TARGET CUING IN VISUAL SEARCH: THE EFFECTS OF CONFORMALITY AND DISPLAY ON THE ALLOCATION OF VISUAL ATTENTION

Two experiments were performed to examine how frame of reference and target expectancy can modulate the effects of target cuing in directing attention for see-through helmet-mounted displays (HMDs). In Experiment 1, the degree of world referencing was varied by the spatial accuracy of the cue; in Experiment 2, the degree of world referencing was varied more radically between a world-referenced HMD and a handheld display. Participants were asked to detect, identify, and give azimuth information for targets hidden in terrain presented in the far domain (the world) while performing a monitoring task in the near domain (the display). The results of both experiments revealed a cost-benefit trade-off for cuing such that the presence of cuing aided the target detection task for expected targets but drew attention away from the presence of unexpected targets in the environment. Analyses support the observation that this effect can be mediated by the display: the world-referenced display reduced the cost of cognitive tunneling relative to the screen-referenced display in Experiment 1; this cost was further reduced in Experiment 2 when participants were using a handheld display. Potential applications of this research include important design guidelines and specifications for automated target recognition systems as well as any terrain-and-targeting display system in which superimposed symbology is included, specifically in assessing the costs and benefits of attentional cuing and the means by which this information is displayed.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1329271
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Research funding for this project was provided by a grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory under the Federated Laboratory Program, Cooperative Agreement DAAL0196-2-0003.
• Corporate Authors:

  Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

  P.O. Box 1369
  Santa Monica, CA  United States  90406-1369
• Authors:
  • Yeh, M
  • Wickens, C D
  • Seagull, F J
• Publication Date: 1999-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 524-542
• Serial:
  • Human Factors
  • Volume: 41
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0018-7208
  • EISSN: 1547-8181
  • Serial URL: http://hfs.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attention lapses; Benefit cost analysis; Cognition; Experiments; Head up displays; Helmets; Human factors engineering; Instrument displays; Location; Visual perception; Visual presentations
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cuing
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00790776
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: NSF II597-33100 CAR, 96-G-043, DAAL0196-2-0003
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 27 2000 12:00AM