Citation

Keane BP, Mettler E, Tsoi V, Kellman PJ. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 2011; 37(3): 685-698.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0020674

PMID

21038997

Abstract

Multiple object tracking (MOT) is an attentional task wherein observers attempt to track multiple targets among moving distractors. Contour interpolation is a perceptual process that fills-in nonvisible edges on the basis of how surrounding edges (inducers) are spatiotemporally related. In five experiments, we explored the automaticity of interpolation through its influences on tracking. We found that (1) when the edges of targets and distractors jointly formed dynamic illusory or occluded contours, tracking accuracy worsened; (2) when interpolation bound all four targets together, performance improved; (3) when interpolation strength was weakened (by altering the size or relative orientation of inducing edges), tracking effects disappeared; and (4) real and interpolated contours influenced tracking comparably, except that real contours could more effectively shift attention toward distractors. These results suggest that interpolation's characteristics-and, in particular, its automaticity-can be revealed through its attentional influences or "signatures" within tracking. Our results also imply that relatively detailed object representations are formed in parallel, and that such representations can affect tracking when they become relevant to scene segmentation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en