Abstract
Visual search is an essential task we perform every day. Color is an important feature for guiding search, yet those with visual color impairments often live normal and unassisted lives (Wolfe, 1994). Those with red-green color vision deficiencies are at a specific disadvantage when discriminating natural terrains, which often lie within wavelengths between 557 – 589 mμ (Hendley & Hecht, 1949). Despite this, those with color-deficiencies are able to successfully analyze complex natural scenes in recognition tasks, suggesting some sort of visual accommodation for impoverished chromatic information (Gegenfurtner, Wichmann & Sharpe, 1996). Previously, we investigated how search changes in natural images when targets are not only camouflaged, but also presented without color information (in grayscale), finding that accuracy suffered for those searching without color information. However, it is not yet understood how those with deficiencies search natural images for obscured targets. In this experiment, we compared those with normal vision to those with red-green color deficiencies in a visual search task for a camouflaged target in natural, wooded images. We found no significant differences between those with color-deficiencies and those with normal vision in response time or accuracy, suggesting two possible conclusions. First, that color information is not necessary to guide attention in this unique type of search task. Alternatively, those with red-green deficiencies might reprioritize visual information in order to guide search in natural scenes.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017