Methodological Considerations and Individual Differences in Visual Search

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher K. Barrett ◽  
Erin C. Anderson ◽  
Ruben R. Romero ◽  
Daniel J. Staggs ◽  
Mohammed Kordbacheh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Methodological Considerations

scholarly journals Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair D F Clarke ◽  
Jessica Irons ◽  
Warren James ◽  
Andrew B. Leber ◽  
Amelia R. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Test Retest Reliability ◽  
Over Time

A striking range of individual differences has recently been reported in three different visual search tasks. These differences in performance can be attributed to strategy, that is, the efficiency with which participants control their search to complete the task quickly and accurately. Here we ask if an individual's strategy and performance in one search task is correlated with how they perform in the other two. We tested 64 observers in the three tasks mentioned above over two sessions. Even though the test-retest reliability of the tasks is high, an observer's performance and strategy in one task did not reliably predict their behaviour in the other two. These results suggest search strategies are stable over time, but context-specific. To understand visual search we therefore need to account not only for differences between individuals, but also how individuals interact with the search task and context. These context-specific but stable individual differences in strategy can account for a substantial proportion of variability in search performance.

Analysis of Visual Search Patterns of Dance Teachers

1987 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Petrakis
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Novice Teachers ◽  
Live Performance ◽  
Corneal Reflection ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Ocular Fixation ◽  
Dance Teachers ◽  
Eye Fixations ◽  
Search Patterns

This investigation analyzed the visual search patterns of novice and expert dance teachers when viewing a live performance of a dance composition. The hypotheses tested were that (a) experts would not differ from novices in the number of eye fixations and duration of each, (b) the number of fixations and duration of each would differ between dances, and (c) expert teachers’ search patterns would differ from those of novice teachers. The subjects were four experts who averaged 25.5 years of teaching, and five novice teachers who averaged 2.4 years. To determine the ocular fixation and scanning patterns of subjects, the NAC Eye Movement Recorder, a corneal reflection technique, was used. The films were analyzed using a computer program designed to collect the data. Two 2 × 2 (expertise and dances) analyses of variance were used to determine the differences in the number of fixations, duration of fixations, and differences of variable between dances. Chi-square was used to determine the location of scan patterns. Results indicated that the level of expertise did not influence the number or duration of each eye fixation, but the task being observed did influence these variables. Individual differences in visual scanning patterns were found among and within both groups.

scholarly journals Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182092919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair DF Clarke ◽  
Jessica L Irons ◽  
Warren James ◽  
Andrew B Leber ◽  
Amelia R Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Test Retest Reliability ◽  
Over Time

A striking range of individual differences has recently been reported in three different visual search tasks. These differences in performance can be attributed to strategy, that is, the efficiency with which participants control their search to complete the task quickly and accurately. Here, we ask whether an individual’s strategy and performance in one search task is correlated with how they perform in the other two. We tested 64 observers and found that even though the test–retest reliability of the tasks was high, an observer’s performance and strategy in one task was not predictive of their behaviour in the other two. These results suggest search strategies are stable over time, but context-specific. To understand visual search, we therefore need to account not only for differences between individuals but also how individuals interact with the search task and context.

scholarly journals Match me if you can: Evidence for a domain-general visual comparison ability

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Growns ◽  
James D. Dunn ◽  
Erwin J. A. T. Mattijssen ◽  
Adele Quigley-McBride ◽  
Alice Towler
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Real World ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Visual Comparison ◽  
Perceptual Ability ◽  
Forensic Scientists

AbstractVisual comparison—comparing visual stimuli (e.g., fingerprints) side by side and determining whether they originate from the same or different source (i.e., “match”)—is a complex discrimination task involving many cognitive and perceptual processes. Despite the real-world consequences of this task, which is often conducted by forensic scientists, little is understood about the psychological processes underpinning this ability. There are substantial individual differences in visual comparison accuracy amongst both professionals and novices. The source of this variation is unknown, but may reflect a domain-general and naturally varying perceptual ability. Here, we investigate this by comparing individual differences (N = 248 across two studies) in four visual comparison domains: faces, fingerprints, firearms, and artificial prints. Accuracy on all comparison tasks was significantly correlated and accounted for a substantial portion of variance (e.g., 42% in Exp. 1) in performance across all tasks. Importantly, this relationship cannot be attributed to participants’ intrinsic motivation or skill in other visual-perceptual tasks (visual search and visual statistical learning). This paper provides novel evidence of a reliable, domain-general visual comparison ability.

Visual search strategies in lab and life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Nowakowska ◽  
Amelia R. Hunt ◽  
Alasdair D F Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Search Efficiency ◽  
Complex Objects ◽  
Line Segments ◽  
Surface Level ◽  
Dramatic Shift ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

To what extent can our eye movement be thought of as efficient, that is, targeting locations where high resolution is needed to differentiate objects? Previous research reported conflicting conclusions: people are near-optimal, random, or even counter-optimal, according to different lines of evidence. Researchers tend to use the simplest possible environments to measure search efficiency, assuming these will minimize the individual differences in experience that could introduce unnecessary variation in behaviour. Here we measured the efficiency of 30 participants as they searched through simple line segment stimuli and through a set of complex icons. We observed a dramatic shift from highly variable strategies with the line segments, to uniformly efficient search with the icons. These results demonstrate that changing what may initially appear to be irrelevant, surface-level details of the task can lead to large changes in measured behaviour, and that visual primitives are not always representative of more complex objects.

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