Can certain eye-movements help compensate for impaired central vision?
We test different gaze strategies used during search where central vision is blurred with the goal of helping people with central vision loss see better. After finding the target, & while subjects are trying to identify what the target is, we compare different eye-movement strategies where the gaze is centered on the target, or on a near peripheral region just outside of the central blur. We compare spontaneous strategies with suggested strategies where participants fixate just away from the target. For one strategy, subjects maintain a steady fixation on a single mark in their near-periphery, and we compare this to a second (eye-jitter) strategy, where subjects move their eyes back and forth across two peripheral marks. Known physiological properties of our visual system predict that subjects trained to jitter their eyes in the near-periphery will benefit more than those who maintain fixation on a single close-periphery mark. Results show benefits to peripheral viewing, but jittering eyes only showed a marginal benefit. Additional studies explore the conditions under which unique eye-movements, such as horizontal vs. diagonal shifts, prove to be most reliable in helping compensate for central vision loss.
Yousef, B., Malk, B, Ivengar, A., Yousef, M., & [Mentor:] Aks, D.J. (2017-2019). Simulating Macular Degeneration: Can strategic eye-movements compensate for central-vision loss? Rutgers University Research Symposiums
How does depth information influence search?
Depth information has very interesting effects on search in 2-D displays because it conveys information about our 3-D world. Often these effects are illusory such as when the same item is presented on different parts of a texture gradient (such as with the cylinders on the right): Those in the dense texture region towards the top appear larger compared to the near-course texture regions at the bottom. This illusion of changing size is reflected powerfully in search as described in my work below. UI designers certainly can use these depth-size illusions to create compelling experiences that draw users attention to desired information.
UX
Aks, D.J. & Enns J.T. (1996). Visual search for size is influenced by a background texture gradient. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22 (6), 1467-1481. [pdf]
Aks, D.J. (1993). The analysis of slant-from-texture in early vision (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia). https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0098840 [pdf]
Aks, D.J. & Enns J.T. (1992). Visual search for direction of shading is influenced by apparent depth. Perception and Psychophysics, 52(1), 63-74. [pdf]
UX
How does exercise influence search & attention?
Many recent studies show cognitive benefits to exercising. My study was one of the early ones showing exercise improves search for information. Not only are people faster and more accurate finding targeted information, but their patterns of search are more efficient in that we are able to process more information simultaneously after exercising. This shows that cognitive processing is more efficient after exercise allowing us to distribute attention across more information without a cost to performance.
Aks, D.J. (1998). Influence of exercise on visual search: Implications for underlying cognitive mechanisms. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 87, 771-783. [Abstr]