visual search task report

Visual Search Task 1

Visual Search Task: Gender Differences in Visual Search Task

Siti Nazirah binti Md Nor

Nur Izzaty binti Mohd Ahzan

Nurul Syahirah binti Mohd Jamel

Abdul Kader Janeelu bin Thajudeen

International Islamic University Malaysia


Abstract

The present study examined the different in reaction time between males and females in

visual search task. 30 undergraduate students of IIUM, consist of 15 males and 15 females with

age ranged from 19 to 25 years old were divided into two groups according to their gender.

Participants in both group were asked to search a visual image for a particular item and to

respond as quickly as possible once they find the item. The time taken to respond to the visual

task was recorded. It is predicted that male take less time than female to respond to visual task.

The collected data were analyzed using independent sample t-test. The result shows that there is

no significant different between male and female participants in relation to reaction time, thus

the time taken between male and female participants to react to visual task are similar. Visual

perception, different muscle contraction between male and female as well as physical and mental

distress are among the reasons to explain the obtained results.

Keywords: Attention, visual search task, reaction time, gender differences.


Gender Differences in Visual Search Task

Most of everyday work and activities involve visual search such as looking for missing

keys and finding a friend in crowds. According to Kieras (2010), visual search is the process of

concentrating on the environment to locate the object of interest for further activity. The visual

search requires the ability to concentrate on specific features of the environment which is known

as attention (Goldstein, 2011). Massive studies have been conducted on attention, as there are

lots of unique and special characteristic to be discovered. Visual search is the example of study

that helps investigators to find special features of attention.

LaBerge and Brown (as cited by Bleckley et.all, 2014) stated that there are two general

attention guiding mechanism which could accommodate to find the target which are; i) top-

down, and ii) bottom-up activation. Top-down activation encompasses the idea that if observer

know the target’s unique feature, this could help them to guide their attention. On the other hand,

bottom-up as mentioned by Treisman (as cited by Suchow et.all, 2013) is when several

distractors share several same features as for example, colour, they would go through some form

of mutual inhibition generate in the corresponding feature map.

As suggested by Apoorvagiri & Nagananda (2013), there are many factors that may

influence the reaction time such as an arousal, age, left or right handed, personality type and the

order of presentation. Nicholas, Katharine & Yuko (2013) added that reaction time, which can

also be understood as the rate at which people process information appears to influence many

aspects of cognition across the lifespan, which explained that the performance of the reaction

time may differs in children compared to adults, due to the change and development of

information in working memory, and decision-making which would lead to processing speed in

cognition.


However, is there any difference between males and females in relation to reaction time

to the visual task? According to Torres (as cited by Bennett , 2011), males usually outperform

females in areas of spatial ability and mechanical reasoning and females were good in verbal

ability and perceptual speed. Another study (as cited by Bannett (2011) which was conducted by

Roalf, Lowery & Turetsky, shows that males perform equally fast compared to female when they

were asked to find a large letter in stimuli that consist of large and small letter.

Jain et.all (2015) in their research on reaction time of different genders in which the

participants were asked to respond when the target stimulus appears on the screen or beep tone

were presented also suggested that male have faster reaction time compared to female in both

auditory and visual stimuli.

As there are enormous studies that have been conducted on visual search task and

reaction time, previous studies have put much consideration on reaction time and visual search

task in general thus lead to the lack of attention on the specific studies on the reaction time in

visual search task based on gender differences especially among university students. Therefore

the present study aimed to fix the research gap by exploring the reaction time of visual search

task between male and female among IIUM students, with age ranged between 19 to 25 years

old. It is hypothesized that male participants react faster than female in the visual search task.

Method

Participants

A total of 30 healthy, right handed and Malaysian undergraduate

students of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (N = 30) were

randomly selected as the participants for this experiment. The participants


were equally consist of 15 male and 15 female students whose current level

of studies are level 1 to level 4 with age ranged from 19 to 25 years old.

Materials

Materials used consist of a laptop which was used for power point

presentation to show to the participants the visual search slide, a pen and

datasheet for the researcher to record the time taken by each of the

participant to respond to the task, and a stopwatch as a timer to record the

reaction time.

Procedure

The design used in this experiment is between group designs whereby

the 30 participants were equally divided into two groups, male and female.

The study was conducted in the psychology experimental lab. Participants

were given inform consent for the approval of their willingness to involve in

this study at an initial meeting. Each consent form contained an assigned

identification number and brief information about the experiment. Next,

participants were given an instruction about the visual search task.

Participants were asked to look at the power point presentation of visual

search task provided by the instructor (as illustrated in Appendix B) and were

required to look for the target letters on the slideshow. Next, participants

were asked to say “YES” loudly once they found the items. Before the

experiment begins, participants were requested to adjust their seat so that

they can see the slide clearly and comfortably. Once the participants were


ready, the researcher started to show the visual search slide. The time taken

for the participants to respond to the visual search task was recorded for

three trials. Finally, participants were given token of appreciation for their

willingness to participate in the experiment.

Result

An independent sample t-test was conducted to measure reaction time between male and

female groups in visual search task. The mean for reaction time for Male group is (M=9.361,

SD=3.142) while for Female group, the mean is (M=10.337, SD=4.849) with a mean difference

of 0.9766. The test shows that there is no significant difference between time taken for male

group and female group, t (28) = -.655, p= .518. Therefore the reaction time in visual search task

for males and females groups are similar, thus accept the null hypothesis.

The average time taken for Male group to respond to visual search task in trial A (M =

4.433, SD = 2.262) is faster than female group (M = 5.383, SD = 3.923) with a mean difference

0.950. The t-test conducted show no significant difference between the male and female group, t

(28) = -.812, p = .423. Since, there is no difference between two groups, the null hypothesis is

accepted. For trial B, the mean for Male group (M = 1.859, SD = 0.688) is faster than female

group (M = 1.955, SD = 1.063) with a mean difference of 0.096. The t-test conducted show no

significant difference between the male and female group, t (28) = -.294, p= .771. Since, there is

no difference between two groups, the null hypothesis is accepted.

The average time taken for female group in Trial C (M = 1.125, SD = 0.420) is faster than

Male group (M = 1.340, SD = 0.722) with a mean difference of 0.215. The t-test conducted show

no significant difference between the male and female group, t (28) = .998, p= .327. Since, there


is no difference between two groups, the null hypothesis accepted. Lastly, in trial D, the average

time taken for female group in Trial D (M = 1.873, SD = 1.395) is slower than Male group (M =

1.727, SD = 0.799) with a mean difference of 0.146. The t-test conducted show no significant

difference between the male and female group, t (28) = -.352, p= .728. Since, there is no

difference between two groups, the null hypothesis is accepted.

All results have been systematically transferred from SPSS output to the new table as

presented in appendix A.

Discussion

The purpose of the present study is to compare the reaction time on visual search task

between male and female. Researcher predicted that male will take less time compared to female

in respond to the visual search task. The result reveals there is no significant difference of the

reaction time between male group and female group in the visual search task, therefore reject the

initial hypothesis. It can be concluded that the reaction time in both male and female participants

in visual search task is similar, thus failed to reject the null hypothesis.

In relation to the result obtained, it was found that some of the male participants were

extremely tired based on the received informed consent letter. According to Apoorvagiri, &

Nagananda, (2013), mental distress caused by increase in workload may lead to negative impact

in reaction time. As the experiment was conducted at 11.30 a.m, most participants had to attend

several classes as early at 8.30 a.m. This may lead to the feeling of exhausted which could prime

to distress.

Based on the overall result, the mean for male participants is quite higher than female,

even though the difference is not significant. As discussed by Jain et.all (2013), the difference in


reaction time between male and female is due to the interval between the presentation of the

stimulus and the beginning of muscle contraction. It is reported that motor responses in males

are comparatively stronger than females, thus explained the reason why males react faster than

females for visual stimuli.

In Trial C, it was recorded that the average time taken for female participants were faster

than male participants. This may be due to the changed of letter “M” in the previous two trials to

letter “Q” in the next two trials. However, in Trial D, males managed to get back on track in

leading females participants in term of reaction time. The changes in reaction time can be best

explained by the work of Theeuwes et al. (as cited by Moher et.all, 2013), which explained that

participants responded more quickly when the identity of the target letter was repeated than when

it was not and if the items were placed constantly in the task, it will make it easier to the observer

to find the target. Moreover, a research done by Brian (2013) also indicated that the attentional

selection is influenced by physical stimulus salience. Thus, the reaction time in visual search task

can be slowed down by the presence of a physically salient non target.

Another brief explanation to described the above phenomena can be best understood in

the work done by Treisman (as cited by Kristjansson & Campana, 2010) which indicated that

human perceptions were influenced by what they seen in the past and this help them to find the

targets as they familiar with it. In present study, male participants took longer time in the visual

search task compared to female participants may be due to the perceptions that they hold in

previous two trials, which the target was letter “M”, thus lead them to mistakenly look again for

letter “M” in Trial C, whereas the target should be letter “Q”. These effects were known as

perceptual priming in which human possess implicit memory that strongly influences how they

allocate their visual attention.


In addition, if the target feature or the spatial position were similar between trials, this

will result in better performance compared to the changes of feature from trial to trial. Thus, it

suggests that priming patterns reflect the selection through the operation of visual attention

(Kristjansson & Campana, 2010). This claim provides us better understanding on the reason why

male participants had faster reaction time in Trial D which is due to the similar target feature in

the previous trial.

Other limitations found in the present study may be due to the static position of the

distractor and therefore participant easily found the target items. The arrangement of target letter

to be discovered in all four slide are uniformed and the pattern can be easily guessed thus making

the participant spotted the intended letter earlier than expected. To amend this, the researcher has

to make sure that the letter to be spotted have to be in different places for each slide, for which

the position of the distractors can be in scattered in all trials as well as the target item.

Secondly, researcher cannot verify whether the participant truly found the target items or

the participants just simply responded “YES”. To encounter this barrier, researcher can ask the

participant to point out their finger to the target item. Next, there were some participants who

willingly to participate in the experiment even though they were extremely exhausted. It can be

suggested that to improve the reaction time of the participant, researchers should look for

participant whom are not in a dire situation or those who are having emotional instability.

Healthy participants should comprises both physically and mentally. Besides that, some student

have a hectic lifestyle than others thus it is better for the future researchers to ensure that the

participants will only be experimented on the day that they are less busy.


References

Apoorvagiri, & Nagananda, M.S., (2013). Mental stress and its implications on reaction time.

International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT), Vol 4(5), 1426-

1430.

Bennett, N., (2011). Sex Differences in Intelligence Areas and Response Time Tasks. Honors

Research Thesis. Ohio State University.

Bleckley M. K., Jeffrey L.F., Randall W. E., (2014). Working memory capacity accounts for the

ability to switch between object-based and location-based allocation of visual attention.

Journal of Memory & Cognition, 43 (3), 379-388

Brian A. A., (2013) A value-driven mechanism of attentional selection. Journal of Vision

13(3):7, 1–16.

Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology. (3rd Ed.). US : Cengage Learning for

International Students. 3rd Edition.


Jain, A., Bansal, R., Kumar, A., & Singh, KD (2015). A comparative study of visual and

auditory reaction times on the basis of gender and physical activity levels of medical first

year students. Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research. 5(2): 124–127.

Johnson, A.L., (2013). Laboratory Report: Reaction Times for Detection of Objects in Two

Visual Search Tasks. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th

Edition. 6-12.

Kieras, D. (2010). Modeling Visual Search of Displays of Many Objects: The Role of

Differential Acuity and Fixation Memory. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Department, University of Michigan. 127-132.

Kiss, M., Grubert, A., Petersen, A., & Eimer, M., (2012). Attentional Capture by

Salient Distractors during Visual Search Is Determined by Temporal Task

Demands. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 24(3):749-59.

Kristjansson, A., & campana, G., (2010). Where perception meets memory: A review of

repetition priming in visual search tasks. Journal of Attention, Perception and

Psychophysics. Vol. 72(1), 5-18.

Moher, J., Brandon, K. A., & Howard, E.E., (2013) Detection is unaffected by the deployment of

focal attention. Journal of Frontiers in Psychology. Vol 4 (284), 1-10.

Nicholas, J. C., Katharine, A. B., and Yuko, M., (2013). Speed isn't everything: complex

processing speed measures mask individual differences and developmental changes in

executive control. Journal of Developmental Science, Vol 16(2), 269-286.


Suchow, Jordan, W., Pelli, Denis, G., (2013). Learning to detect and combine the features of an

object. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Vol. 110 (2) p. 785-90.

Appendices

Appendix A

Table 1: Mean of reaction time for visual search task by the Male group vs. Female group.

n Mean number of words/pictures correctly recalled(SD)

Standard Deviation (SD)

T p-value

Male Group 15 9.361 3.143 -.655 0.518Female Group

15 10.337 4.849

Total (n) 30

Table 2: Mean of reaction time for Trial A, B , C and D in visual search task by the Male group vs Female group.

n Male Group Female Group t p-valueMean Trial A (SD)

30 4.433 5.383 -.812

-.294

.423

.771Mean Trial B(SD )

30 1.859 1.955

Mean Trial C(SD)

30 1.340 1.125 .998 .327

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/long/110/2/785

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/long/110/2/785


Mean Trial D(SD)

30 1.727 1.873 -.352 .728

Appendix B

visual search task report

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