Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33745028›Full record

ReviewPsychological research2022

Foraging behavior in visual search: A review of theoretical and mathematical models in humans and animals.

Marcos Bella-Fernández, Manuel Suero Suñé, Beatriz Gil-Gómez de Liaño

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Psychological research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed
2.2field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. FoMo: A unifying theory of visual foraging.PLoS computational biology · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. The effect of target scarcity on visual foraging.Royal Society open science · 2024
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Exploration-exploitation model of moth-inspired olfactory navigation.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024
    Article
  17. Research on re-searching: interrupted foraging is not disrupted foraging.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024
    Article
  18. Smart active particles learn and transcend bacterial foraging strategies.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Using Gaze for Behavioural Biometrics.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Marcos Bella-FernándezUniversidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. marcosbellafernandez@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6621-0199
Manuel Suero SuñéUniversidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Beatriz Gil-Gómez de LiañoUniversidad Complutense de Madrid. Centro de Tecnología Biomédica-Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid · ESUniversidad Complutense de Madrid · ES

Funding

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PSI2015-69358-R
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Visual search (VS) is a fundamental task in daily life widely studied for over half a century. A variant of the classic paradigm-searching one target among distractors-requires the observer to look for several (undetermined) instances of a target (so-called foraging) or several targets that may appear an undefined number of times (recently named as hybrid foraging). In these searches, besides looking for targets, the observer must decide how much time is needed to exploit the area, and when to quit the search to eventually explore new search options. In fact, visual foraging is a very common search task in the real world, probably involving additional cognitive functions than typical VS. It has been widely studied in natural animal environments, for which several mathematical models have been proposed, and just recently applied to humans: Lévy processes, composite and area-restricted search models, marginal value theorem, and Bayesian learning (among others). We conducted a systematic search in the literature to understand those mathematical models and study its applicability in human visual foraging. The review suggests that these models might be the first step, but they seem to be limited to fully comprehend foraging in visual search. There are essential variables involving human visual foraging still to be established and understood. Indeed, a jointly theoretical interpretation based on the different models reviewed could better account for its understanding. In addition, some other relevant variables, such as certain individual differences or time perception might be crucial to understanding visual foraging in humans.

Indexed as

AttentionVisual PerceptionAnimalsBayes TheoremHumansLearningModels, Theoretical

Identifiers

PMID33745028
OpenAlexW3139119315

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.