Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41423692›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Eye movements during free viewing to maximize scene understanding.

Shravan Murlidaran, Miguel P Eckstein

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Conceptual priorities shape individual gaze patterns during naturalistic visual attention.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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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

2 authors.

Shravan Murlidaran *Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. smurlidaran@ucsb.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2499-2991
Miguel P Eckstein *Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5528-355X

Funding

Foveated Search Model for Real World ScenesR21EY036488 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA · PI ECKSTEIN, MIGUEL PATRICIO · 2024 to 2025
$275k
NEI NIH HHS R21 EY036488
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

What humans look at and do when freely viewing a scene is not well understood. We measure observer eye movements under different instructions while participants view a customized set of image pairs containing small visual alterations that greatly change scene interpretation (Winograd images). We show that free-viewing fixations resemble those of observers describing scenes but differ from those of observers counting or searching for objects. Fixations are more often directed toward people and objects whose removal most alters scene interpretation, rather than toward the most salient or meaningfully judged regions (meaning maps), or objects perceived to be grasped or gazed at. Small image changes that modify scene understanding (Winograd images), but not salience or meaning maps, alter fixation patterns. By instructing observers to describe scenes while fixating on objects either relevant or irrelevant to scene understanding, we demonstrate that free-viewing eye movements are functionally important for accurate scene comprehension. Thus, an important human default task of free viewing eye movements is to comprehend scenes.

Indexed as

ComprehensionEye MovementsVisual PerceptionAdultFemaleFixation, OcularHumansMalePhotic StimulationYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID41423692
PMCPMC12830957

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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.