Filling or Outlining Shapes With Color: The Effects on a Visual Search Task

摘要

Simplified tactical situation plots were created with shape symbology (i.e., ship, aircraft, submarine, unknown)outlined or filled with color to represent affiliation. Task times were recorded for subjects to identify quadrants which contained the greatest number of a specified target (e.g., hostile submarines, unknown aircraft, etc.)in each condition. Results confirmed that subjects' task times were significantly less in the color-filled condition. An explanation for the effect, how the search worked, and implications for coding tactical displays are discussed. Keywords: Tactical Symbology, Color Coding, Visual Processing, Human-computer Interaction, Man-machine interface, Display Systems, Color vision. (JDW)