Recent research indicates a direct relationship between low-level color features and visual attention under natural conditions. However, the design of these studies allows only correlational observations and no inference about mechanisms. Here we go a step further to examine the nature of the influence of color features on overt attention in an environment in which trichromatic color vision is advantageous. We recorded eye-movements of color-normal and deuteranope human participants freely viewing original and modified rainforest images. Eliminating red-green color information dramatically alters fixation behavior in color-normal participants. Changes in feature correlations and variability over subjects and conditions provide evidence for a causal effect of red-green color-contrast. The effects of blue-yellow contrast are much smaller. However, globally rotating hue in color space in these images reveals a mechanism analyzing color-contrast invariant of a specific axis in color space. Surprisingly, in deuteranope participants we find significantly elevated red-green contrast at fixation points, comparable to color-normal participants. Temporal analysis indicates that this is due to compensatory mechanisms acting on a slower time scale. Taken together, our results suggest that under natural conditions red-green color information contributes to overt attention at a low-level (bottom-up). Nevertheless, the results of the image modifications and deuteranope participants indicate that evaluation of color information is done in a hue-invariant fashion. © 2011 Frey, Wirz, Willenbockel, Betz, Schreiber, Troscianko and König.
CITATION STYLE
Frey, H. P., Wirz, K., Willenbockel, V., Betz, T., Schreiber, C., Troscianko, T., & König, P. (2011). Beyond correlation: Do color features influence attentionin rainforest? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, (APRIL). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00036
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