Using the dual-target cost to explore the nature of search target representations.

Stroud, Michael J.; Menneer, Tamaryn; Cave, Kyle R.; Donnelly, Nick

doi:10.1037/a0025887

Cited by 66 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The dual-target cost in this experiment might be attributed to complications that arise from having a target defined by two colours. However, another recent study (Stroud, Menneer, Cave, & Donnelly, 2011) has demonstrated a dual-target cost with two targets that are each defined by a single colour, suggesting that the dual-target cost here is not caused by a two-colour target.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Search for multiple targets of different colours: Misguided eye movements reveal a reduction of colour selectivity

Stroud

Menneer

Cave

et al. 2011

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Searching for two targets simultaneously is often less efficient than conducting two separate searches. Eye movements were tracked to understand this dual-target cost. Findings are discussed in the context of security screening. In both single-target and dual-target search, displays contained one target at most. Stimuli were abstract shapes modelled after guns and other threat items. With these targets and distractors, colour information helped more in guiding search than shape information. When the two targets had different colours, distractors with colours different from either target were fixated more often in dual-target search than in single-target searches. Thus a dual-target cost arose from a reduction in colour selectivity, reflecting limitations in the ability to represent two target features simultaneously and use them to guide search. Because of these limitations, performance in security searches may improve if each image is searched by two screeners, each specializing in a different category of threat item.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Search for multiple targets of different colours: Misguided eye movements reveal a reduction of colour selectivity

Stroud

Menneer

Cave

et al. 2011

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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show abstract

“…Research has shown that searching for two dissimilar targets, compared to searching for one target, can hinder accuracy, slow responses, and impair attentional guidance (e.g., Menneer, Cave, & Donnelly, 2009;Stroud, Menneer, Cave, & Donnelly, 2012). Security screenings often prohibit more than just two things, which makes this problem even more distressing.…”

Section: The Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Efficacy of Security Screening Tasks: A Review of Visual Search Challenges and Ways to Mitigate Their Adverse Effects

Biggs

Mitroff

2014

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Security checkpoints are used to keep potentially dangerous items and individuals out of secure areas. Although technological advances can enhance security efficacy through both accuracy and speed, ultimate success or failure is largely determined by human performance. As such, it is necessary to minimize any shortcomings that stem from the limits of human cognitive abilities. Cognitive performance can be influenced by numerous factors, including those imposed by the search task (e.g., the number of prohibited items) and the basic abilities of the searchers themselves (e.g., competency and experience). Here, we review and discuss four specific challenges of the task itself that can negatively affect the accuracy of a security screening: target visibility, an unknown target set, the possible presence of multiple targets, and low target prevalence. For each, we present the challenge faced and the potential significance of the challenge and then offer possible solutions on the basis of the existing literature.

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“…The orientation of each target was randomly selected, such that one target was oriented in the horizontal plane (i.e., the gap facing left or right) and the other was oriented in the vertical plane (i.e., the gap facing up or down). The colors were selected from a stimulus set taken from previous studies of dual-target search (Stroud et al, 2012) comprised of 16 colors, with each adjacent color forming equally distant “steps” in color space (see Figure 2). Target colors were randomly selected, with the constraint that they were maximally far apart in color space (i.e., eight “steps”) in order to prevent participants from using combined mental templates of similar colors during search.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To address this question, Stroud, Menneer, Cave and Donnelly (2012) examined eye movements as participants performed single- and dual-target search for items defined by their color. The color difference between the two targets was varied systematically: When the colors were similar to each other (estimated via distance in RGB color space), there was no dual-target cost in performance, relative to single-target baselines.…”

Section: Searching For Multiple Targetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faster than the speed of rejection: Object identification processes during visual search for multiple targets.

Godwin¹,

Walenchok²,

Houpt³

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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When engaged in a visual search for two targets, participants are slower and less accurate in their responses, relative to their performance when searching for singular targets. Previous work on this “dual-target cost” has primarily focused on the breakdown of attention guidance when looking for two items. Here, we investigated how object identification processes are affected by dual-target search. Our goal was to chart the speed at which distractors could be rejected, in order to assess whether dual-target search impairs object identification. To do so, we examined the capacity coefficient, which measures the speed at which decisions can be made, and provides a baseline of parallel performance against which to compare. We found that participants could search at or above this baseline, suggesting that dual-target search does not impair object identification abilities. We also found substantial differences in performance when participants were asked to search for simple versus complex images. Somewhat paradoxically, participants were able to reject complex images more rapidly than simple images. We suggest that this reflects the greater number of features that can be used to identify complex images, a finding that has important consequences for understanding object identification in visual search more generally.

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Using the dual-target cost to explore the nature of search target representations.

Cited by 66 publications

References 29 publications

Search for multiple targets of different colours: Misguided eye movements reveal a reduction of colour selectivity

Search for multiple targets of different colours: Misguided eye movements reveal a reduction of colour selectivity

Improving the Efficacy of Security Screening Tasks: A Review of Visual Search Challenges and Ways to Mitigate Their Adverse Effects

Faster than the speed of rejection: Object identification processes during visual search for multiple targets.

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