Abstract

The effects of the degree of structuring and the form of the visual field on target detection and target location were investigated for three different search times. Thirty undergraduate subjects searched for low-visibility targets on a special screen and recorded the target locations on prepared data sheets. The results suggest that both target detection and location are related in a nonmonotonic fashion to the degree of structure and to the form of the field. The structuring continuum was defined as the division of the search area into two or more partitions of equal area. Optima for both measures occurred at the low end of the continuum.

Of the two forms investigated, performance with square fields was generally superior to that for circular fields. In answer to a questionnaire after the experiment, a majority of subjects reported a preference for searching the square fields. Both target detection and target location varied directly with amount of search time. However, the functions tended to increase rapidly at first and then level off at the longer search times.

© 1962 Optical Society of America

Foveal Vision: Dependence of Threshold Energy on the Visual Angle of a Circular Target*

Nelson W. Taylor
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(7) 820-825 (1962)

Disinhibition in the Human Visual System*

William R. Mackavey, S. Howard Bartley, and Carmine Casella
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(1) 85-88 (1962)

Brightness of a Field as a Function of its Area*

A. Leonard Diamond
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(6) 700-705 (1962)

Neural Formulation of the Effects of Target Size and Shape upon Visual Detection*

Wilfred M. Kincaid, H. Richard Blackwell, and Alfred B. Kristofferson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 50(2) 143-148 (1960)

Vision during Voluntary Saccadic Eye Movements*†

Frances C. Volkmann
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(5) 571-578 (1962)