Color and conspicuousness

Carter, Ellen C.; Carter, Rob

doi:10.1364/josa.71.000723

Cited by 99 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, most researchers have abandoned it (e.g. Wolfe, 1998a), as evidence accumulated to suggest that conjunction search can sometimes be quite efficient (Nakayama & Silverman, 1986) and that (as mentioned above), feature search can be inefficient when targets and distractors are very similar (Carter, 1982;Carter & Carter, 1981;Nagy & Sanchez, 1990). In addition, as is well known, sizable display set size slopes might be predicted by either a serial search or a limited-capacity parallel search in which processing is always parallel, but worsens when display set size increases (Townsend, 1976(Townsend, , 1990Wolfe, 1998a).…”

Section: Attentional Capacity Limits and The Serial/parallel Dichotomymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This "pop-out" effect is generally agreed to reflect spatially parallel processing (Treisman & Gelade, 1980). When the target/distractor difference is very subtle, however, even this sort of singleton search often shows a substantial display-set-size effect (Carter, 1982;Carter & Carter, 1981;Nagy & Sanchez, 1990). Thus, a person wearing red cannot be so readily picked out from a crowd of people all wearing a slightly pinkish red chartreuse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Attention capacity and task difficulty in visual search

2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When a visual search task is very difficult (as when a small feature difference defines the target), even detection of a unique element may be substantially slowed by increases in display set size. This has been attributed to the influence of attentional capacity limits. We examined the influence of attentional capacity limits on three kinds of search task: difficult feature search (with a subtle featural difference), difficult conjunction search, and spatial-configuration search. In all 3 tasks, each trial contained sixteen items, divided into two eight-item sets. The two sets were presented either successively or simultaneously. Comparison of accuracy in successive versus simultaneous presentations revealed that attentional capacity limitations are present only in the case of spatialconfiguration search. While the other two types of task were inefficient (as reflected in steep search slopes), no capacity limitations were evident. We conclude that the difficulty of a visual search task affects search efficiency but does not necessarily introduce attentional capacity limits. q

show abstract

Section: Attentional Capacity Limits and The Serial/parallel Dichotomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attention capacity and task difficulty in visual search

2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…E. C. Carter and R. C. Carter (1981) showed that the color difference between a target and distractors determined the conspicuousness of the target, as measured by relative fixation rate and reaction time. Following the same line, R. C. Carter (1982) found that the slope of the search time function increased as the target and distractors became more similar in color.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Segregation by color and stereoscopic depth in three-dimensional visual space

Chau

Yeh

1995

Perception & Psychophysics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how color and stereoscopic depth information are used to segregate objects for visual search in three-dimensional (3-D) visual space, Eight observers were asked to indicate the alphanumeric category (letter or digit) of the target which had its unique color and unique depth plane, In Experiment 1, distractors sharing a common depth plane or a common color appeared in spatial contiguity in the xy plane. The results suggest that visual search for the target involves examination of kernels formed by homogeneous items sharing the same color and depth. In Experiment 2, the xy contiguity of distractors sharing a common color or a common depth plane was varied. The results showed that when target-distractor distinction becomes more difficult on one dimension, the other dimension becomes more important in performing visual search, as indicated by a larger effect on search time. This suggests that observers can make optimal use of the information available. Finally, color had a larger effect on search time than did stereoscopic depth. Overall, the results support models of visual processing which maintain that perceptual segregation and selective attention are determined by similarity among objects in 3-D visual space on both spatial and nonspatial stimulus dimensions.An important function performed by the visual system in processing visual information is to select information from the visual scene which is relevant to the current behavior. To achieve this, the visual system has to segregate stimuli in visual space so that parts belonging to the same whole can be linked together and boundaries can be drawn between different wholes. It has been shown that the visual system uses information such as spatial location (see, e.g., Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974;LaBerge & Brown, 1986), perceptual organization (e.g., Banks & Prinzmetal, 1976;Baylis & Driver, 1992;Driver & Baylis, 1989), and feature similarity (e.g., Duncan & Humphreys, 1989;Kramer, Tham, & Yeh, 1991) in order to achieve segregation. The purpose of the present study is to extend previous work on segregation in two-dimensional (2-D) space and investigate how observers use stereoscopic depth and color information to segregate objects and search for a target in three-dimensional (3-D) visual space.Humphreys (1981) summarized two models of how multidimensional I stimuli are processed. The first is the independent dimensional processing model, which assumes that some dimensions can be analyzed indepen-The authors thank Arthur F. Kramer, George 1. Andersen, Marc Carter, and an anonymous reviewer for their invaluable comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to A. W. Chau, Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong (e-mail: awlchau@ hkucc.hku.hk). dently and in parallel. A stimulus is processed on the basis of the first relevant dimension that is resolved. Garner (1974) labeled these dimensions "separable," and it is easy to limit process...

show abstract

“…These findinas are Particularly interestinq in light of the results of Carter & Carter (1981) and Jacobsen (in press).…”

Section: J)mentioning

confidence: 77%

“…This estimate of color difference has also * been shown to be a qood predictor of visual search performance (Carter & Carter, 1981).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%