What do we see when we look at art? - Modelling of eye-movements in art perception

Abstract: Eye movements during art perception have been extensively studied over the past century, as they provide insights into perceptual, evaluative, and cognitive processes. Although several theoretical frameworks have been proposed, it is only recently that spatial statistics have begun to explore gaze patterns, specifically by modelling fixation locations as spatial point patterns arising from spatio-temporal point processes. Inspired by the simple model of eye-movements proposed by Ylitalo et al. in 2016, we propose a stochastic model that incorporates both the semi-conscious transitions between regions of interest (ROIs) in a painting, as well as the semi-random eye movements that occur while registering visual information within these regions during the first 30 seconds of art perception.

Using eye-tracking data from twenty subjects on six paintings, we apply mean-shift clustering to identify ROIs in each painting based on the intensity of fixation points. A Markov chain is subsequently used to model the transitions between these regions and based on the model proposed by Ylitalo et al. we use the estimated intensity and saccade length distribution to model the placement of fixations within each ROI. Using this modelling approach, we analyse the dynamics of eye movements during the initial 30 seconds of art perception and to assess the robustness of our modelling assumptions across six diverse paintings and artistic styles.

psychologymachine learningprobabilitystatistics theory

Audience: researchers in the discipline

Gothenburg statistics seminar

Series comments: Gothenburg statistics seminar is open to the interested public, everybody is welcome. It usually takes place in MVL14 (http://maps.chalmers.se/#05137ad7-4d34-45e2-9d14-7f970517e2b60, see specific talk). Speakers are asked to prepare material for 35 minutes excluding questions from the audience.