Target search in tactical displays with standard, single cue, and redundant coding

We examined the cognitive dimensions of search performance of 12 military subjects looking for targets embedded within standard military symbols, redundantly coded symbols, and symbols constituting the inner boundaries of the standard symbols and the outer boundaries of the redundant symbols. As predicted, the results indicated that visual search was more efficient for redundantly coded symbols than for symbols encoded using the standard conventions. However, observers performed fastest when viewing the inner configuration of the standard symbol in isolation. These findings confirm that visual search performance for standard military symbols is not optimal, and are interpreted in light of current models of perceptual grouping and attention. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.