Filling or Outlining Shapes With Color: The Effects on a Visual Search Task

Abstract

Simplified tactical situation plots were created with shape symbology (i.e., ship, aircraft, submarine, unknown)outlined or filled with color to represent affiliation. Task times were recorded for subjects to identify quadrants which contained the greatest number of a specified target (e.g., hostile submarines, unknown aircraft, etc.)in each condition. Results confirmed that subjects' task times were significantly less in the color-filled condition. An explanation for the effect, how the search worked, and implications for coding tactical displays are discussed. Keywords: Tactical Symbology, Color Coding, Visual Processing, Human-computer Interaction, Man-machine interface, Display Systems, Color vision.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA211067

Entities

People

  • David J. Cohen

Organizations

  • Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Aircrafts
  • Antisubmarine Warfare
  • Coding
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Color Coding
  • Color Displays
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Control Panels
  • Engineering
  • Identification
  • Procurement
  • Psychology
  • Symbols
  • Vehicles
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Theoretical Analysis.