{
  "abstract": "Virtual reality enables studying active visual search and gaze behavior under naturalistic, free-viewing conditions while preserving experimental control. However, free head-eye coordination, extended 3D space, dynamic target trajectories, and headset-specific field of view and eye-tracking constraints mean that findings from traditional 2D paradigms cannot be assumed to generalize to immersive environments. Interpreting gaze-based outcomes in VR requires bench-marks that establish how basic target properties influence detection. We used target eccentricity, size, and speed as benchmark predictors of visual detection in an immersive VR coin-foraging task. Using in-headset eye-tracking, participants guided a gaze-controlled avatar to collect coins that varied in gaze-relative eccentricity, size, and speed. We modeled gaze-based observation probability, observation latency, dwell time, gaze-coin angular distance, and saccade dynamics. Observation probability was analyzed using mixed-effects logistic regression, whereas latency was analyzed with a censoring-aware Cox framework that retained never-detected coins. Eccen-tricity and size showed the clearest benchmark effects. Peripheral and small coins were less like-ly to be detected. Speed’s role was more nuanced. Although slow coins were detected more of-ten in a binary model, this advantage did not persist in a censoring-aware survival analysis, suggesting that speed influenced the opportunity for observation more than momentary salience. Consistent with this interpretation, slow coins produced longer dwell times, and gaze-coin an-gular distance and saccade measures indicated that target properties shaped both the geometry and effort for acquisition. These findings establish a feature-based benchmark for gaze-based de-tection in immersive visual search and demonstrate the importance of modeling missed targets as censored detection opportunities.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Arwa Leilah Adib"
    },
    {
      "name": "Margaret Sereno"
    },
    {
      "name": "David Schwarz"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fpng74r5d1nxv.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/bxvwc_v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "fpng74r5d1nxv",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/bxvwc_v1/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Cognitive Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Cognitive Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Perception"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Social and Behavioral Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Vision"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Visual perception and processing mechanisms"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221819491",
  "pdf_url": "https://osf.io/bxvwc/download",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fpng74r5d1nxv.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:37Z",
      "native_id": "bxvwc",
      "source": "osf",
      "url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/bxvwc_v1/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Cognitive Neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A Benchmark for Gaze-Based Target Detection in Immersive Virtual Reality: Effects of Eccentricity, Size, and Speed on Observation and Detection Dynamics",
  "title_text": "A Benchmark for Gaze-Based Target Detection in Immersive Virtual Reality: Effects of Eccentricity, Size, and Speed on Observation and Detection Dynamics",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:20:37Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fpng74r5d1nxv",
  "venue": "PsyArXiv",
  "versions": []
}