Memory modulated saliency: A computational model of the incremental learning of target locations in visual search

The top-down guidance of visual attention is one of the main factors allowing humans to effectively process vast amounts of incoming visual information. Nevertheless we still lack a full understanding of the visual, semantic, and memory processes governing visual attention. In this paper, we present a computational model of visual search capable of predicting the most likely positions of target objects. The model does not require a separate training phase, but learns likely target positions in an incremental fashion based on a memory of previous fixations. We evaluate the model on two search tasks and show that it outperforms saliency alone and comes close to the maximal performance of the Contextual Guidance Model (CGM; Torralba, Oliva, Castelhano, & Henderson, 2006; Ehinger, Hidalgo-Sotelo, Torralba, & Oliva, 2009), even though our model does not perform scene recognition or compute global image statistics. The search performance of our model can be further improved by combining it with the CGM

Dictionaries and their users

It is only recently that dictionary users have become a central consideration in the design of dictionaries, and this focus has both stimulated and benefited from research into dictionary use. The present contribution reviews the major issues in dictionary design from the user perspective, taking stock of the relevant findings from user research, insofar as such research can assist lexicographers in producing improved lexical tools

Lacunarity, lexicography and beyond: integration of the introduction of a linguo-cultural concept and the development of L2 learners’ dictionary skills

The paper discusses the integration of presenting theoretical linguocultural knowledge and developing dictionary skills in advanced students of a foreign language. The proposed approach allows showing students the interdisciplinary character of various issues, one of which is cross-linguistic lacunarity. It is given as an example of a phenomenon, whose introduction can be combined with the development of students’ dictionary use abilities. Lacunarity consists in the lack of some source language elements in the target language. Two main kinds of lacunae are distinguished: linguistic and referential ones. The focal issue of the paper is how the information on the lacunary character of words can be presented to advanced students of English as a foreign language, in this paper Polish learners, so that they could consider the phenomenon in terms of bilingual lexicography: first, becoming aware of the specifics of their description; second, practising their dictionary skills by analysing entries for selected lacunary lexical and phraseological units; third, combining the information and skills in doing creative tasks, related to lacunarity and its bilingual lexicographic descriptions. Furthermore, additional activities are proposed for revising the acquired knowledge on lacunarity and advancing dictionary use. Offering students tasks, which require them to adopt a different perspective, aims to increase their involvement in the learning process and to foster their autonomy as learners. Encouraging learners to reflect on lacunae and their lexicographic description is expected to familiarize them with the phenomenon and simultaneously to develop their dictionary skills by doing especially designed [email protected] University of Bialystok101-11