Visual search for triangles in wine labels

Abstract

Visual search for a downward-pointing triangle among upward-pointing triangles is faster than vice versa, a phenomenon referred to as the downward-pointing triangle superiority (DPTS) effect. Here, we report two new experiments designed to investigate whether this phenomenon also emerges when a triangle appears as a local feature within a wine label. The experimental task was to identify whether all of the wine bottles in a store display were the same or not, while each wine bottle had either a downward- or upward-pointing triangle displayed on its label. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that the participants responded more rapidly when searching for a wine bottle with a downward-pointing triangle on its label than when the target had a triangle pointing upward, indicating the presence of a DPTS effect. In Experiment 2, the DPTS effect was replicated while varying the set size. The magnitude of the DPTS effect increased with increasing set size. Taken together, these results revealed similar visual search results for pictorial stimuli with triangles as local features as for geometric triangular shapes. The implications of these findings for the design of product labels are discussed.