Reading scenes: how scene grammar guides attention and aids perception in real-world environments

• Published in: Current opinion in psychology Vol. 29; pp. 205 - 210
• Main Authors: Võ, Melissa Le-Hoa, Boettcher, Sage EP, Draschkow, Dejan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2019
• ISSN: 2352-250X; 2352-250X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.03.009

•Naturalistic scene processing is highly efficient.•Scene context modulates perceptual and semantic object processing.•Priors about natural environments guide attention and search.•These priors contain predictions about what objects tend to be where.•We need more investigations of the hierarchical organizations of scene priors.
Despite many recent technical advances, the human efficacy of naturalistic scene processing is still unparalleled. What guides attention in real world environments? How does scene context affect object search and classification? And how are the many predictions we have with regards to our visual environment structured? Here, we review the latest findings that speak to these questions, ranging from traditional psychophysics, eye movement, and neurocognitive studies in the lab to experiments in virtual reality (VR) and the real world. The growing interest and grasp of a scene’s inner workings are enriching our understanding of the efficiency of scene perception and could inspire new technological and clinical advances.