Abstract

To view and understand the visual world, we
shift our gaze from one location to another about three
times per second. These rapid changes in gaze direction
result from very fast eye movements called saccades.
Visual information is acquired only during fixations, stationary
periods between saccades. Active visual search of
pictures is the process of active scanning of the visual
environment for a particular target among distracters or for
the extraction of its meaning. This article discusses a
cognitive model of saliency, overt attention, and natural
picture scanning that unravels the neurocomputational
mechanisms of how human gaze control operates during
active real-world scene viewing.