This dissertation was a study of the key image qualities that people could use to perform complex image discrimination tasks, and discussed how these findings might be applied. Three specific scenarios were examined. The first scenario examined cues to detecting looming objects, which could be used to develop warning signals that may reduce rear-end automobile collisions. The second scenario used the classification image technique to examine observer strategies for detecting specific grating patterns. The third scenario looked at x-ray images of airline luggage and quantified the image features that inspectors could be using to detect contraband items, and proposed a new training procedure, aimed at reducing training time while maintaining acceptable levels of performance.
[Suko was recognized as the 2002 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor for her work teaching optometry students.]
When we view the world, there are many things of interest but we are only able to inspect them one at a time. When we shift our attention, we use very rapid ballistic eye movements that are extremely accurate in hitting the new points of interest. How do the eyes achieve this accuracy? Teresa has investigated an adaptive process that adjusts these ballistic gaze shifts to match the physical directions of targets seen in the periphery. Her results suggest that we adjust both the perceived eccentricity of targets as well as the motor command signals that move the eyes. Furthermore we adjust our sensed eye position in order to perceive directions accurately after we have made our eye movement responses more accurate. Without these sensory and motor adjustments, we would have difficult seeing targets clearly, to reach accurately with our hands, and the world would appear to jump about whenever we shifted our gaze direction.
