The role of categorical cues on target template formation in visual search
Date
2020
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Visual search is a critical skill that is impacted by a target’s physical traits and a
viewer’s prior knowledge of what those traits are. An open question in visual search
concerns the nature of the target template, an internal cognitive representation of the
target one is searching for and that is used to guide search. Target templates are
created from knowledge about the target; in research settings this information is
typically conferred to a searcher in the form of a cue. A more detailed target template
is known to lead to the best search, but how a cue that lacks specific or accurate details
forms a target template is not well explored. The current study examines how
categorical cues impact target template creation, specifically aiming to resolve the
controversy of whether and under what conditions a word cue can perform as well as
an image cue. Participants searched for real world objects in an array, cued by various
pictures or words. In Experiment 1, participants experienced written and auditory label
cues in addition to exact target previews and visually similar image (type picture)
cues; type picture cues performed significantly better than either of the word cues,
which did not differ from each other. In Experiment 2, a specific label condition was
added and visually heterogenous type picture cues were used. The specific auditory
label resulted in reduced search times compared to basic labels and the new type cues.
These results highlight the importance of specificity in target template creation and
demonstrate constraints under which some verbal cues can be more effective than
image cues.
Description
Keywords
Visual search, Cognitive representation, Target templates