durations of their visual fixations were recorded. We manipulated the level of stimulus uncertainty in space and time by changing the number of potential stimulus locations and time intervals between stimulus presentations. To allow the analyses to be conducted using uncertainty as common description of stimulus and response we calculated the entropy of the RT and fixation durations. We tested the hypothesis of uncertainty compensation across space and time by fitting the RT and fixation duration entropy values to a quadratic surface. The quadratic surface accounted for 80% of the variance in the entropy values of both RT and fixation durations. RT entropy increased as a function of spatial and temporal uncertainty of the stimulus, alongside a symmetric, compensatory decrease in the entropy of fixation durations as the level of spatial an