Department of Surgery Research

Jeremy M. Wolfe, Ph.D.

Visual Attention Lab
Center for Ophthalmic Research

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Research Profile

The lab does basic research in visual selective attention. There is too much visual input for the brain to fully process everything in parallel across the visual field. If you do not believe this, try to read two documents at the same time. Even with an appropriately HUGE font, you cannot do this. We have three broad areas of interest. 1) Pre-attentive vision: What visual processing occurs before attentional selection? 2) Control of selection: How are the targets of attention chosen? and 3) Post-attentive vision: What are the enduring consequences of attention to an object?

The bulk of our research is basic, non-clinical work involving the study of healthy young adults who come to our lab to participate in experiments in which stimuli are presented on computer screens. We measure responses to simple questions like “Did you find a red vertical bar?” and from the speed and accuracy of those responses, we can infer details of the role of attention in the processing of visual information. Based on these results, we build models of the operation of human visual attention.

This basic research may illumine applied problems from the challenges in extracting information from medical imaging to the difficulties in finding threatening objects in X-rays of luggage. For example, in many socially important search tasks (e.g. routine mammography) the frequency of “targets” is very low (< 1%). How do people behave in tasks where they are correctly saying “no” all the time? The answer appears to be that they become increasingly likely to miss a target on the rare occasions when it does appear. Understanding the roots of this “prevalence effect” could lead to improvements in the way we carry out important real-world search tasks.

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Projects

For the latest update on Dr. Wolfe's research, please visit Visual Attention Lab.

The Deployment of Visual Attention
(Air Force Office of Scientific Research, PI, 12/99-1/06)

The major goals are:

Investigate models that transcend the serial/parallel dichotomy in visual search;
Understand the role of memory in visual search; and
Investigate the relationship between different modes of attentional deployment.

Psychophysical Structure of Human Vision
(NIH/NEI R01 – EY05087, PI, 8/85-7/05)

The major goals of this project are:

Study the channel structure of preattentive vision;
Determine of attentional selection is required by the simplest of "preattentive" tasks;
Investigate the properties of preattentive objects; and
Continue the development of the Guided Search model.

Control of Dynamic Attention
(NIH/NIMH, Investigator, 8/03-7/08, PI: Todd Horowitz, Ph.D.)

The major goals of this project are:

To study the relationship of multielement tracking to visual search; and
To study the ability of different forms of motion to guide visual search.

Self-regulation of Visual Search Behavior
(Transportation Safety Administration, PI, 3/02-4/05)

The major goals of this project are:

To examine how observers in search tasks regulate their behavior in response to changes in four factors: the ratio of target-present to target-absent trials, the nature of feedback about the success of a search, and the costs associated with different types of errors;
To examine the deleterious effects of target uncertainty and test possible remedies; and
To extend our work on the effects of fatigue and circadian phase on visual search.

Post-attentive Vision
(NIH/NIMH MH/EY56020, PI, 9/97-8/07)

The major goals are: