Perceptual organization in visual search: Context effects

我们几乎每一个醒着的时刻都在用眼睛寻找。即使是无聊的漫不经心地环顾一下房间，本质上也是在试图寻找什么。在现代生活中，视觉搜索包括一些重要的任务，比如医生检查医疗X光图像，国土安全部检查行李是否有异常，或者飞行员快速浏览飞机仪表盘上的重要仪表。所有能够移动的生物都在不停地寻找，无论是简单的单细胞生物体还是智力原始人。在实验室里，视觉搜索已经成为一种研究大脑的方法，无论是作为智力测试、神经学检查的一部分，还是在关于注意力、语言和社会知觉的深奥研究中。罗伯特·劳森伯格和玛丽·A·彼得森博士将利用美国国家科学基金会的支持，研究一个关于视觉搜索的迄今未被认识到的事实：随着时间的推移，搜索的目标(俗称“大海捞针”)可能会变得与他们的分心物(“干草”)变得越来越相似。也就是说，如果你呈现“大海捞针”很长时间(1/4秒)，搜索比你只呈现很短时间(1/10秒)完全相同的显示要困难得多。常识告诉我们，结果恰恰相反。从这项研究中获得的见解有可能极大地改变我们对人类行为的一个基本组成部分的理解。该项目的更广泛影响可能包括现代仪器设计的创新，机场安检的加强，以及更好的医疗问题测试。受资助的项目还包括一个教育部分，用于资助Rauschenberger博士在复杂非线性系统理论和方法方面的培训。

We spend nearly every waking moment searching with our eyes. Even a bored casual glance around a room is, at heart, an attempt to look for something. In modern life, visual search includes such important tasks as a doctor's inspection of medical X-ray images, a homeland security check of luggage for anomalies, or a pilot's quick glance across vital gauges on aircraft instrument panels. All living things capable of movement search incessantly, whether simple one-celled organisms or brainy hominids. In the laboratory, visual search has become a way to study the mind, whether as part of an intelligence test, a neurological exam, or in esoteric studies of attention, language, and social perception.Dr. Robert Rauschenberger and Dr. Mary A. Peterson will use support from the National Science Foundation to study a hitherto unrecognized fact about visual search: that the targets of search (the proverbial "needle in the haystack") can become more similar to their distractors (the "hay") as time goes on. That is, if you present the "needle and haystack" for a 'long' time (1/4 of a second), search is paradoxically more difficult than if you present the very same display for only a brief time (1/10 of a second). Common sense suggests the opposite outcome. The insights to be gained from this research have the potential to alter our understanding of a fundamental component of human behavior significantly. The broader impact of the project may include innovations in the design of modern instruments, increases in airport security, and better tests for medical problems. The funded project also includes an educational component to fund training for Dr. Rauschenberger in theory and methods of complex nonlinear systems.