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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

A Method to Quantify Visual Information Processing in Children Using Eye Tracking
Published on: July 9, 2016
Visual search and segregation as a function of display complexity
J Scharroo1, P F Stalmeier, F Boselie
1Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Complexity is proposed as an important psychological factor in search and segregation tasks. Displays were presented with target and nontarget areas that were each built up of one type of randomly rotated micropatterns. We manipulated experimentally (a) the complexity of the target elements, as measured by Garner's (1970) invariance criterion; (b) the complexity of the target region; (c) the complexity of the nontargets; and (d) the number of elements within a target region. The main result is that detectability increases when the within-region complexity of the target and the nontarget regions decreases. Furthermore, interactions between the target and nontarget areas affect detectability too: We found that search asymmetry is produced by the asymmetrical effect of complexity when target and nontarget areas are interchanged.
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