Every day, the individual is confronted with a tremendous amount of visual noise, which has no informative value whatsoever, but it overwhelms the perception of visual channels. Consequently, even without focusing on specific details, individuals can become overworked just because of the excess noise and interference around them. To avoid such distraction and overload, there are filtering mechanisms in the visual perception system. This essay evaluates five such mechanisms and provides a comparative analysis for them.
Techniques for filtering visual attention are different but serve the same purpose, namely to prevent information from entering the brain and, consequently, process information from the field of visual noise. Several information filtering systems are distinguished, depending on what underlies these procedures. Thus, this paper cites five fundamental patterns routinely used by our minds to maintain focus and overcome information noise. The first of these techniques is visual scanning, which allows us to assess with our eyes what is happening around us. For example, when looking for a house number, a person can quickly study the picture around them to find the sign they are looking for. Also associated with this technique is the fixation technique, which draws the individual’s attention strictly to one detail. Fixation on the plate with the number allows one to reduce all surrounding noise and direct one’s vision, attention, and consciousness to the frame in question. However, when visual scanning and fixation are combined, it becomes possible to generalize to a third technique called saccadic eye movement (Hessels et al., 2018). When individuals are surrounded by several houses and need to choose a particular one, the gaze moves quickly between fixation points. Two other retention techniques are covert and explicit attention, which are opposite in meaning. With covert attention, an individual might notice a lateral vision that there are no houses on the left and right, so not look in those directions. In contrast, explicit attention could be realized if the individual looked directly at the house to determine its number.
As can be seen, each of the five ways mentioned has differences and similarities. First of all, they all involve the visual organs, and they also all have a common purpose, namely the control of the eyes to maintain concentration and attention. Hidden attention is passive and less energy-consuming, while explicit attention, on the other hand, requires more energy and time. Saccadic eye movements, in general, are the most energy-consuming, while this technique allows you to cover the maximum number of objects in your surroundings at the same time. Finally, visual scanning is characterized by an active form of perception in which the individual expresses their will, whereas fixation is not always realized according to the desire of the beholder.
Reference
Hessels, R. S., Niehorster, D. C., Nyström, M., Andersson, R., & Hooge, I. T. (2018). Is the eye-movement field confused about fixations and saccades? A survey among 124 researchers. Royal Society Open Science, 5(8), 1-10.