Visual search in vibration environments: Effects of spatial ability, stimulus size and stimulus density

Abstract

Visual search is one type of common encountered human-computer interaction tasks, but it has less been examined in vibration environments. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of one user characteristic (spatial ability) and two stimulus characteristics (i.e., stimulus size and stimulus density) on visual search performance during single- and double-target tasks in simulated vibration environments. Twenty-four participants attended an experiment where they were instructed to perform single- and double-target visual search tasks with varied levels of stimulus size and stimulus density under static, slight and moderate vibration environments, respectively. Results indicated that the two vibration conditions achieved comparable visual search performance, perceived visual fatigue, and perceived comfort with static condition across task types. Stimuli size and stimulus density yielded significant effects on visual search time in both single- and double-target tasks (p's < 0.001). Participants with high spatial ability were faster than those with low spatial ability in double-target tasks (p = 0.042). Users preferred interface design with medium-to-large stimulus size and low-to-medium stimulus density in visual search.