A Cognitive Aging Study Of The Effects Of Figure Number And Distance On A Comparative Visual Search Task

Visual search is an important process of visual information processing.Comparative visual search task is an experimental paradigm of it.This task usually requires“searchers”to search and compare the information which is given in two pictures on display.Searchers are required to judge whether the pictures are the same.Comparative visual search task often includes several cognitive processes such as visual search,eye movement and visual working memory.Under the background of aging,the eager of the elderly to participate in scientific and technological life is rapidly increasing.In the process of learning how to use electronic products,the elderly inevitably need to search and compare information through comparative visual search task.Based on the previous studies,this thesis focuses on the cognitive aging effect of figure number and figure distance in comparative visual search task.The experiment is a 2×3×3 mixed experimental design,and the independent variables are age(elderly and young),figure number(3,6,9),figure distance(large,medium,and small).The dependent variables are eye movement indicators such as total fixation counts,total fixation time,average fixation time and average saccadcs.The experiment selects 18 elderly and 18 young people,and the experimental data is analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance through SPSS25.0.Experimental results and conclusions:(1)The elderly show cognitive aging effect in the comparative visual search task.Compared to young people,the elderly show more total fixation counts,longer total fixation time,and shorter average saccades.(2)Between figure number and figure distance,when figure number is small,the change of figure distance docs not have a significant effect on the total fixation time.When figure number increases,figure distance will significantly affect total fixation time.It seems that as figure distance increases,there are more total fixation time and total fixation counts.When figure number increases,small distance is more conducive to the elderly to finish comparative visual search tasks.