Orienting of Visual Attention

Abstract

Spatial selectivity, which is essential in the perception of any visual scene or display, can be accomplished in two quite distinct ways. First, overt adjustments of gaze direction can be made to control which regions of the visual scene are processed by the sensitive fovea and its associated neural machinery. Second, covert adjustments can be made to determine which specific objects or regions are selected (in the absence of gaze changes) for preferential treatment. Overt orienting can be directly observed in the form of eye movements; convert orienting involves an internal adjustment and must be inferred from performance patterns. James (1890) probably had a distinction of this sort in mind when he contrasted adjustment of the sensory organs with an internal “anticipatory preparation.”