Making Sense of Real-World Scenes. Issue 11 (November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Malcolm, George L.; Groen, Iris I.A.; Baker, Chris I.
• Is Part Of: Trends in cognitive sciences. Volume 20:Issue 11(2016)
• Page Start: 843
• Page End: 856
• Publication Date: 2016-11
• Subjects: Cognitive science -- Periodicals; Cognitive neuroscience -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.09.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-6613

Abstract

Abstract : To interact with the world, we have to make sense of the continuous sensory input conveying information about our environment. A recent surge of studies has investigated the processes enabling scene understanding, using increasingly complex stimuli and sophisticated analyses to highlight the visual features and brain regions involved. However, there are two major challenges to producing a comprehensive framework for scene understanding. First, scene perception is highly dynamic, subserving multiple behavioral goals. Second, a multitude of different visual properties co-occur across scenes and may be correlated or independent. We synthesize the recent literature and argue that for a complete view of scene understanding, it is necessary to account for both differing observer goals and the contribution of diverse scene properties. Trends: We are not simply passive viewers of scenes, but active participants within them, and understanding a scene entails processing factors such as what actions can be performed, where items are likely to be, how we can move through it, etc. Scene understanding has developed many parallel research fields, looking at recognition, search, navigation, and action affordance, among others. The multitude of different properties present in scenes, and the inherent correlations among them, make establishing the critical features for any given goal or for any given brain region extremely challenging. The research field has arrived at a stage where observer goals should be integrated, and the relationship between co-occurring properties explored, so as to start building a more comprehensive framework for scene understanding.