1, Elena Carbone 2

Abstract. Two experiments on visual scanning strategies are reported in this article. In Experiment 1, subjects were presented with random distributions of identical dots. The task was to look exactly once at each dot, with a starting dot specied. This setting allowed a quantitative analysis of scan-path structures and hence made it possible to compare empirical scan paths to computer-generated ones. Five dierent scan-path models were implemented as computer simulations and the similarity of their scan paths to the empirical ones was measured. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1 with the exception that it used items with dierent color and form attributes instead of identical dots. Here, the in uence of the distribution of colors and forms on empirical scan paths was investigated. The most promising scan-path models of Experiment 1 were adapted to the stimuli of Experiment 2. The results of both experiments indicate that a simple, scan path minimizing algorithm (\Traveling Salesman Strategy (TSS)") is most eective at reproducing human scan paths. We also found an in uence of color information on empirical scan paths and successfully adapted the TSS-based model to this nding.