What does a saliency map indicate?

A saliency map is a visual representation that highlights areas of a scene that are notable or stand out based on certain features, such as color, brightness, contrast, and texture. This map indicates the visual salience of locations within a scene by assigning values to different parts of the image. Areas that are more visually prominent or attention-grabbing receive higher values, suggesting that they are more likely to be noticed or fixated upon by an observer.

Understanding this helps in various fields, including psychology, computer vision, and neuroscience, where the focus is on how attention is captured and allocated in visual processing. Therefore, the correct answer accurately reflects the function and purpose of a saliency map, which is to indicate which locations in a visual scene are most likely to draw attention due to their distinctive features.