Eyetracking measures of performance on the Traveling Salesperson Problem

Human solutions to the Traveling Salespersons Problem (TSP) have been proposed to employ heuristics integrating global and local spatial information (Pizlo et al., 2006). Because different neuroanatomical regions may be involved in local vs. global processing, as well as attentional shift between levels, performance on the TSP may provide useful insight into changes that occur in the brain as a result of age or of neurodegenerative disorders (Slavin, 2002). In a previous study, we compared the cognitive processes used to solve spatial problems on a large scale (moving through space) and on a small scale (on a sheet of paper). We discovered there was no difference in the percent above optimal (PAO) between the drawn route and the traveled route. The current study uses eyetracking to examine target fixations during the TSP. The question was whether participants compensate for the presence of distractor cues by constructing a mental outline of the configuration before selecting a route.