Influences of active control on attention allocation in MOT

Abstract

We investigated the influence of active involvement on the way visual attention is distributed during multiple-object tracking (MOT), specifically when objects bounce, using two experiments modeled after the videogame Pong. In both experiments, participants were either assigned to an active group or a passive group. The active groups were instructed to move a virtual paddle in order to bounce target objects as often as possible. Participants in the passive groups viewed recordings of trials from the active groups. In all conditions, participants were asked to track the target objects and to detect dot probes that briefly appeared on the screen. Using probe detection, we explored the distribution of attentional resources over the linear and bounce trajectories of tracked objects. We found that active involvement can enhance probe detection along the future post-bounce trajectory, but it depends on the difficulty of the task.