Events Calendar

PhD Defense - James Tanner

PhD Candidate: James Tanner

Chair: Laurent Itti
Irving Biederman
Nora Ayanian


Understanding the Relationship Between Goals and Attention

It is well-known that tasks have a large influence on human gaze, and there exist many saliency models that incorporate some form of top-down features. However, these are all learned features, and little research has gone into quantifying the effects of task on eye movement behavior in a way that can predict those effects a priori. First, we demonstrate a new learning rule that suggests how top-down connections might operate in the brain, from a functional perspective. Then, we propose a quantitative theory for measuring the relevance of information with respect to tasks. Finally, we perform an experiment to further validate this theory and utilize it to improve a saliency model.

Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 109

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Lizsl De Leon