Spatial Selectivity in Visual Search.

Abstract

To what extent does successful search for a target letter in a visual display depend on the allocation of attention to the target's spatial position? To investigate this question, we required subjects to discriminate the orientation of a briefly flashed u-shaped form while searching for a target letter. Performance operating characteristics (POC's) were derived by varying the relative amounts of attention subjects were to devote to each task. Extensive trade-offs in performance were observed when the orientation form and target letter occurred in nonadjacent display positions. In contrast, the trade-off was much more restricted when the two targets occurred in adjacent positions. These results suggest that the interference between simultaneous visual discriminations depends critically on their separation in visual space. Both visual search and form discrimination require a common limited capacity visual resource. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1980
Accession Number
ADA096298

Entities

People

  • Billie Nelson
  • James E. Hoffman

Organizations

  • University of Delaware

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Applied Psychology
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Research
  • Cognition
  • Computer Science
  • Detection
  • Education
  • Educational Psychology
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Military Research
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • Psychology
  • Social Sciences
  • Uss Carl Vinson

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris
  • Space - Space Objects