The effect of feedback and movement on a visual search task

Abstract

This thesis investigated the effects of auditory feedback and stimulus movement in efficient and inefficient search tasks, motivated by the fact that these two factors are often present in real-world search tasks, but their effect on search performance in the lab is largely unexplored. Experiment 1 manipulated feedback to specific responses (no feedback, feedback on correct responses, feedback on incorrect responses, and feedback on all responses) and compared search slopes between conditions. The data revealed no impact of feedback on search performance. In Experiment 2 the stimuli moved at four different speeds (static, slow, moderate, and fast) and, again, search slopes were compared. There was no effect of movement except in inefficient search target absent trials, where there was a significant decrease in search performance in conditions with faster movement speeds (both moderate and fast conditions). These findings imply that feedback may not be useful for standard lab-based visual search tasks, and that movement affects such tasks and should be investigated further.

Date of Award	13 May 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Nicholas E Scott-Samuel (Supervisor) & Ute B Leonards (Supervisor)