The Oddity Detection in Diverse Scenes (ODDS) database: Validated real-world scenes for studying anomaly detection.

Many applied screening tasks (e.g., medical image or baggage screening) involve challenging searches for which standard laboratory search is rarely equivalent. For example, whereas laboratory search frequently requires observers to look for precisely defined targets among isolated, non-overlapping images randomly arrayed on clean backgrounds, medical images present unspecified targets in noisy, yet spatially regular scenes. Those unspecified targets are typically oddities, elements that do not belong. To develop a closer laboratory analogue to this, we created a database of scenes containing subtle, ill-specified "oddity" targets. These scenes have similar perceptual densities and spatial regularities to those found in expert search tasks, and each includes 16 variants of the unedited scene wherein an oddity (a subtle deformation of the scene) is hidden. In Experiment 1, eight volunteers searched thousands of scene variants for an oddity. Regardless of their search accuracy, they were then shown the highlighted anomaly and rated its subtlety. Subtlety ratings reliably predicted search performance (accuracy and response times) and did so better than image statistics. In Experiment 2, we conducted a conceptual replication in which a larger group of naïve searchers scanned subsets of the scene variants. Prior subtlety ratings reliably predicted search outcomes. Whereas medical image targets are difficult for naïve searchers to detect, our database contains thousands of interior and exterior scenes that vary in difficulty, but are nevertheless searchable by novices. In this way, the stimuli will be useful for studying visual search as it typically occurs in expert domains: Ill-specified search for anomalies in noisy displays.

Examining the effects of passive and active strategy use during interactive search for LEGO® bricks.

In many important search tasks, observers must find what they are looking for using only visual information (e.g., X-ray baggage screening/medical screening). However, numerous other search tasks can only be effectively completed when the searcher uses their hands to find what they are looking for (e.g., "rummage" search). Unfortunately, it is not currently well understood how observers conduct such "interactive" searches nor what the best strategies might be for doing so. Here, we first review the limited literature on interactive search. We then present a novel methodology for the study of interactive search that involves having observers seek out LEGO® targets in a cluttered tray of assorted bricks. In our validation task, we confirm the validity of this approach by demonstrating that it produces sensible patterns of diminishing returns in response time as targets are removed from the set as well as hastened search times for larger targets. In our experiment, we modify the approach, refining its systematicity and experimental control. We also build on prior work exploring strategy use in visual search by investigating the extent to which active and passive strategy use impacts performance in interactive search. In contrast to our prior findings in hybrid visual search (Madrid & Hout, 2019), our current findings suggest that in interactive search, an active search strategy can be superior to a passive one. We close by offering a conceptual model (the Interactive Multiple Decision Model [i-MDM]) that explicates the steps involved in a search task of this nature, and we then provide suggestions for how to further refine the task to achieve higher internal validity and to delve deeper into questions of theoretical importance in the field of interactive search. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the effects of passive and active strategies on behavior during hybrid visual memory search: evidence from eye tracking.

Hybrid search requires observers to search both through a visual display and through the contents of memory in order to find designated target items. Because professional hybrid searchers such as airport baggage screeners are required to look for many items simultaneously, it is important to explore any potential strategies that may beneficially impact performance during these societally important tasks. The aim of the current study was to investigate the role that cognitive strategies play in facilitating hybrid search. We hypothesized that observers in a hybrid search task would naturally adopt a strategy in which they remained somewhat passive, allowing targets to "pop out." Alternatively, we considered the possibility that observers could adopt a strategy in which they more actively directed their attention around the visual display. In experiment 1, we compared behavioral responses during uninstructed, passive, and active hybrid search. We found that uninstructed search tended to be more active in nature, but that adopting a passive strategy led to above average performance as indicated by a combined measure of speed and accuracy called a balanced integration score (BIS). We replicated these findings in experiment 2. Additionally, we found that oculomotor behavior in passive hybrid search was characterized by longer saccades, improved attentional guidance, and an improved ability to identify items as targets or distractors (relative to active hybrid search). These results have implications for understanding hybrid visual search and the effect that strategy use has on performance and oculomotor behavior during this common, and at times societally important, task.