Visual Search Performance Research Articles

No evidence for superior distractor filtering amongst individuals high in autistic-like traits

Autistic individuals and individuals with high levels of autistic-like traits often show better visual search performance than their neurotypical peers. The present work investigates whether this advantage stems from increased ability to filter out distractors. Participants with high or low levels of autistic-like traits completed an attentional blink task in which trials varied in target-distractor similarity. The results showed no evidence that high levels of autistic-like traits were associated with superior distractor filtering (indexed by the difference in the size of the attentional blink across the high- and low-similarity distractors). This suggests that search advantages seen in previous studies are likely linked to other mechanisms such as enhanced pre-attentive scene processing, better decision making, or more efficient response selection.

Visual search as an embodied process: The effects of perspective change and external reference on search performance.

Traditional visual search tasks in the laboratories typically involve looking for targets in 2D displays with exemplar views of objects. In real life, visual search commonly entails 3D objects in 3D spaces with nonperpendicular viewing and relative motions between observers and search array items, both of which lead to transformations of objects’ projected images in lawful but unpredicted ways. Furthermore, observers often do not have to memorize a target before searching, but may refer to it while searching, for example, holding a picture of someone while looking for them from a crowd. Extending the traditional visual search task, in this study, we investigated the effects of image transformation as a result of perspective change yielded by discrete viewing angle change (Experiment 1) or continuous rotation of the search array (Experiment 2) and of having external references on visual search performance. Results showed that when searching from 3D objects with a non-zero viewing angle, performance was similar to searching from 2D exemplar views of objects; when searching for 3D targets from rotating arrays in virtual reality, performance was similar to searching from stationary arrays. In general, discrete or continuous perspective change did not affect the search outcomes in terms of accuracy, response time, and self-rated confidence, or the search process in terms of eye movement patterns. Therefore, visual search does not require the exact match of retinal images. Additionally, being able to see the target during the search improved search accuracy and observers’ confidence. It increased search time because, as revealed by the eye movements, observers actively checked back on the reference target. Thus, visual search is an embodied process that involves real-time information exchange between the observers and the environment.

The Effects of Normal Aging, Subjective Cognitive Decline, Mild Cognitive Impairment, or Alzheimer’s Disease on Visual Search

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been confirmed as an influencing factor of visual impairment, but potential concomitant effects on visual and cognitive performance are not well understood. Objective: To provide a new method for early screening of Alzheimer’s disease and further explore the theoretical mechanism of the decline of whole visual and cognitive performance in AD. Methods: We studied 60 individuals without dementia as normal control (NC), 74 individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), 60 individuals with amnesia mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and 75 patients with AD on a battery of tests designed to measure multiple aspects of basic and higher-order visual perception and cognition. All subjects performed on same visual and cognitive test batteries. Results: The results showed both of four groups, with the stimulus-presentation time being longer, the visual-search performance improved, and both the eye interest-area first fixation duration and the interest-area-fixation count increased. Particularly under the noise-masking condition, the AD group performed the worst at stimulus-presentation times between 300 and 900 ms. The aMCI group, but not the SCD group, performed worse than the NC group at the stimulus-presentation time of either 300 or 500 ms. The interest-area-fixation count was higher in all the patient groups than that in the NC group, and distinguishable between participants with AD and those with SCD or aMCI. Conclusion: The visual-search performance combined with eye-movement tracking under the noise-masking condition can be used for distinguishing AD from normal aging, SCD, and aMCI.

The low prevalence effect in fingerprint comparison amongst forensic science trainees and novices.

The low prevalence effect is a phenomenon whereby target prevalence affects performance in visual search (e.g., baggage screening) and comparison (e.g., fingerprint examination) tasks, such that people more often fail to detect infrequent target stimuli. For example, when exposed to higher base-rates of ‘matching’ (i.e., from the same person) than ‘non-matching’ (i.e., from different people) fingerprint pairs, people more often misjudge ‘non-matching’ pairs as ‘matches’–an error that can falsely implicate an innocent person for a crime they did not commit. In this paper, we investigated whether forensic science training may mitigate the low prevalence effect in fingerprint comparison. Forensic science trainees (n = 111) and untrained novices (n = 114) judged 100 fingerprint pairs as ‘matches’ or ‘non-matches’ where the matching pair occurrence was either high (90%) or equal (50%). Some participants were also asked to use a novel feature-comparison strategy as a potential attenuation technique for the low prevalence effect. Regardless of strategy, both trainees and novices were susceptible to the effect, such that they more often misjudged non-matching pairs as matches when non-matches were rare. These results support the robust nature of the low prevalence effect in visual comparison and have important applied implications for forensic decision-making in the criminal justice system.

Effects of App Icon Border Form and Interface Background Color Saturation on User Visual Experience and Search Performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the icon border form and interface background color saturation’s individual and connected impacts on interface interaction. They were two important factors affecting user visual experience and search performance, but previously they have been studied individually. An experiment using eye-tracking, behavior measurement, and subjective evaluation was carried out to determine the influence of app icon border form and interface background color saturation on user visual experience and search performance. The statistical results showed that during the human-computer interaction process, compared with the circle and rounded square border forms, the square icons had the longest search completion time and first fixation time and the lowest subjective evaluation score. In addition, rounded square icons had the best user visual experience. Compared with high-saturation background color, less time was required to complete search tasks in the low-saturation background color condition. Higher perceptual usability and aesthetic scores were also obtained under this condition compared to the high-saturation background color condition. Hence, this study confirmed that the two factors of icon border form and interface background color saturation had the basic properties of the interaction effect. The combination of rounded square icons and low-saturation background color can be beneficial to improve user search performance and visual experience. The findings can help in the design of human-computer interaction interfaces.

3D Space Layout Design of Holographic Command Cabin Information Display in Mixed Reality Environment Based on HoloLens 2.

After the command and control information of the command and control cabin is displayed in the form of mixed reality, the large amount of real-time information and static information contained in it will form a dynamic situation that changes all the time. This brings a great burden to the system operator’s cognition, decision-making and operation. In order to solve this problem, this paper studies the three-dimensional spatial layout of holographic command cabin information display in a mixed reality environment. A total of 15 people participated in the experiment, of which 10 were the subjects of the experiment and 5 were the staff of the auxiliary experiment. Ten subjects used the HoloLens 2 generation to conduct visual characteristics and cognitive load experiments and collected and analyzed the subjects’ task completion time, error rate, eye movement and EEG and subjective evaluation data. Through the analysis of experimental data, the laws of visual and cognitive features of three-dimensional space in a mixed reality environment can be obtained. This paper systematically explores the effects of three key attributes: depth distance, information layer number and target relative position depth distance of information distribution in a 3D space, on visual search performance and on cognitive load. The experimental results showed that the optimal depth distance range for information display in the mixed reality environment is: the best depth distance for operation interactions (0.6 m~1.0 m), the best depth distance for accurate identification (2.4 m~2.8 m) and the overall situational awareness best-in-class depth distance (3.4 m~3.6 m). Under a certain angle of view, the number of information layers in the space is as small as possible, and the number of information layers should not exceed five at most. The relative position depth distance between the information layers in space ranges from 0.2 m to 0.35 m. Based on this theory, information layout in a 3D space can achieve a faster and more accurate visual search in a mixed reality environment and effectively reduce the cognitive load.

I can look for it! Modulation of a concurrent Visual Working Memory task in Visual Search in development.

Daily classroom activities that require children to perform visual search (VS) tasks are common across all educational levels: from searching for a missing piece of a puzzle in kindergarten to solving equations in college. However, VS tasks are often not performed in isolation, but rather students are maintaining information related to an ongoing task that loads working memory (WM). Unfortunately, it is still unclear how these processes interact and evolve in development. The present work aims to study how a concurrent visual WM (VWM) load can modulate VS performance based on the Developmental Model of Endogenous Mental Attention (Pascual-Leone and Johnson, 1999, 2005, 2021). A sample of kindergarten, elementary (2nd and 4th grades), middle school (6th grade), and college students looked for real-world photorealistic targets while maintaining similar objects in VWM in a dual-task paradigm. VWM load was manipulated using high and low memory load conditions. Additionally, looking for potential modulations related to individual differences, we studied the relationship between IQ, VWM span, and executive functions with VS efficiency. Finally, we also registered reported measures of potential strategies employed during the VS task. The results from a large sample of 147 participants between 5 and 25 years old revealed that even the youngest children could efficiently perform a VS task with a concurrent VWM load, replicating previous results found in adulthood. However, we found a slight increase in false alarms and commission errors when memory was highly loaded for all the participants regardless of age. As expected, we found positive correlations between VS efficiency and IQ and VWM span measures. Interestingly, the proportion of participants who used tracking organization strategies increased with age in all cases. However, although cognitive strategies to remember the target became more complex as age increased, it was only significant under the low VWM load conditions. The results seem relevant to understanding the development of VS based on the Model of Endogenous Mental Attention and the design of training programs to improve attention. The implications in educational contexts are discussed and are especially relevant for students with learning disabilities or attention problems.

Visual search training benefits from the integrative effect of enhanced covert attention and optimized overt eye movements.

Training serves as an effective approach to improve visual search performance when the target does not automatically pop out from the distractors. In the present study, we trained participants on a conjunction visual search task and examined the training effects in behavior and eye movement. The results of Experiments 1 to 4 showed that training improved behavioral performance and reduced the number of saccades and overall scanning time. Training also increased the search initiation time before the first saccade and the proportion of trials in which the participants correctly identified the target without any saccade, but these effects were modulated by stimulus’ parameters. In Experiment 5, we simultaneously recorded eye movements and electroencephalography signals and the results revealed significant N2 posterior contralateral (N2pc) components after the stimulus onset (i.e., stimulus-locked) and before the first saccade (i.e., saccade-locked) when the search target was the trained one. These N2pc components can be considered as the neural signatures for the enhanced covert attention to the trained target. Together with the training-induced increase in functional visual field, these mechanisms could support the beneficial effects of increased search initiation time and reduced number of saccades. These findings suggest that visual search training enhanced covert attention to target and optimized overt eye movements to facilitate search performance.

Feature similarity is non-linearly related to attentional selection: Evidence from visual search and sustained attention tasks.

Although many theories of attention highlight the importance of similarity between target and distractor items for selection, few studies have directly quantified the function underlying this relationship. Across two commonly used tasks—visual search and sustained attention—we investigated how target-distractor similarity impacts feature-based attentional selection. Importantly, we found comparable patterns of performance in both visual search and sustained feature-based attention tasks, with performance (response times and dʹ, respectively) plateauing at medium target-distractor distances (40°–50° around a luminance-matched color wheel). In contrast, visual search efficiency, as measured by search slopes, was affected by a much more narrow range of similarity levels (10°–20°). We assessed the relationship between target-distractor similarity and attentional performance using both a stimulus-based and psychologically-based measure of similarity and found this nonlinear relationship in both cases. However, psychological similarity accounted for some of the nonlinearities observed in the data, suggesting that measures of psychological similarity are more appropriate when studying effects of target-distractor similarities. These findings place novel constraints on models of selective attention and emphasize the importance of considering the similarity structure of the feature space over which attention operates. Broadly, the nonlinear effects of similarity on attention are consistent with accounts that propose attention exaggerates the distance between competing representations, possibly through enhancement of off-tuned neurons.

0215 Impact of sleep inertia on visual search performance during combined sleep restriction and circadian misalignment

Abstract Introduction Circadian phase and homeostatic sleep drive affect selective visual attention during sleep inertia (SI), a period of cognitive performance decrement upon awakening that dissipates with time. This study examined the combined effects of circadian misalignment and sleep restriction on visual search performance during SI. Methods Twenty adults (mean±standard deviation [SD] age 25.7±4.2 years; 12M, 8F) completed a 39-day protocol. Prior to a 4-day in-laboratory visit, participants maintained habitual 8h sleep schedules for 2 weeks at home. In-laboratory sleep opportunities (1 per day) were timed to induce varying levels of both circadian misalignment and sleep restriction: 8h on night 1, 3h on night 2, and 3h on mornings 3 and 4. After 3 days of recovery sleep at home (unscheduled), participants repeated the entire protocol. SI was assessed with the Serial Visual Search Task, a measure of selective visual attention, ~ 1, 16, and 31 min after electroencephalogram (EEG) verified awakening following each 3h sleep opportunity. The task required participants to determine whether a target was present or absent among nontarget distractors. Outcomes included median reaction times (RT) and number of missed targets. Sleep opportunities with ≥4.5 min of EEG-verified wakefulness in the 30 min prior to scheduled awakening were excluded from analysis. Data were analyzed with mixed-model ANOVA. Results Mean±SD average amount of wakefulness in the 30 min and 10 min prior to SI testing was 1.2±0.11 and 0.43±0.06 minutes, respectively. Following all sleep opportunities, median RT for overall correct responses and for correct response to target absent trials improved with time since awakening (all p<0.05). In contrast, median RT for correct responses to target present trials improved and number of missed targets worsened with time since awakening following the morning 3 sleep opportunity only (all p<0.05). Conclusion Reaction speed was impaired during SI regardless of circadian timing or level of homeostatic sleep drive, whereas missing targets appears to be dependent upon circadian phase and the level of homeostatic sleep debt. These findings have important implications for military and first responders. Support (If Any) Office of Naval Research MURI N00014-15-1-2809; NIH TR001082; Undergraduate Research Opportunities Grant, University of Colorado Boulder.

Distance effects on visual search and visually guided freehand interaction on large displays

Different from mouse-based and touch-based interactions at a static distance, motion-sensing interaction on a large display is typically performed at varying distances ranging from an arm's length to several metres. To investigate the effect of distance on visual search and freehand interaction performance, an empirical experiment was conducted; 30 participants were recruited to complete a series of target search and freehand selection tasks on large displays, which were 1.6 and 2.4 m wide, respectively. The results indicated that (1) the user-preferred viewing distance was positively related to the physical size of the display: a larger display size corresponded to a larger viewing distance. (2) The viewing distance had a two-sided effect on the visual search time efficiency. At a close range, increasing distance improved the search time efficiency; but at a farther range, the efficiency decreased. (3) An optimal field of view at which visual search was most efficient was found; (4) however, increasing the distance lowered freehand interaction efficiency and accuracy. Changing the distance also caused variations in the performance on divided large display areas: (5) the visual search efficiency on the upper area was higher than that on the lower area, increasing the distance reduced the difference; (6) freehand interaction efficiency and accuracy on the lower area outperformed that on the upper area, increasing the distance also reduced the difference. Implications were discussed for building more efficient and user-friendly large display-based user interfaces.

Effect of motor tasks with left monocular eyeglasses on visual search and line-bisection performance in people with left unilateral spatial neglect

ABSTRACT Training with an eyepatch or eyeglasses is one of the effective approaches for unilateral spatial neglect (USN), and it usually uses a device that covers the right side. However, few approaches are available for the left side. In this study, we examine the effect of motor tasks with left/right monocular eyeglasses on visual search and line-bisection performance in people with left USN. Seven participants with left USN admitted to convalescent hospitals were included. We conducted the Bells test, line-crossing test, and line-bisection test of the behavioral inattention test before/after the motor task. Our analyses focused on the improvement or decline in these assessment scores and the achievement/errors/non-smoothness scores of the motor task. When using the left monocular eyeglasses, the percentages of participants categorized as “improvement,” “unchanged,” and “decline” were 71.4%, 28.6%, and 0%, respectively (when using the right one they were 14.3%, 85.7%, and 0%). In the motor task, when using the left monocular eyeglasses, total achievement scores in five of seven participants were greater than those when using the right one, and they performed efficiently with fewer movement errors. These results suggest that training with left monocular eyeglasses might improve visual search performance in people with left USN.

Target detection and discrimination in pop-out visual search with two targets.

To successfully interact with objects in complex and crowded environments, we often perform visual search to detect or identify a relevant target (or targets) among distractors. Previous studies have reported a redundancy gain when two targets instead of one are presented in a simple target detection task. However, research is scant about the role of multiple targets in target discrimination tasks, especially in the context of visual search. Here, we address this question and investigate its underlying mechanisms in a pop-out search paradigm. In Experiment 1, we directly compared visual search performance for one or two targets for detection or discrimination tasks. We found that two targets led to a redundancy gain for detection, whereas it led to a redundancy cost for discrimination. To understand the basis for the redundancy cost observed in discrimination tasks for multiple targets, we further investigated the role of perceptual grouping (Experiment 2) and stimulus-response feature compatibility (Experiment 3). We determined that the strength of perceptual grouping among homogenous distractors was attenuated when two targets were present compared with one. We also found that response compatibility between two targets contributed more to the redundancy cost compared with perceptual compatibility. Taken together, our results show how pop-out search involving two targets is modulated by the level of feature processing, perceptual grouping, and compatibility of perceptual and response features.

Infant walking experience is related to the development of selective attention

Previous studies have shown that the way in which infants perceive and explore the world changes as they transition from crawling to walking. Infant walking onset generally precedes advances in cognitive development such as accelerated language growth. However, the underlying mechanism explaining this association between walking experience and cognition is largely unknown. Selective attention is a key factor underlying learning across multiple domains. We propose that the altered visual input that infants obtain as they transition to walking relates to selective attention development and that advances in selective attention may potentially explain previously reported advances in other cognitive domains. As a first step in testing this hypothesis, we investigated how walking experience relates to selective attention. In Study 1, performance of 14-month-old crawlers, novice walkers, and expert walkers was compared on a visual search eye-tracking task (N = 47), including feature and conjunction (effortful) items. Walkers outperformed crawlers on the task in general, and effortful search was enhanced in expert walkers as compared with novice walkers, after controlling for crawling onset and general developmental differences occurring before walking onset. In Study 2, earlier walking onset was related to better visual search performance in 2-year-olds (N = 913). The association appeared to be due to the difference between the 10% latest walkers and the early/average walkers. Taken together, the results of these studies show that walking experience relates to advances in selective attention. This association shows a specific timing in development; it is mainly seen relatively close to the age of walking onset.

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

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.

Negative cues minimize visual search specificity effects

Prior target knowledge (i.e., positive cues) improves visual search performance. However, there is considerable debate about whether distractor knowledge (i.e., negative cues) can guide search. Some studies suggest the active suppression of negatively cued search items, while others suggest the initial capture of attention by negatively cued items. Prior work has used pictorial or specific text cues but has not explicitly compared them. We build on that work by comparing positive and negative cues presented pictorially and as categorical text labels using photorealistic objects and eye movement measures. Search displays contained a target (cued on positive trials), a lure from the target category (cued on negative trials), and four categorically-unrelated distractors. Search performance with positive cues resulted in stronger attentional guidance and faster object recognition for pictorial relative to categorical cues (i.e., a pictorial advantage, suggesting specific visual details afforded by pictorial cues improved search). However, in most search performance metrics, negative cues mitigate the pictorial advantage. Given that the negatively cued items captured attention, generated target guidance but mitigated the pictorial advantage, these results are partly consistent with both existing theories. Specific visual details provided in positive cues produce a large pictorial advantage in all measures, whereas specific visual details in negative cues only produce a small pictorial advantage for object recognition but not for attentional guidance. This asymmetry in the pictorial advantage suggests that the down-weighting of specific negatively cued visual features is less efficient than the up-weighting of specific positively cued visual features.

Anodal tDCS Over the Left Frontal Eye Field Improves Sustained Visual Search Performance.

Monotonous and repetitive tasks cause vigilance, or sustained attention decrement, which possibly leads to irreparable accident consequences in the aerospace and nuclear industry. Buffering the decrement of vigilance in visual search tasks is essential for cognitive enhancement and ergonomic research. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the left frontal eye field (FEF) to improve the performance of the sustained visual search. Twenty-seven healthy participants received anodal and sham tDCS of 2 mA for 28.8 min and completed a visual search task lasting for approximately 40 min without any break. For the online effect, results showed that the d' hit rate and accuracy under anodal tDCS were significantly higher than those under sham conditions during 0-19.2 min time intervals. For the after-effect, compared with sham, anodal tDCS caused significantly higher d' in the 10 min after completing the tDCS. Our findings suggest that anodal tDCS over the left FEF could effectively mitigate the decline of visual vigilance performance by buffering cognitive resource depletion.

Visual search: Heritability and association with general intelligence.

Visual search guides goal-directed action in humans and many other species, and it has been studied extensively in the past. Yet, no study has investigated the relative contributions of genes and environments to individual differences in visual search performance, or to which extent etiologies are shared with broader cognitive phenotypes. To address this gap, we studied visual search and general intelligence in 156 monozygotic (MZ) and 158 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. We found that different indexes of visual search performance (response latency and visual search efficiency) were moderately heritable. Phenotypic correlations between visual search and intelligence were small-to-moderate, and only a small proportion of the genetic variance in visual search was shared with genetic variance in intelligence. We discuss these findings in the context of the "generalist genes hypothesis" stating that different cognitive functions have a common genetic basis.

Designing Combinations of Pictogram and Text Size for Icons: Effects of Text Size, Pictogram Size, and Familiarity on Older Adults' Visual Search Performance.

This study aimed to determine suitable combinations of text and pictogram sizes for older adults and investigated the visual prioritization of pictogram versus text. Icons have become an indispensable part of application (app) design. Pictogram size and text size of icons influence the usability of apps, especially by aged users. However, few studies have investigated the influences of different pictogram and text size combinations on readability, legibility, and visual search performance for older adults. This study used eye-tracking technology to investigate the effects of different pictogram and text size combinations as well as familiarity on readability, legibility, and visual search performance for older adults. A 3 (pictogram size) × 3 (text size) × 2 (familiarity) repeated-measures experimental design was used. The results of this study suggest that pictogram size and text size significantly affect visual search performance and that familiarity moderates the effect of text size on distribution of fixation duration proportion for text and pictograms. Large pictogram and text sizes improved the readability and legibility of icons for older adults. Furthermore, the older adults fixated the area of text prior to pictograms when the pictogram size was larger than 72 × 72 px (1.38° × 1.38°) in the visual search task. The results of this study suggest using different combinations of pictogram and text sizes for older adults under different scenarios. The findings of this study act as practical support for designers and developers of mobile apps for older adults.

Research on the Impact of the Integration of Two Styles of Icon Design and Task Characteristic on UI Visual Search Performance

From the perspective of icon search paradigm, this study analyzes the impact of skeuomorphism style and flat style design on icon visual search performance. In this study，Using the eye movement experiment method, Obtain the relevant data of the icon’s cognitive performance and perform relevant analysis. The purpose is to explore the advantages and disadvantages of visual search performance under the mechanism of controlling factor variables. The research results and content are as follows. In the task characteristics, the search performance of the two types of style icons(color) in the form of the target template picture is higher than that of the text form， Under the condition of delay time. the search performance of the two types of style icons (color) under the shorter delay time are both higher than the longer delay time. When the icon is (gray and color), there is a significant difference in search performance between the skeuomorphism style and the flat style icon. Based on these research results, it is recommended that in interface design, from the perspective of search efficiency, skeuomorphism style and flat style icons are equally important in adoption and design.