Search asymmetries? What search asymmetries?
In order to establish a search asymmetry, one must run an experiment with a symmetric design and get asymmetric results. Given an asymmetric design, one expects asymmetric results, and such results do not imply an asymmetry in the search mechanisms. In this paper, I argue that a number of experiments purporting to show search asymmetries contain built-in design asymmetries. A saliency model of visual search predicts the results of these experiments, using only a simple measure of target-distractor similarity, without reliance on asymmetric search mechanisms. These results have implications for search mechanisms and for other experiments purporting to show search asymmetries.
Rosenholtz
R
R
Xerox PARC, 3333 Coyote Hill Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. rruth@parc.xerox.com
D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics