Influence of soundtrack on eye movements during video exploration

Models of visual attention rely on visual features such as orientation, intensity or motion to predict which regions of complex scenes attract the gaze of observers. So far, sound has never been considered as a possible feature that might influence eye movements. Here, we evaluate the impact of non-...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Antoine Coutrot, Nathalie Guyader, Gelu Ionescu, Alice Caplier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Bern Open Publishing 2012-08-01
Series:Journal of Eye Movement Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/2340
Description
Summary:Models of visual attention rely on visual features such as orientation, intensity or motion to predict which regions of complex scenes attract the gaze of observers. So far, sound has never been considered as a possible feature that might influence eye movements. Here, we evaluate the impact of non-spatial sound on the eye movements of observers watching videos. We recorded eye movements of 40 participants watching assorted videos with and without their related soundtracks. We found that sound impacts on eye position, fixation duration and saccade amplitude. The effect of sound is not constant across time but becomes significant around one second after the beginning of video shots.
ISSN:1995-8692