CS781 - Colour for Computer Graphics - Winter 2009

Lecture 23

Colour and Attention, aka Cognitive Properties of Colour

Reading versus Seeing

Information in two different forms

• One processed part by part
• One processed all at once

Which is better?

• It depends on what you want to know

This is the arguments for visualization

Arrays of letters

The simple experiment

• How is attention allocated?

Why do we not need to inspect each letter to see if it is red?

Iconic memory

Short presentation

• report the letters
• about 3.5 is possible

Introduce different-coloured distractors in random positions

• only 2 is possible
• looks like we have to process letters serially with somewhat quicker rejection for wrong colour

Introduce different-coloured distractors in patterns

• as many as 3 is possible
• looks like we can capture groups if they form discrete objects
• looks as though we can capture 1 or 2 groups with a little overhead

Combining colour with locality makes processable units

How are Qualities Incorporated into Objects?

Treisman

Interaction of Colour with Form

Posner

Stroop Effect

Basic

Only one letter coloured

• More evidence of object parsing

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