The Influence of Reference-Mark Density and Saliency on Time-To-Passage

Abstract

Gogel & McNulty (1983) demonstrated that the greater the density of vertical reference or hatch marks in a display, the greater the perceived velocity of a laterally moving object. Their study corroborates the findings of other researchers that the addition of reference-marks or a reference frame lowers the motion threshold (Liebowitz, 1955; Brown, 1931a, 1931b). The current study’s first experiment successfully replicated the results of Gogel & McNulty’s study using a flat panel LCD screen and a predicted-motion task. Subsequent experiments examined the effect of object and reference-mark characteristics on accuracy. In general, accuracy increased as the extrapolation distance (ED) and reference-mark density increased. There was a consistent interactive effect between ED and reference-mark density such that medium and long EDs coupled with high density of reference-marks produced the greatest increase in accuracy. There was an interactive sex effect with ED which was present in the results, but was not consistent. Though accuracy was not affected by object size, horizontal extent, shape, familiarity, color or offset, the effect of high reference-mark density on improving accuracy disappeared when marks were less salient. The results of these experiments have application to the design of displays used for military, air traffic control and cockpit applications, laparoscopic surgery, assembly-line manufacturing, highway-construction tasks, and on-orbit space manufacturing and construction.

Description

Keywords

relative motion, sex differences, hatch marks, predicted motion task, transparency, human factors, motion perception, visual displays, TTP, velocity perception, accuracy, time-to-contact, TTC, perceived velocity, visual perception,

Citation

Degree

PhD

Discipline

Psychology

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