How many objects can you track?: Evidence for a resource-limited attentive tracking mechanism

• DOI: 10.1167/7.13.14
• Publication Date: 2007-11-16T01:55:50Z
• Authors: George A. Alvarez; Steven L. Franconeri
• Keywords: Tracking (education); Field of view

Much of our interaction with the visual world requires us to isolate some currently important objects from other less objects. This task becomes more difficult when move, or field view moves relative world, requiring track these over space and time. Previous experiments have shown that observers can a maximum about 4 moving A natural explanation for this capacity limit is system architecturally limited handling fixed number at once, so-called magical on attention. In contrast view, Experiment 1 shows tracking not fixed. At slow speeds it possible up 8 objects, yet there are fast which only single object be tracked. 2 suggests related spatial resolution These findings suggest tracked primarily set by flexibly allocated resource, has implications mechanisms relationship between cognitive processes.