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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Nick HollimanORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by American Psychological Association, 2017.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Standard models of visual search have focused upon asking participants to search for a single target in displays where the objects do not overlap one another, and where the objects are presented on a single depth plane. This stands in contrast to many everyday visual searches wherein variations in overlap and depth are the norm, rather than the exception. Here, we addressed whether presenting overlapping objects on different depths planes to one another can improve search performance. Across 4 different experiments using different stimulus types (opaque polygons, transparent polygons, opaque real-world objects, and transparent X-ray images), we found that depth was primarily beneficial when the displays were transparent, and this benefit arose in terms of an increase in response accuracy. Although the benefit to search performance only appeared in some cases, across all stimulus types, we found evidence of marked shifts in eye-movement behavior. Our results have important implications for current models and theories of visual search, which have not yet provided detailed accounts of the effects that overlap and depth have on guidance and object identification processes. Moreover, our results show that the presence of depth information could aid real-world searches of complex, overlapping displays.
Author(s): Godwin HJ, Menneer T, Liversedge SP, Cave KR, Holliman NS, Donnelly N
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
Year: 2017
Volume: 43
Issue: 8
Pages: 1532-1549
Online publication date: 06/04/2017
Acceptance date: 07/11/2016
Date deposited: 17/07/2018
ISSN (print): 0096-1523
ISSN (electronic): 1939-1277
Publisher: American Psychological Association
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000353
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000353
PubMed id: 28383964
Notes: The manuscript is available online here: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/403259/1/Depth%2520In%2520Search%25202.docx
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