Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
203,948 studies31 sourcesUpdated 32 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Differential effects of free viewing and goal-directed search on visual attention: An eye-tracking study

  • Chenxiao Yue1
  • Jiannan Chi2
  • Jiahui Liu
  • Yixu Wang
  • Cong Zhang
  • Ming Cao
  1. 1School of Automation and Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
  2. 2Shunde Innovation School, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Foshan, China
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

In natural scenes, human gaze behavior is driven jointly by external stimuli from scene characteristics and individual internal goals. To investigate the influence of these two factors on gaze behavior, this paper systematically analyzes eye movement behavior under two task paradigms: free viewing and goal-directed search. First, the guiding effects of different hierarchical visual features on fixation behavior under the two task conditions are analyzed. Second, the differences in eye movement trajectory characteristics between the two task paradigms are compared. Finally, the CNN-TransGaze model is proposed to distinguish eye movement behavior patterns under different task conditions. The results show that shape, location and orientation features exhibit strong fixation attraction under both task paradigms, while semantic features are significantly enhanced in goal-directed search compared with free viewing. There are significant differences in eye movement behavior characteristics between the two task scenarios. Moreover, compared with traditional statistical feature extraction methods, deep learning models can capture latent high-dimensional features more effectively, thereby enabling accurate discrimination of distinct eye movement patterns. Efficient feature extraction from diverse eye movement patterns using deep learning enables the implementation of relevant applications, such as distinguishing healthy individuals from patients with abnormal eye movement patterns caused by neurodegenerative diseases.

Related

  1. Neural tracking of surprisal and semantic distance in naturalistic movie viewing
    R. M. O'Leary, H. C. Smith, E. B. Myers +2
    bioRxivPreprintCC BYFull textNeurosciencebioRxiv
  2. The Hidden Geometry of Attention: Viewing Distance Is Associated with Flanker Interference
    David Levi Tekampe, Philip Samuel Santangelo
    PsyArXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textNeurosciencePsychiatry & mental healthOSF
  3. When Habits Dominate in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Tracking the Temporal Dynamics of Habitual and Goal-Directed Control
    Chenyu Yuan, Yinqing Fan, Chaoyi Wu +6
    PsyArXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textNeurosciencePsychiatry & mental healthOSF
  4. Naturalistic face-directed attention predicts face recognition ability
    D. White, V. P. L. Varela, M. Piggott +4
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NCFull textZoology & animal behaviourbioRxiv
  5. Maturational constraints on tracking of temporal attention in infant language acquisition.
    Tineke Snijders, Katharina Menn
    PsyArXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textNeuroscienceOSF

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{yue2026differential,
  title = {{Differential effects of free viewing and goal-directed search on visual attention: An eye-tracking study}},
  author = {Chenxiao Yue and Jiannan Chi and Jiahui Liu and Yixu Wang and Cong Zhang and Ming Cao},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0357289},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357289},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Differential effects of free viewing and goal-directed search on visual attention: An eye-tracking study
AU  - Chenxiao Yue
AU  - Jiannan Chi
AU  - Jiahui Liu
AU  - Yixu Wang
AU  - Cong Zhang
AU  - Ming Cao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/15
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0357289
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0357289
AB  - In natural scenes, human gaze behavior is driven jointly by external stimuli from scene characteristics and individual internal goals. To investigate the influence of these two factors on gaze behavior, this paper systematically analyzes eye movement behavior under two task paradigms: free viewing and goal-directed search. First, the guiding effects of different hierarchical visual features on fixation behavior under the two task conditions are analyzed. Second, the differences in eye movement trajectory characteristics between the two task paradigms are compared. Finally, the CNN-TransGaze model is proposed to distinguish eye movement behavior patterns under different task conditions. The results show that shape, location and orientation features exhibit strong fixation attraction under both task paradigms, while semantic features are significantly enhanced in goal-directed search compared with free viewing. There are significant differences in eye movement behavior characteristics between the two task scenarios. Moreover, compared with traditional statistical feature extraction methods, deep learning models can capture latent high-dimensional features more effectively, thereby enabling accurate discrimination of distinct eye movement patterns. Efficient feature extraction from diverse eye movement patterns using deep learning enables the implementation of relevant applications, such as distinguishing healthy individuals from patients with abnormal eye movement patterns caused by neurodegenerative diseases.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -