Cite as:
Fuchs I M, Ansorge U, 2010, "Pictures speak louder than words: Saliency effects in paintings" Perception 39 ECVP Abstract Supplement, page 172

Pictures speak louder than words: Saliency effects in paintings

I M Fuchs, U Ansorge

Saliency models [eg Itti and Koch, 2000 Vision Research 40(10-12) 1489-1506] investigate the link between bottom-up factors and attention. These models predict where our gaze is drawn to in an image by means of local feature contrasts of colour, intensity and orientation. In the present study we investigated how well these predictions work for abstract and depictive paintings, as well as for control conditions with photos. We found that observers’ fixations were predicted better than chance by Itti and Koch’s saliency model in all our conditions, when comparing gaze behavior to random distributions. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves also indicate saliency effects in all stimulus categories, as well as a characteristic short-lived temporal profile of these effects in paintings. Results are discussed with respect to potential implications of our findings.

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