Abstract

This experiment demonstrated the degradation in search performance resulting from a decrease in the frame rate of a static, structured display containing visual noise. The display was produced by projecting moving pictures of the static, structured scene. Television-type visual noise in the scene was obtained by double exposure and special printing of the film. After a 10-sec search, the probability of detecting the target was 0.94 in the noise-free display, 0.85 in the noisy display simulating 26 frames/sec, and 0.78 in the noisy display simulating 5.2 frames/sec. These results indicate that restricted usefulness of a low-frame-rate, television-type display may be expected in a low signal-to-noise ratio condition.

Neither peripheral acuity, foveal acuity, nor eye-dominance scores correlated significantly with search time. There was a significant correlation between response time and search time, which can be attributed to the mental processing and decision time common to both tasks.

© 1966 Optical Society of America

Visual Search Performance in a Moving Structured Field

Ronald A. Erickson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54(3) 399-405 (1964)

Effects of Involuntary Eye Movements on Visual Acuity*

Ulker Tulunay Keesey
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 50(8) 769-774 (1960)

Frequency Doubling in Visual Responses*†

D. H. Kelly
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 56(11) 1628-1633 (1966)

Characteristics of the Visual System: Psychophysical Measurements of the Response to Spatial Sine-Wave Stimuli in the Photopic Region*

Olof Bryngdahl
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 56(6) 811-821 (1966)

Diphasic Nature of the Visual Response as Inferred from the Summation Index of n Flashes

Mitsuo Ikeda and Tohru Fujii
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 56(8) 1129-1131 (1966)