Visual target detection performance as a function of similarities between signal and background display characteristics

Abstract

The relevance of this study to the question of the effect of type of relevant background information on target detection performance is somewhat limited since the background was carefully selected to be entirely irrelevant, even though it has been pointed out that the background was not truly homogeneous. Also only large-scale displays (80 cm to somewhat less than 60 cm diameter) and extreme viewing distances (20 to 68 feet) were examined. What is of considerable interest is the finding that, when the array consisted of 16 figures, increasing exposure time from 12 sec. to 24 sec. resulted in no increase in performance beyond 90 per cent correct recognition.