Using eye-controlled highlighting techniques to support both serial and parallel processing in visual search

Yunxian PAN, Xianliang GE, Liezhong GE, Jie XU*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent research has developed two eye-controlled highlighting techniques, namely, block highlight display (BHD) and single highlight display (SHD), that enhance information presentation based on a user's current gaze position. The present research aimed to investigate how these techniques facilitate mental processing of users' visual search in high information-density visual environments. In Experiment 1, 60 participants performed 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-icon visual search tasks. The search times significantly increased as the number of icons increased with the SHD but not with the BHD. In Experiment 2, 40 participants performed a 49-icon visual search task. The search time was faster, and the fixation spatial density was lower with the BHD than with the SHD. These results suggested that the BHD supported parallel processing in the highlighted area and serial processing in the broader display area; thus, the BHD improved search performance compared to the SHD, which primarily supported serial processing.
Original languageEnglish
Article number103522
JournalApplied Ergonomics
Volume97
Early online date11 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

This research was partly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers: 31671146 and 31800931), Space Medical Experiment Project of China Manned Space Program (grant number: HYZHXM03001), and Advance Research Fund Project in Manned Space Field (grant number: 030602).

Keywords

  • Eye-controlled highlighting techniques
  • Parallel processing
  • Serial processing
  • Visual search

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Using eye-controlled highlighting techniques to support both serial and parallel processing in visual search'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this