How many objects can you track? Evidence for a resource-limited attentive tracking mechanism. Alvarez, G. A. & Franconeri, S. L. J Vis, 2007. doi abstract bibtex Much of our interaction with the visual world requires us to isolate some currently important objects from other less important objects. This task becomes more difficult when objects move, or when our field of view moves relative to the world, requiring us to track these objects over space and time. Previous experiments have shown that observers can track a maximum of about 4 moving objects. A natural explanation for this capacity limit is that the visual system is architecturally limited to handling a fixed number of objects at once, a so-called magical number 4 on visual attention. In contrast to this view, Experiment 1 shows that tracking capacity is not fixed. At slow speeds it is possible to track up to 8 objects, and yet there are fast speeds at which only a single object can be tracked. Experiment 2 suggests that that the limit on tracking is related to the spatial resolution of attention. These findings suggest that the number of objects that can be tracked is primarily set by a flexibly allocated resource, which has important implications for the mechanisms of object tracking and for the relationship between object tracking and other cognitive processes.
@Article{Alvarez2007,
author = {Alvarez, George A. and Franconeri, Steven L.},
journal = {J Vis},
title = {How many objects can you track? Evidence for a resource-limited attentive tracking mechanism.},
year = {2007},
number = {13},
volume = {7},
abstract = {Much of our interaction with the visual world requires us to isolate
some currently important objects from other less important objects.
This task becomes more difficult when objects move, or when our field
of view moves relative to the world, requiring us to track these
objects over space and time. Previous experiments have shown that
observers can track a maximum of about 4 moving objects. A natural
explanation for this capacity limit is that the visual system is
architecturally limited to handling a fixed number of objects at
once, a so-called magical number 4 on visual attention. In contrast
to this view, Experiment 1 shows that tracking capacity is not fixed.
At slow speeds it is possible to track up to 8 objects, and yet there
are fast speeds at which only a single object can be tracked. Experiment
2 suggests that that the limit on tracking is related to the spatial
resolution of attention. These findings suggest that the number of
objects that can be tracked is primarily set by a flexibly allocated
resource, which has important implications for the mechanisms of
object tracking and for the relationship between object tracking
and other cognitive processes.},
doi = {10.1167/7.13.14},
institution = {Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. alvarez@mit.edu},
keywords = {Attention, physiology; Humans; Models, Psychological; Pursuit, Smooth, physiology; Space Perception, physiology; Time Factors},
language = {eng},
medline-pst = {epublish},
pmid = {17997642},
timestamp = {2013.06.25},
}
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Previous experiments have shown that observers can track a maximum of about 4 moving objects. A natural explanation for this capacity limit is that the visual system is architecturally limited to handling a fixed number of objects at once, a so-called magical number 4 on visual attention. In contrast to this view, Experiment 1 shows that tracking capacity is not fixed. At slow speeds it is possible to track up to 8 objects, and yet there are fast speeds at which only a single object can be tracked. Experiment 2 suggests that that the limit on tracking is related to the spatial resolution of attention. 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Evidence for a resource-limited attentive tracking mechanism.},\n year = {2007},\n number = {13},\n volume = {7},\n abstract = {Much of our interaction with the visual world requires us to isolate\n\tsome currently important objects from other less important objects.\n\tThis task becomes more difficult when objects move, or when our field\n\tof view moves relative to the world, requiring us to track these\n\tobjects over space and time. Previous experiments have shown that\n\tobservers can track a maximum of about 4 moving objects. A natural\n\texplanation for this capacity limit is that the visual system is\n\tarchitecturally limited to handling a fixed number of objects at\n\tonce, a so-called magical number 4 on visual attention. In contrast\n\tto this view, Experiment 1 shows that tracking capacity is not fixed.\n\tAt slow speeds it is possible to track up to 8 objects, and yet there\n\tare fast speeds at which only a single object can be tracked. 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