An Experimental Research on Search Order Based on Contour (in Chinese)

Contour is an important cue for pattern recognition. Further feature search may have something to do with contour, which is produced by parallel processing. In this research, 3 experiments were undertaken to explore the effects of contour on searching sequence. Experiment 1 aims at confirming the key role of contour in visual search. It’s results show that there exists mental representation of potential targets in visual search. Experiment 2 aims to verify the hypothesis that the new features produced by two figures’ overlapping will accelerate visual search. The results show that although the figures’ overlapping may produce new features, these byproducts may not make search faster. An alternative hypothesis was introduced that contour has effects on searching sequence. On the basis of contour, the search of distinct features follows this order: in the outer band of contour----along contour----in the inner band of contour. Experiment 3 tests this hypothesis further.