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Related Experiment Videos

Does partial difficult search help difficult search?

Elizabeth S Olds1, Mark D Degani

  • 1Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. eolds@wlu.ca

Perception & Psychophysics
|April 26, 2003
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Search assistance, where an initial simple visual display aids subsequent difficult search, depends on the perceptual grouping of initial items. Easy grouping of distractors is crucial for this effect.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Previous research demonstrated 'search assistance' where a simple visual search display aids subsequent complex search.
  • This effect was linked to pop-out search among homogeneous distractors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if search assistance relies on the perceptual grouping of initial display items.
  • To determine the role of distractor heterogeneity in search assistance.

Main Methods:

  • Participants viewed initial displays with distractors of one or two colors.
  • A second display with additional distractors was presented after a delay.
  • Response times were analyzed to assess search assistance.

Main Results:

  • Search assistance was not observed when initial distractors were heterogeneous (two colors) and numerous.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Tentative evidence for search assistance emerged with small numbers of initial heterogeneous distractors.
  • Easy grouping of homogeneous distractors in prior studies facilitated search assistance.

    • Conclusions:

    • Search assistance is contingent upon the ease of perceptual grouping of initial visual items.
    • Heterogeneous distractors that hinder grouping diminish or eliminate search assistance.