Visual search during dynamic displays: Effects of velocity and motion direction

Abstract

AbstractThe visual search performance during dynamic environment has been demonstrated that could be affected by the motion of target and distractors. In present study, two experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of motion direction and velocity on visual search on screen. In Experiment 1, participants were required to complete the search task at three velocities(2, 8, and 16 deg/s) and four directions of motion(up, down, left, right). In Experiment 2, participants finished the more difficult visual search tasks within two directions (right, left) at higher velocities (16, 24, and 32 deg/s). The experiments revealed that the increase of velocity on the screen has a negative effect on the visual search performance, and when the velocity is higher than 8 deg/s, search times for horizontally moving images were shorter than those for vertically moving images. Furthermore, the difference in search performance could also be found in left‐moving and right‐moving images with the increase of velocity. Right‐moving images were proved to correspond to higher visual search performance. In addition, eye movement data indicated that saccade amplitude and saccade velocity might be responsible for this difference. The results of this study can be applied to industrial inspection, safety inspection, driving, and other fields.