Top-Down Visual Processing & Big Bang Mini

Big Bang Mini, a Nintendo DS game by SouthPeak Games, closely relates to the top-down visual processing of our surroundings. This "fireworks shooter" requires our visual attention to progress through the increasingly challenging levels. Top-down visual processing is driven by attention to our goals. In the case of Big Bang Mini, our goal is to shoot down the enemy characters at the top screen by flicking the stylus in an upward motion, and at the same time, we must remember to move the "ship" at the bottom screen out of harm's way from the debris and collecting the points from defeated foes. Because of its action-packed gameplay, player's eye movements vary greatly in speed and fixation length. For example, in the screenshot, to accomplish the goal of killing the blue enemy at the top, we must gauge when and where to fire the fireworks from. This may require a longer fixation at the enemy as we analyze its movements and location on the screen. Yet simultaneously, other enemies are firing down at the ship. Quick eye movements are necessary to ensure that the ship is safe; if not, our attention is directed to the bottom screen where we must find a safe spot to move it. Then, our eyes dart across the screens again so that we can decide what our next move will be. "Feature detectors" allow us to focus on the task at hand, such as aiming at the blue enemy. In that case, blue becomes more sensitive to our sight as it sends stronger signals than the other visual cues of the game. Frequent linking and re-linking of visual information allows us to accomplish our cognitive and action goals. Big Bang Mini combines both cognition and action in its fun-filled, colorful gameplay.

image source: http://www.cubed3.com/tmpmedia/jesusraz/bigbang/Big_Bang_Mini_010.jpg