Studies |
"When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it."
– B. F. Skinner |
Foveal/Peripheral: Perceptual and cognitive processes in drawing from observation |
INTRODUCTION
The following describes a two-stage study that seeks to explore the contributions that central and peripheral vision make to artists’ perceptual experience and drawing products. The study is guided by the question, “How will drawings be affected by whether the scene being drawn is inspected primarily with central vision versus peripheral vision?” In both stages we will combine a desk-mounted, high-speed camera-based eye tracking system with custom software so that, in addition to normal viewing, we can show our participants carefully generated scenes in which information from only peripheral vision or from only central vision is displayed. Stage one will be a purely perceptual project to establish the parameter space for the second stage in which we will be interested in how confining the drawer's experience of the scene to central or peripheral visual information will affect their drawing from observation.
In Stage 1, the population will be drawn from young adults with normal or corrected-to-normal vision and varying degrees of drawing expertise. Broadly, our procedure will be to comfortably situate informed, consenting participants before a computer, have a trained research assistant calibrate the desk-mounted eye-tracking system, and have participants make keyboard and eye-movement responses to stimuli presented on the computer’s monitor. The stimuli will consist of basic geometric or alphabetical stimuli (global forms) that are made of smaller shapes (local material). The participant’s task will be to indicate, by quickly pressing buttons on the computer’s keyboard, whether they are seeing one of two possible shapes (at either the global or local level); a third, "neutral" shape will always be used at the non-target containing level.
In Stage 2, which will be restricted to volunteers from NSCAD's drawing classes, we will explore drawing from observation using the same manipulations of vision as described above. In this stage we will request participants to report on their subjective experience of drawing under the different exposure conditions (full, central, and peripheral vision) and their drawings will be analyzed for how accurately the forms, materials, and spatial relations among the displayed elements are rendered.
The following describes a two-stage study that seeks to explore the contributions that central and peripheral vision make to artists’ perceptual experience and drawing products. The study is guided by the question, “How will drawings be affected by whether the scene being drawn is inspected primarily with central vision versus peripheral vision?” In both stages we will combine a desk-mounted, high-speed camera-based eye tracking system with custom software so that, in addition to normal viewing, we can show our participants carefully generated scenes in which information from only peripheral vision or from only central vision is displayed. Stage one will be a purely perceptual project to establish the parameter space for the second stage in which we will be interested in how confining the drawer's experience of the scene to central or peripheral visual information will affect their drawing from observation.
In Stage 1, the population will be drawn from young adults with normal or corrected-to-normal vision and varying degrees of drawing expertise. Broadly, our procedure will be to comfortably situate informed, consenting participants before a computer, have a trained research assistant calibrate the desk-mounted eye-tracking system, and have participants make keyboard and eye-movement responses to stimuli presented on the computer’s monitor. The stimuli will consist of basic geometric or alphabetical stimuli (global forms) that are made of smaller shapes (local material). The participant’s task will be to indicate, by quickly pressing buttons on the computer’s keyboard, whether they are seeing one of two possible shapes (at either the global or local level); a third, "neutral" shape will always be used at the non-target containing level.
In Stage 2, which will be restricted to volunteers from NSCAD's drawing classes, we will explore drawing from observation using the same manipulations of vision as described above. In this stage we will request participants to report on their subjective experience of drawing under the different exposure conditions (full, central, and peripheral vision) and their drawings will be analyzed for how accurately the forms, materials, and spatial relations among the displayed elements are rendered.
RATIONALE
Nicolaides (1969) observed that when asked to draw from observation students often concentrated on details available to them from central vision; purportedly to the detriment of form and spatial relations, this resulted in a less-than-accurate representation of what they were seeing. Observations like this one often lead drawing and painting teachers to have their students squint at their subject matter in the expectation that squinting eliminates some of the detail, tonal, and colour information, supposedly making the information about form and spatial relations more salient. It was not long after these ideas were presented by Reichertz in one of our regular Drawing Laboratory lab meetings that Klein remembered a Science paper entitled: Reading without a fovea (Rayner & Bertera, 1979) that offered a method for exploring these ideas scientifically and to determine their implications for drawing and for the teaching of drawing. Eye monitoring equipment that is both sufficiently fast and sufficiently accurate can be programmed to allow us to block out central vision or to block out everything but central vision while its wearer visually explores a scene that is presented on a display controlled by a computer with rapid access to information about eye position (see also, Henderson et al., 1997; Larson, et al., 2009).
No one has applied this methodology to the perceptual domain (Stage 1) or to the drawing domain (Stage 2). The purpose of the proposed experiments is primarily discovery, and the creation of a foundation for establishing hypotheses, speculation, and enquiry for further research. As an inherently interdisciplinary undertaking, we are aspiring to create the context for further research within and between our respective disciplines.
Paper submitted to Journal of Experimental Psychology - March 2021
Nicolaides (1969) observed that when asked to draw from observation students often concentrated on details available to them from central vision; purportedly to the detriment of form and spatial relations, this resulted in a less-than-accurate representation of what they were seeing. Observations like this one often lead drawing and painting teachers to have their students squint at their subject matter in the expectation that squinting eliminates some of the detail, tonal, and colour information, supposedly making the information about form and spatial relations more salient. It was not long after these ideas were presented by Reichertz in one of our regular Drawing Laboratory lab meetings that Klein remembered a Science paper entitled: Reading without a fovea (Rayner & Bertera, 1979) that offered a method for exploring these ideas scientifically and to determine their implications for drawing and for the teaching of drawing. Eye monitoring equipment that is both sufficiently fast and sufficiently accurate can be programmed to allow us to block out central vision or to block out everything but central vision while its wearer visually explores a scene that is presented on a display controlled by a computer with rapid access to information about eye position (see also, Henderson et al., 1997; Larson, et al., 2009).
No one has applied this methodology to the perceptual domain (Stage 1) or to the drawing domain (Stage 2). The purpose of the proposed experiments is primarily discovery, and the creation of a foundation for establishing hypotheses, speculation, and enquiry for further research. As an inherently interdisciplinary undertaking, we are aspiring to create the context for further research within and between our respective disciplines.
Paper submitted to Journal of Experimental Psychology - March 2021
REFERENCES
Garner, S. (2008) Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing Practice and Research Intellect Books, Bristol U.K. & Chicago, USA.
Henderson, J. M., McClure, K. K., Pierce, S.,& Schrock, G. (1997). Object identification without foveal vision: Evidence from an artificial scotoma paradigm. Perception & Psychophysics, 59, 323–346.
Larson, A. & Loschky, L. (2009) The contributions of central versus peripheral vision to scene gist recognition, Journal of Vision, 9(10):6, 1-16.
Maycock, B., Liu, G. & Klein, R. M. (2009) Where to begin? Eye-movement when drawing, Journal of Research Practice, 5, Article M3.
Nicolaides, K (1969) The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
Rayner, K. & Bertera, J. H. (1979) Reading without a fovea, Science, 206, 468-469 Shlain, L. (2007) Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light. Harper Perennial. NY.
Solso, R.L. (2003) The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious Brain. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England.
Garner, S. (2008) Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing Practice and Research Intellect Books, Bristol U.K. & Chicago, USA.
Henderson, J. M., McClure, K. K., Pierce, S.,& Schrock, G. (1997). Object identification without foveal vision: Evidence from an artificial scotoma paradigm. Perception & Psychophysics, 59, 323–346.
Larson, A. & Loschky, L. (2009) The contributions of central versus peripheral vision to scene gist recognition, Journal of Vision, 9(10):6, 1-16.
Maycock, B., Liu, G. & Klein, R. M. (2009) Where to begin? Eye-movement when drawing, Journal of Research Practice, 5, Article M3.
Nicolaides, K (1969) The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
Rayner, K. & Bertera, J. H. (1979) Reading without a fovea, Science, 206, 468-469 Shlain, L. (2007) Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light. Harper Perennial. NY.
Solso, R.L. (2003) The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious Brain. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England.