Eye movements during visual search and discrimination of meaningless, symbol, and object patterns

Recorded eye movements of 5 undergraduates during a visual search task in which Ss determined how many of 8 patterns, arranged in a square around a standard pattern, matched a standard pattern. 3 classes of patterns, equated on the basis of 4 physical dimensions, were studied: meaningless patterns, symbols, and objects. It was found overall that the class to which a pattern belonged did not affect total scan time, errors, fixation duration, or number of eye fixations. It is tentatively concluded for visual search tasks that pattern discrimination is based on physical characteristics of patterns rather than meaningful characteristics of the patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1970 American Psychological Association.