Perceptual organization in visual search: Context effects

我们几乎每时每刻都在用眼睛寻找。 即使是无聊的随意扫视一个房间，在内心深处，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，如医生对医学X射线图像的检查，对行李异常的国土安全检查，或飞行员快速浏览飞机仪表板上的重要仪表。 所有能够运动的生物都在不停地搜索，无论是简单的单细胞生物还是聪明的原始人。 在实验室里，视觉搜索已经成为研究思维的一种方法，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、语言和社会感知的深奥研究中。彼得森将利用美国国家科学基金会的支持，研究一个迄今尚未被认识的关于视觉搜索的事实：搜索的目标（谚语中的“大海捞针”）可以变得更类似于他们的干扰物也就是说，如果你把“针和干草堆”放在“很长”的时间里，（1/4秒），搜索反而比在很短的时间内（1/10秒）呈现相同的显示更困难。 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大大改变我们对人类行为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，机场安全的增加以及对医疗问题的更好测试。 该资助项目还包括一个教育部分，资助Rauschenberger博士在复杂非线性系统的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.