The Effects on Perception and Performance When Image Resolution Drops

What happens to perception and performance when image filtering goes beyond the limits of visual resolution and removes otherwise perceptible information? Doing so creates image blur, which can affect where viewers look in scenes. Our studies have shown that image blur that is only moderately detectable appears to have little or no effect on perception and task performance. However, there is a blur threshold, beyond which eye movements are affected, creating a sort of ‘tunnel vision’— which should be avoided in most gaze-contingent multi-resolutional display applications. On the other hand, this blur threshold for affecting eye movements could be used to focus viewers?attention in particular image areas in the same way that depth of field is used in photography and cinema to focus viewers?attention on an object of interest.

Related Articles:

Loschky, L.C., & McConkie, G.W. (2002). Investigating spatial vision and dynamic attentional selection using a gaze-contingent multi-resolutional display. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8(2), 99-117.

Reingold, E. M., & Loschky, L. C. (2002). Saliency of peripheral targets in gaze-contingent multi-resolutional displays. Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 34(4), 491-499.