Josh


 * =The Brains Behind 'Where's Waldo?'= ||



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Project Summary

 * [|Difficulty] ||  6 ||
 * Time required || Very Short (a day or less) ||
 * Prerequisites || None ||
 * Material Availability || Readily available ||
 * Cost || Very Low (under $20) ||
 * Safety || No issues ||

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with help from Symantec.
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symantec.com/norton/familyresources || Objective In this experiment you will test if changing the number of distracters will affect the ability of an observer to find the target during a visual search. Introduction Have you ever looked and looked desperately for something? It is so frustrating! The classic example is when I lose my keys. You would think that by now (knowing that I am the kind of person who often loses my keys) I would have a huge, bright red key chain with a blinking strobe light that plays a ring tone every time I lose them. But of course, I still have them on a plain-old key ring. Hence the frustration. But I can turn this story from lemons into lemonade. It turns out that this frustrating situation is the perfect example of performing what cognitive psychologists call a visual search. During a visual search, an //observer// (me) looks for a //target// (my keys) in the midst of //distracters// (all of the other stuff in my messy house). By making my key chain easier to see, I could have improved upon my visual search, and made my search more successful. What properties are important for performing a successful visual search? Try this quick activity to help you think about the variables. In which of the two images below can you find the red letter "T" the fastest?

It was probably the image on the left. The image on the right has more complex distracters than the image on the left, making finding the target (the red letter "T") more difficult. In this experiment you will use an online program to design your own visual search experiments to test whether changing the number of distracters will affect your visual search. Will increasing the number of distracters make your search more difficult? Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research To do this type of experiment you should know what the following terms mean. Have an adult help you search the Internet, or take you to your local library to find out more! Questions Bibliography
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img027.gif caption="find the red letter T"]] ||
 * Which side has the easier task? (Busey, date unknown) ||
 * Visual Search
 * Observer
 * Target
 * Distracter
 * What variables affect a visual search?
 * How can a visual search be made more successful for the observer?
 * How will changing the number of distracters affect the success of finding the target during a visual search?

> Busey, T., date unknown. "Visual Search Experiment," Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington. [accessed September 6, 2007] [] > CogLab, 2007. "Visual Search," //CogLab 2.0 Online Laboratory//, Wadsworth Publishing. [accessed September 6, 2007] [] > Wikipedia contributors, date unknown. "Visual search," //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. [accessed September 6, 2007] [] Materials and Equipment
 * This experiment uses an online Visual Search test written by Dr. Tom Busey at the University of Indiana, Bloomington:
 * Another version of this project can be found at the CogLab online lesson "Visual Search" from Wadsworth Publishing (password required to use their java application):
 * Here is background reading about visual search from Wikipedia:
 * Two classic children's book series that are based upon the Visual Search Principle are the "Where's Waldo" and the "I Spy" books. Here is the original book from each series for you to check out:
 * Handford, M., 1987. //Where's Waldo?//, New York, NY: Little Brown & Co.
 * Marzollo, J., 1992. //I Spy: A Book of Picture Riddles//, New York, NY: Scholastic.

Experimental Procedure
 * Computer with Internet connection

> || 1 || hamburger || || > || 2 || pizza || || > || 3 || etc. || || > || 4 || etc. || || Variations
 * 1) In your web browser, go to the [|Coginitive Science Visual Search page] developed by Dr. Tom Busey.
 * 2) Depending upon what Internet browser you have and whether the necessary Java is enabled on your computer, you will either need to run the Java applet directly from the webpage or download the software on your computer before using it.
 * 3) To use the Java applet simply select the "Run Applet" button.
 * 4) Or to download the software, click on the movie link and follow the instructions to download the software to your desktop. After you have downloaded and copied the necessary files, start the Visual Search Experiment by clicking on the Visual Search icon on your desktop.
 * 5) Select the "Targets" tab at the top of the webpage. Be sure that only one target display box is checked. Your page should look like this:
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img028.gif caption=" Visual2"]] ||
 * 1) In the "Targets" tab there is a drop-down menu to change the target object to anything you like. I am going to select the hotdog as my target:
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img029.gif caption=" Visual3"]] ||
 * 1) Once you select the new target, you should see it in the box for "Target 1". (You can ignore the other Targets 2–4 because they are unchecked and will not show up in your display):
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img030.gif caption=" Visual4"]] ||
 * 1) Now click on the "Distracters" tab at the top of the webpage. Again, be sure that only one target display box is checked. Just like with the target page, you can click on the drop-down menu to select a new Distracter. I have chosen a hamburger as my distracter. Once you select the new distracter, you will see it in the "Distracter 1" box:
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img031.gif caption=" Visual5"]] ||
 * 1) Next click on the "Do Experiment" tab and be sure the "Use Circular Display" box is **UN-CHECKED**! Then click on the "Start Experiment" button and follow the instructions.
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img032.gif caption=" Visual6"]] ||
 * 1) When you are done, it will instruct you to click on the button below to quit and view your results, which will show up on the "Do Experiment" screen. Now the screen will have your results. Pay attention to the "Percent Correct over all trials" box in the lower right-hand corner:
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img033.gif caption=" Visual7"]] ||
 * 1) Write down your "Percent Correct over all trials" result in a data table:
 * Number of Distracters || Type of Distracter || Percent Correct (over all trials) ||
 * 1) Now go back to the "Distracters" tab and add another distracter. To add Distracter #2, you need to check the "Display Distracter 2" box, and then select a distracter from the drop-down menu. I added pizza!
 * [[image:http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/HumBeh_img034.gif caption=" Visual8"]] ||
 * 1) Repeat the experiment and write the "Percent Correct over all trials" result in your data table
 * 2) Repeat adding a third, and then a fourth distracter to your experiment, writing the "Percent Correct over all trials" result in your data table each time.
 * 3) Repeat this procedure on at least four more people, and record the results of each volunteer in a data table.
 * 4) When you are done, you will need to calculate the "Average Percent Correct over all trials" for each number of distractors in your tests. Do this calculation by adding together the scores of all five test subjects (including yourself) with one distractor present and dividing your answer by five. Repeat this calculation for scores with 2 distractors, 3 distractors, and 4 distractors present.
 * 5) Make a graph of your data. Make a scale of the "Average Percent Correct over all trials" on the left side of the graph (y-axis) from 0–100. Make a scale of the "Number of Distracters" on the bottom of the graph (x-axis) from 1–4. Draw a bar for each result up to the corresponding "Average Percent Correct over all trials" number.
 * 6) What happened to the "Average Percent Correct over all trials" as you added more distracters? What do you think this means?

Credits Sara Agee, Ph.D., Science Buddies
 * You can change other variables as well, here are some ideas to try:
 * Change the number of targets instead of distracters
 * Measure response time instead of the percent correct
 * Change the number of images by changing the number of rows and columns
 * Use different symbols, like letters or numbers
 * Change the colors of the target and distracters
 * Can you think of real world applications for this cognitive test? See if you can investigate the use of visual search properties in any of these areas:
 * Designing logos and brand names to be noticed
 * Designing webpages that are easy to navigate
 * Finding points of interest on a map
 * Displaying data in a way that shows what is important
 * Any other application that you can imagine—just think of a way to test it!
 * For more science project ideas in this area of science, see [|Human Behavior Project Ideas].

Last edit date: 2007-09-18 22:00:00

Career Focus
If you like this project, you might want to think about career opportunities in [|Human Behavior]. Why people take certain actions can often feel like a mystery. Psychologists help solve these mysteries by investigating the physical, cognitive, emotional, or social aspects of human behavior and the human mind. Some psychologists also apply these findings in order to design better products or to help people change their behaviors. Learn more about this career: [|Psychologist]. Type in the content of your page here.

Joshua Rae Science 8 Period 8 Mrs. Vanmeter November 27, 2009 __ Background Research __ In my experiment, I will be testing if changing the number of distracters in a visual search will affect the abilities of an observer to identify the target. This experiment is an aspect of human behavior. Within the last several hundred years, man has been fascinated by human behavior. Some believed man is a mechanical creature capable of certain abilities. Others believed man is a supernatural creature that creates actions through internal or external forces. Here in my paragraph I will research into the study of human behavior to better understand our capabilities. To begin, I will discuss the studies of Sigmund Freud, a well known scientist of human behavior from 1856 to 1939. Sigmund believed that the human was like machines who were prisoners of instinctive powers. He believed religiously that our purpose in life was to control these instincts and powers. Sigmund related the human spirit to an iceberg. “The soul is like an iceberg: it contains a conscious part and an unconscious part” (Freud). The part we are able to see of the iceberg is the conscious part which is what we know and what we remember and the process of how we think. The part below the water of an iceberg is the unconscious part or everything which has been forgotten or shut out of our mind. Freud described these two parts to be in what we could call a conflict. The unconscious part uses physic energy to become conscious while the conscious part tries to suppress the energy. Sigmund Freud then began to look at the human spirit in the aspect of stages of life. He believed that as a small child the human simply possessed id which was merely instinctive reflexes that humans developed from past centuries. As the child grows, he or she obtains ego, or a more developed ID which can have monotonous results. Once the human develops socialization it obtains superego which is the final stage for your conscious. It acts merely to satisfy the needs of the ID and Ego. Another popular psychologist named McDougall theorized that instincts are the result of all of your thinking which were fixed at birth but could be changed through learning and experience. He expanded his ideas after writing his book, __McDougall__, which focused around several instinctive drives such as fear, curiosity, and aggression. Although these theories explained much it became clear it did not explain all of a human’s instincts, so the theory was replaced with a theory called theory of drives. This went more into all different types of emotions which would lead to certain actions. By the 1950’s, psychology began to shift more into studies focusing on perception and memory. Cognitive psychology was an important part of this study. Its core revolved around how people perceive and remember certain things. Perception was a major aspect of cognitive psychology. Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding. This is an important part of my experiment because perception is what helps us to identify and target different images. The brain (along with some help from the eyes) is the main processer of perceiving and identifying images. To follow up on perception, I will be looking into the process of vision to get a further idea of how an observer may be distracted if more distracters were added in a visual search. The human eye is a very important organ in the body. The eye allows us to decipher shapes and colors and dimensions of objects in the world by processing the light they reflect or emit. Light from an object enters the cornea which is the dome at the front of the eye. The light then passes to the pupil where it enters the inner part of the iris. The crystalline lens bends or converges the light which flips the image. The light continues through the vitreous humor, or the clear gel within the eye. After this the image comes into clear focus on the retina. The central area of the retina is the macula which gives the best vision. The light travels through layers of the retina which transforms the light into electrical signals that are sent through the optic nerve to the occipital cortex in the back of the brain. The brain then interprets the image which is what we call “seeing”. The eye is protectively placed in the “orbit” or socket in the skull. The orbit is surrounded by layers of tissue to help protect it and help it turn easily. A newborn baby’s eye is about 18 millimeters in diameter. As an infant, the child’s eyes grow to about 19 and one half millimeters. By adulthood the eye should be about 1 inch in diameter. An average ping pong ball is 1 and one half inches in diameter, so an adult’s eye should be around 2 third’s of a ping pong ball. Certain objects and shapes have the potential to stand out more to the eye than others. Contrast is an art technique to emphasize a certain color or object. Contrast can easily be found in real world situations such as a fire place at night. This is an important aspect of visual perception. Some colors capture or emit more light than others. This is one way an array of colors may distract your visual process to find the correct target.