Abstract
While many studies have examined the factors that influence visual search performance, how competiveness may affect a visual search task has not been investigated. Competiveness of the participants was measured using a subscale of the Competiveness Questionnaire, Interpersonal Competitiveness (IC). IC is a desire to win or do better than others. The goal of this study was to seek the potential relationship between IC and improvement in reaction time in a visual search task. The stimulus consisted of multiple red or green circles (3.5° in diameter) or squares (3.2° per side) that were presented on a computer screen. Each shape contained a white line segment (1.5° x 0.2°) in its center. The spatial configuration of the shapes was either circular (aligned on an imaginary circle of 14° radius) or random. The total number of shapes was 4, 8, or 16. The participant's task was to judge the orientation of the line segment (vertical or horizontal) in a target shape that is unique and different from all the others as soon as possible. Reaction time and response accuracy were recorded. Participants ran a first session of both spatial configurations, followed by the completion of the CQ. They were informed that their reaction time and response accuracy would be rank-ordered and compared among all the participants. Finally, the participants ran a second session of both configurations. The order of spatial configuration was counterbalanced across participants. They were categorized into two groups based on their IC score by a median split: the competitive group and the non-competitive group. The results indicated that the reduction in reaction time from the first to the second session was larger for the competitive group than the noncompetitive group for the circular configuration, but such a difference was not observed for the random configuration of the stimuli.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2014