The effect of experience and object type on the detection of change in a real-world visual task

The effect of task experience on the allocation of visual attention in a real-world task was investigated. This was done by comparing the performance of three different experience groups (naive, typical, and expert) on a change detection task. The flicker paradigm, developed by Rensinck and colleagues (Perception, 1995), was used to present changes in photographs of driving scenes. Changes varied in the type of object and the type of change. Presentations were also varied to compare both video and static images. The results indicate that participants in the more experienced groups were not only faster at detecting changes to task relevant stimuli, but also faster at detecting changes to the most task relevant details of those objects. At the same time, the more experienced participants performed the same, or worse, than the less experienced participants when detecting task irrelevant changes. These results suggest that the search for task relevant changes is more efficient for experienced viewers due to the use of a schema guided allocation of attention, with the effect of experience being manifest in a more detailed schema.