What's color got to do with it? The influence of color on visual attention in different categories
Open accessAbstract
Certain locations attract human gaze in natural visual scenes. Are there measurable features, which distinguish these locations from others? While there has been extensive research on luminance-defined features, only few studies have examined the influence of color on overt attention. In this study, we addressed this question by presenting color-calibrated stimuli and analyzing color features that are known to be relevant for the responses of LGN neurons. We recorded eye movements of 15 human subjects freely viewing colored and grayscale images of seven different categories. All images were also analyzed by the saliency map model (L. Itti, C. Koch, & E. Niebur, 1998). We find that human fixation locations differ between colored and grayscale versions of the same image much more than predicted by the saliency map. Examining the influence of various color features on overt attention, we find two extreme categories: while in rainforest images all color features are salient, none is salient in fractals. In all other categories, color features are selectively salient. This shows that the influence of color on overt attention depends on the type of image. Also, it is crucial to analyze neurophysiologically relevant color features for quantifying the influence of color on attention.
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Color plays a role in overt attention.
“Color also plays a role in overt attention26”
From An Intervention Utilizing the Salience Principle to Reduce Pharmacy Students’ Psychological Attraction to Smartphones (2022) · cites this paper as [26]
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“Color also plays a role in overt attention 26 and the presence of a smartphone near a person ’ s sleeping area increases the possibility of turning attention toward it during evening and early morning hours.”
BackgroundA cross-over feasibility trial of smartphone grayscale mode in medical students
Hagerty, J., Saretha, S., Phung, B., Le, V., Vargas, J., Khan, F., & Wright, D. (2026) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2026.1816095
- Authors
- Frey, H. P., Honey, C., & Konig, P.
- Affiliations
- Osnabrück University (DE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Vision
- Published
- 2008-10-01
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 6-6
- ISSN
- 1534-7362 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1994202260
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 8.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Vision (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
- Keywords
- color, visual attention, gaze, fixation location, salience, color features, image categories, luminance, eye movements
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Biomechanical Phenomena, Color, Color Perception, Darkness, Eye Movements, Female, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Light, Male, Motion Perception, Photic Stimulation, Self Concept, Time Factors, Visual Perception, Young Adult
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