Dataset Information

Classic Visual Search Effects in an Additional Singleton Task: An Open Dataset.

ABSTRACT: Visual search refers to our ability to find what we are looking for among many competing visual inputs. Here, we report the availability of a rich dataset that replicates key visual search effects and shows that these effects are robust to several changes to the experimental design. Experiment 1 replicates classic findings from an additional singleton visual search task. First, participants are captured by a salient but irrelevant color singleton, as indexed by slower response times when a color singleton distractor is present versus absent. Second, attentional capture by a color singleton is reduced when the visual search array contains heterogeneous shapes rather than homogenous shapes. Finally, attentional capture by a color singleton is reduced when the display colors are repeated rather than switched unpredictably from trial to trial. Experiment 2 demonstrates that these classic visual search effects are robust to small procedural changes such as task timing (i.e., a 2-8 second rather than ~1 second inter-trial interval). Experiment 3 demonstrates that these classic effects are likewise robust to changes to the distractor frequency (75% rather than 50%) and to fully blocking versus interleaving blocks of two task conditions. All told, this dataset includes 8 sub-experiments, 190 participants and >210,000 trials, and it will serve as a useful resource for power analyses and exploratory analyses of visual search behaviors.

SUBMITTER: Adam KCS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8323537 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundVisual search declines with aging, dementia, and brain injury and is linked to limitations in everyday activities. Recent studies suggest that visual search can be improved with practice using computerized visual search tasks and puzzle video games. For practical use, it is important that visual search ability can be assessed and practiced in a controlled and adaptive way. However, commercial puzzle video games make it hard to control task difficulty, and there are little means to collect performance data.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop and initially validate the search and match task (SMT) that combines an enjoyable tile-matching match-3 puzzle video game with features of the visual search paradigm (taskified game). The SMT was designed as a single-target visual search task that allows control over task difficulty variables and collection of performance data.MethodsThe SMT is played on a grid-based (width × height) puzzle board, filled with different types of colored polygons. A wide range of difficulty levels was generated by combinations of 3 task variables over a range from 4 to 8 including height and width of the puzzle board (set size) and the numbers of tile types (distractor heterogeneity). For each difficulty level, large numbers of playable trials were pregenerated using Python. Each trial consists of 4 consecutive puzzle boards, where the goal of the task is to find a target tile configuration (search) on the puzzle board and swap 2 adjacent tiles to create a line of 3 identical tiles (match). For each puzzle board, there is exactly 1 possible match (single target search). In a user study with 28 young adults (aged 18 to 31 years), 13 older (aged 64 to 79 years) and 11 oldest (aged 86 to 98 years) adults played the long (young and older adults) or short version (oldest adults) of the difficulty levels of the SMT. Participants rated their perception and the usability of the task and completed neuropsychological tests that measure cognitive domains engaged by the puzzle game.ResultsResults from the user study indicate that the target search time is associated with set size, distractor heterogeneity, and age. Results further indicate that search performance is associated with general cognitive ability, selective and divided attention, visual search, and visuospatial and pattern recognition ability.ConclusionsOverall, this study shows that an everyday puzzle game-based task can be experimentally controlled, is enjoyable and user-friendly, and permits data collection to assess visual search and cognitive abilities. Further research is needed to evaluate the potential of the SMT game to assess and practice visual search ability in an enjoyable and adaptive way. A PsychoPy version of the SMT is freely available for researchers.

Dataset Information

Classic Visual Search Effects in an Additional Singleton Task: An Open Dataset.

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