Evaluating Preattentive Processing in Game Settings with Consistent

Visual Scenes

Ilir Jusuﬁ

and Niclas Andersson

Department of Computer Science, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden

ﬁ

Keywords:

Preattentive Processing, Video Games.

Abstract:

Preattentive processing refers to the human brain’s ability to rapidly detect speciﬁc visual features before

conscious awareness. This study evaluates the effectiveness of preattentive processing in identifying objects

with distinct features—motion, color, and shape—within controlled 3D game-like environments. Participants

were shown a series of short game runs, each containing an object designed with one of these preattentive

attributes, and were tasked with identifying these objects within a 250-millisecond window, the time frame

optimal for preattentive processing. To minimize confounding variables, the visual complexity of the scenes

was kept consistent, ensuring a uniform look and feel across trials. Results reveal that motion and color are

highly effective in guiding attention, with participants achieving near-perfect accuracy. In contrast, shape

detection was notably less accurate, with greater variability in responses, suggesting that shape may be less

effective as a preattentive feature in visually dense 3D environments. Additionally, participants with gaming

experience demonstrated better performance in shape-based tasks, hinting at the inﬂuence of prior visual

processing experience. These ﬁndings contribute to understanding how visual complexity and uniformity

impact preattentive processing in digital environments, with practical implications for designing visual tasks,

game environments, and interfaces that guide user attention more effectively.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Preattentive processing has been extensively studied

in controlled 2D environments, where features such

as color, motion, shape, and spatial orientation are

used to guide attention effectively (Chih and Parker,

2008) (Healey and Enns, 2012) (Ware, 2012). These

environments, often used in information visualiza-

tion and user interface design, allow for minimal

visual distractions, enabling preattentive attributes

(used interchangeably with the term preattentive fea-

tures throughout this paper) to stand out clearly. Pre-

vious research has demonstrated the power of these

attributes in focusing attention quickly and efﬁciently.

As interactive 3D environments, particularly

video games, have become more prevalent, ques-

tions have arisen about the efﬁcacy of preattentive

features in more visually complex and dynamic set-

tings. Game environments often contain a wealth of

dense visual information, where distractors can vary

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6745-4398

not only in number but also in form, color, and mo-

tion, potentially overwhelming players (El-Nasr and

Yan, 2006). Moreover, recent work suggests that the

process of feature binding and perception may pro-

ceed independently of top-down selective attention

and conscious awareness, with peripheral vision in-

troducing information loss that can affect attention

shifts (Rosenholtz et al., 2012). This understanding

highlights the potential for preattentive processing to

function in visually rich environments without over-

whelming the player.

El-Nasr and Yan (El-Nasr and Yan, 2006) empha-

sized the importance of understanding visual attention

patterns in 3D game environments to improve game

design, showing that player attention can be guided

more effectively through intentional adjustments to

level design, textures, and object placement. In fast-

paced 3D games, where conditions change rapidly,

traditional methods for studying attention may fall

short, making research on preattentive processing cru-

cial for enhancing gameplay.

Hsiao et al. (Hsiao et al., 2021) extended this

discussion by introducing a method for analyzing

user interactions in 3D navigational spaces using eye-

464

Jusuﬁ, I. and Andersson, N.

Evaluating Preattentive Processing in Game Settings with Consistent Visual Scenes.

DOI: 10.5220/0013128700003912

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (VISIGRAPP 2025) - Volume 1: GRAPP, HUCAPP

and IVAPP, pages 464-471

ISBN: 978-989-758-728-3; ISSN: 2184-4321

tracking technology. Their work proposed 3D object

attention heat maps that allow for a better understand-

ing of how visual stimuli guide user attention in inter-

active environments. These insights can be directly

applied to video games, where understanding player

interactions with 3D objects can inform more efﬁ-

cient object placement and visual design. This ap-

proach aligns with the goal of optimizing gameplay

by leveraging preattentive processing to guide atten-

tion in complex environments.

Warnhag and Wedzinga’s study further explored

preattentive attributes in both 2D and 3D video game

scenes, examining visual variables like color, motion,

and texture, with a focus on player perception and

performance. They found that while red hues cap-

tured attention effectively, the application of preatten-

tive attributes in complex environments, particularly

in 3D scenes, requires careful balancing. Overusing

saliency can divide attention and degrade the user ex-

perience (Warnhag and Wedzinga, 2019).

In contrast, our study pushes this research fur-

ther by focusing on 3D environments that are visually

denser and have more complex lighting. By isolating

speciﬁc preattentive attributes like motion, color, and

shape in uniform game-like scenes ﬁlled with poten-

tial distractors, we aim to assess the real-world ap-

plicability of these features in guiding attention. The

ﬁndings of Warnhag and Wedzinga, along with the

contributions of Hsiao et al. (Hsiao et al., 2021), align

with our approach, reinforcing the importance of bal-

ancing visual saliency and scene complexity to main-

tain effective preattentive processing in highly inter-

active, dynamic environments.

Recent research has also highlighted the role

of preattentive processing in professional settings

such as aviation, where color-coded head-up displays

(HUDs) are used to improve pilot performance by en-

abling quick visual recognition (Blundell et al., 2020).

Similar to game environments, these displays help re-

duce cognitive load by leveraging preattentive fea-

tures like color to guide attention. This study is par-

ticularly relevant to our work, as it provides further

evidence that color, when used effectively, can en-

hance task performance in complex visual settings.

By drawing parallels between these distinct envi-

ronments, we further underscore the applicability of

preattentive features beyond gaming, extending their

relevance to professional, high-stakes domains.

1.2 Objective and Contributions

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate

how well preattentive features—motion, color, and

shape—are detected in controlled, consistent 3D en-

vironments. The secondary goal is to understand the

role of uniformity in facilitating or hindering the de-

tection process.

The main contributions of this paper are as fol-

lows:

• A novel experimental setup designed to isolate

preattentive features in visually consistent 3D

game-like environments.

• Empirical evidence demonstrating the detection

accuracy of preattentive features—motion, color,

and shape—within controlled 3D settings.

• Insights into how different preattentive features

(motion, color, shape) perform in comparison to

each other, with shape showing reduced detection

accuracy.

• An analysis of the inﬂuence of prior gaming expe-

rience on the ability to detect preattentive features,

particularly shape.

• Practical recommendations for game designers to

leverage motion and color for guiding player at-

tention in complex visual environments.

1.3 Paper Organization

The remainder of this paper is structured as follows:

Section 2 describes the experimental setup and meth-

ods used for evaluating preattentive processing in

consistent 3D environments. Section 3 presents the

results of the experiments, including the accuracy of

object detection based on motion, color, and shape at-

tributes. Section 4 provides a discussion of the ﬁnd-

ings, their implications for game design, and compar-

isons with related work. Finally, Section 5 concludes

the paper by summarizing the key takeaways and po-

tential directions for future research.

2 METHOD

2.1 Experiment Setup

The experiment was designed to evaluate the effec-

tiveness of preattentive attributes—speciﬁcally, mo-

tion, color, and shape—in a controlled, game-like set-

ting. The goal was to assess how well participants

could detect objects that stood out based on these at-

tributes within a consistent visual environment. This

consistency was crucial in isolating the preattentive

features without introducing additional visual com-

plexity that might confound the results.

The experiment was conducted online using a

web-based platform. Participants accessed the study

Evaluating Preattentive Processing in Game Settings with Consistent Visual Scenes

465

Figure 1: The visual scene used in experiments. The boxes serve as distractors.

from their own devices, where they completed the

tasks in their usual environment. This allowed for

ﬂexible participation but also introduced potential

variability in screen sizes and resolutions, which were

controlled to the extent possible through instructions

given at the beginning of the study.

The visual scenes were designed to resemble sim-

pliﬁed 3D game environments, with a metal door at

the center and uniform brick walls on either side (see

Fig. 1). Scattered across the stone ﬂoor were wooden

crates, which served as distractor objects. Amidst

these crates, one object was designed to stand out in

each scene, either by:

• Motion. Objects moving along the x-, y-, or z-

axis (Table 1).

• Color. A single object with a distinct hue, in con-

trast to the light brown crates (Table 2).

• Shape. A non-square form, differing from the

otherwise even wooden crates (Table 3).

Each scene was presented for a duration of 250

milliseconds, a timeframe chosen based on estab-

lished research indicating that this is the optimal dura-

tion for preattentive processing to occur (Healey and

Enns, 2012) (Ware, 2012). This rapid exposure en-

sured that participants had to rely on their preattentive

Figure 2: The grid shown in-between scenes in the experi-

ment used to help subjects articulate target locations.

capabilities to detect the standout object, rather than

focused attention or deliberate search strategies.

After each scene, participants were presented with

a grid overlay (see Fig. 2), which helped them indicate

the approximate location of the target object. This

grid system allowed participants to express both the

attribute that made the object stand out and its spa-

tial location in the scene, providing a dual measure of

accuracy.

The nine scenes alternated between the three

preattentive groups—motion, color, and shape (see

Fig. 3). This structure ensured that participants were

exposed to each feature type multiple times, allowing

for comparisons across different attributes. By rotat-

ing the type of preattentive feature in each scene, we

minimized the likelihood that participants could an-

ticipate the nature of the standout object, ensuring that

their reactions were genuine and based on the imme-

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466

Table 1: Motion Levels with descriptions and corresponding scene images.

Level Description Scene Image

Level 1 Motion along the X-axis from B3 to B2

Level 5 Motion along the Y-axis from C1 to B1

Level 7 Motion along the Z-axis in C3

diate visual input.

All participants received the same instructions,

emphasizing that the goal was to quickly identify the

standout object based on its preattentive attribute. To

avoid any inﬂuence from external variables, the ex-

perimental environment remained constant, with no

audio distractions or external stimuli that might have

interfered with the visual processing task.

The choice of consistent scenes was made to elim-

inate the effect of environmental complexity on the

ability to detect preattentive attributes. The visual

design of each scene, with repeated crate patterns

and minimal variations, ensured that the standout ob-

ject’s feature was the sole distinguishing factor. This

approach allowed for a focused investigation of the

power of preattentive attributes in uniform settings,

without the added variable of changing or distracting

backgrounds.

2.2 Participants

The experiment involved 11 participants, with ages

ranging from 21 to 55, recruited from a mix of back-

grounds. Of the participants, 8 had prior experience

playing video games, particularly fast-paced games

that require rapid visual processing, such as ﬁrst-

person shooters. The remaining 3 participants re-

ported minimal gaming experience, which allowed

for a balanced comparison of performance between

experienced and novice individuals. This mix was

crucial for investigating how familiarity with visu-

ally complex environments inﬂuences the detection

of preattentive attributes. All participants had nor-

mal or corrected-to-normal vision and were screened

to ensure they were free of any visual impairments

that might interfere with their ability to detect color,

motion, or shape. No personal data other than gender

and age was collected, and participants gave informed

consent before the experiment began.

3 RESULTS

The primary objective of this study was to assess the

effectiveness of preattentive attributes—movement,

shape, and color—in a controlled 3D game-like en-

vironment. Participants were tasked with identifying

standout objects based on these attributes in visually

Evaluating Preattentive Processing in Game Settings with Consistent Visual Scenes

467

Table 2: Color Levels with descriptions and corresponding scene images.

Level Description Scene Image

Level 2 Red box in B3

Level 4 Blue box in B1

Level 8 Box with a blue outline in B3/C3

Start Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8

Level 9

End

Movement Levels Color Levels Shape Levels

Figure 3: This diagram illustrates the experimental process in sequential order of levels. The participants proceed through

each level, starting from Level 1 and ending at Level 9. Between each arrow after Level 1, a grid was shown to participants

for selecting the standout object (refer to Fig. 2).

consistent scenes, designed to minimize distractions

and complexity. The data was analyzed to evaluate

detection accuracy across the three features.

3.1 Performance by Preattentive

Feature

The analysis revealed clear differences in participant

performance across the three preattentive features:

movement, shape, and color (see Fig. 4). Movement

and color achieved perfect detection, with partici-

pants identifying objects based on these features at an

average accuracy of 100% (SD = 0.00). This suggests

that both movement and color stand out effectively,

even in visually consistent game-like environments.

However, shape-based detection was signiﬁcantly

less reliable, with an average accuracy of 70% (SD

= 0.46) (see Fig. 5). This greater variability in per-

formance, reﬂected by the higher standard deviation,

suggests that shape is a less salient preattentive fea-

ture. The subtle differences between the distractor

objects (e.g., crates) and the target shape likely con-

tributed to this inconsistency, making shape-based

identiﬁcation more challenging for participants.

3.2 Overall Participant Performance

Overall, participants demonstrated strong perfor-

mance in detecting movement and color, with total

correct responses reaching 100%. However, the dis-

parity in shape detection highlights a potential chal-

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468

Table 3: Shape Levels with descriptions and corresponding scene images.

Level Description Scene Image

Level 3 Oblong box in C1

Level 6 Sphere in B2/B3

Level 9 Large skewed cube across B1/B2/C1/C2 (Parallelepiped)

Figure 4: Participants identiﬁed the target with 100% ac-

curacy when the standout feature was color or movement.

However, shape showed more inconsistent results.

lenge when using shape as a preattentive cue in game-

like environments. The results indicate that shape-

based detection is more complex, potentially due to

subtle variations in object forms, lighting, or environ-

mental factors inﬂuencing perception.

Interestingly, participants with more extensive ex-

perience in fast-paced video games showed better per-

formance in shape-based tasks, as shown in Fig. 5.

Three participants, all with little to no gaming experi-

ence, failed to identify any shape-based targets. While

Figure 5: Distribution of participants who achieved 3, 2, 1,

and 0 correct answers for the shape attribute.

this ﬁnding is anecdotal, it suggests that familiarity

with 3D environments may enhance preattentive pro-

cessing of shape, adding a potential layer of variabil-

ity in performance based on prior experience.

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469

4 DISCUSSION

4.1 Implications for Game Design

The study’s results demonstrate that motion and color

are highly effective preattentive features in guiding

attention within complex 3D environments. Partic-

ipants consistently performed with perfect accuracy

across all motion and color-related tasks, emphasizing

the saliency of these attributes even when the scene’s

complexity is controlled. This ﬁnding supports the

use of movement and color as reliable attention-

guiding cues in game design. For game developers,

leveraging these features could enhance the player ex-

perience by intuitively directing focus to key in-game

elements, particularly in fast-paced or visually dense

scenarios.

However, shape detection presented a challenge,

as reﬂected in lower accuracy rates across shape-

related tasks. Participants showed more variability in

detecting objects based on shape, with the lowest av-

erage accuracy in Level 3. This suggests that shape,

while an essential visual feature, may require greater

differentiation in 3D environments to be effectively

recognized. Subtle variations between objects were

not as easily detected by participants, highlighting the

need for additional emphasis on shape cues if they are

to play a signiﬁcant role in guiding player attention.

Moreover, an interesting pattern emerged in rela-

tion to participants’ gaming experience. Those with

prior exposure to fast-paced video games performed

better in shape detection tasks compared to partici-

pants with minimal gaming experience. This obser-

vation suggests that familiarity with visually com-

plex environments may enhance the ability to detect

preattentive features like shape, potentially through

better-developed visual processing skills. This ﬁnd-

ing could inform game design for various player skill

levels, tailoring experiences to ensure that essential

elements stand out clearly for both novice and experi-

enced players.

4.2 Comparison to Related Work

Warnhag and Wedzinga’s study investigated preat-

tentive attributes in simpler 2D and 3D graphical

scenes. Their work, focusing on visual variables such

as color, motion, and texture, revealed that while red

hues captured attention effectively, their Time to First

Fixation (TTFF) means for visual elements were con-

sistently above 250 milliseconds, a threshold typically

associated with preattentive processing (Warnhag and

Wedzinga, 2019). This suggests that their experimen-

tal setup may not have fully tested the classic deﬁ-

nition of preattentive processing, particularly in their

3D scenes.

In contrast, our experiment methodology ensures

that we adhere to the literature’s deﬁnition of preat-

tentive processing, with visual features designed to be

detectable within the 200–250 millisecond window.

By maintaining consistency in scene design and con-

trolling the number of potential distractors, our study

isolates the effectiveness of motion, color, and shape

as preattentive attributes. This methodological rigor

ensures that our ﬁndings align more closely with the

established understanding of preattentive processing,

demonstrating that these attributes remain effective

even in visually dense environments, provided that vi-

sual complexity is carefully managed.

Similarly, Blundell et al. (Blundell et al., 2020)

highlight the importance of color coding in improv-

ing task performance in complex visual environments,

such as aviation head-up displays (HUDs). Their ﬁnd-

ings show that color can act as a preattentive feature,

helping pilots to quickly detect critical information,

much like in our study, where color improves detec-

tion in game-like scenes. While Blundell et al. focus

on professional settings like aviation, both studies un-

derscore the broader applicability of preattentive pro-

cessing, particularly the role of color in reducing cog-

nitive load and improving response time in dynamic

environments.

4.3 Limitations

A limitation of this study is the uniformity of the vi-

sual scenes, which were designed to control for po-

tential confounding factors. While this approach al-

lows us to isolate the effectiveness of preattentive fea-

tures, it may limit the generalizability of the ﬁndings

to more visually diverse game environments. Future

research should explore how these features function in

more varied and dynamic settings, where visual stim-

uli may differ signiﬁcantly in form, size, and motion.

Another limitation is the variability in partici-

pants’ display conditions. Since the experiment was

conducted online, participants used different devices

with varying screen sizes, resolutions, and refresh

rates. These factors may have inﬂuenced how effec-

tively participants were able to detect preattentive at-

tributes, particularly motion, which can appear differ-

ently depending on display settings. Future studies

should consider conducting experiments in more con-

trolled environments to ensure consistency across vi-

sual conditions.

Moreover, the limited sample size (11 partici-

pants) might restrict the statistical power of the ﬁnd-

ings. A larger and more diverse sample would provide

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470

more robust conclusions and allow for more general-

izable insights into how preattentive processing func-

tions in different populations. Future work could also

beneﬁt from including a more diverse participant pool

in terms of age, cultural background, and prior ex-

perience with digital environments, to better reﬂect a

broader audience.

Finally, while this study focused on motion, color,

and shape, other important preattentive features such

as luminance, texture, or depth cues were not tested.

These features may play a critical role in guiding at-

tention in 3D environments and should be considered

in future work. Investigating how these additional

features interact with each other in complex settings

will provide a more comprehensive understanding of

preattentive processing.

5 CONCLUSION

This study explored the effectiveness of preattentive

attributes—motion, color, and shape—in guiding at-

tention within a consistent 3D game-like environ-

ment. The ﬁndings indicate that motion and color re-

main highly effective preattentive features, with par-

ticipants demonstrating perfect accuracy in identify-

ing objects based on these attributes. In contrast,

shape proved to be less effective, with greater vari-

ability in detection accuracy. This highlights potential

limitations in using shape as a standalone cue in com-

plex visual settings, particularly when the differences

between objects are subtle.

These results have signiﬁcant implications for

game design, suggesting that motion and color should

be prioritized as key elements for directing player at-

tention in visually dense environments. On the other

hand, additional emphasis on shape, such as using

more distinct forms, may be necessary to ensure its

effectiveness in guiding attention. Furthermore, the

study revealed that players with more experience in

visually complex games performed better in shape

detection, underscoring the importance of consider-

ing player experience when designing visual tasks in

games.

Overall, this research provides valuable insights

into how preattentive features function in game en-

vironments and offers practical recommendations for

enhancing player focus and experience through effec-

tive visual design.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the Knowledge Foun-

dation, Sweden, through the project “Rekryteringar

21, Universitetslektor i spelteknik” under Contract

20210077.

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