Saliency of peripheral targets in gaze-contingent multiresolutional displays

Gaze-contingent multiresolutional displays (GCMRDs) have been proposed to solve the processing and bandwidth bottleneck in many single-user displays, by dynamically placing high-resolution in a window at the center of gaze, with lower resolution everywhere else. The three experiments reported here document a slowing of peripheral target acquisition associated with the presence of a gaze-contingent window. This window effect was shown for displays using either moving video or still images. The Window effect was similar across a resolution-defined window condition and a luminance-defined window condition, suggesting that peripheral image degradation is not a prerequisite of this effect. The window effect was also unaffected by the type of window boundary used (sharp or blended). These results are interpreted in terms of an attentional bias resulting in a reduced saliency of peripheral targets due to increased competition from items within the window. We discuss the implications of the window effect for the study of natural scene perception and for human factors research related to GCMRDs.