Strategic Attention Guidance: The Impact of Dual and Single Cues in Wide Field of View Searches

Visual search tasks occur in real-world situations, like soldiers in the battlefield identifying hostile targets, where information may fall outside the immediate field of view (FOV). This experiment assessed the effectiveness of attention cues in a wide FOV search task, comparing single versus dual cues that were either perfectly or imperfectly reliable. Participants searched for routine targets and an occasional high-priority target. Results showed that perfect cues improved performance more than an unaided search, with dual cues outperforming single cues. However, when cues were imperfect and automation failed, performance suffered. The notable increase in errors during automation failures suggests a level of automation bias, which was greatest with the dual cues. These findings highlight the benefits of dual cues in wide FOV scenes where critical information may be outside the immediate FOV. However, in high-stakes situations, like detecting explosive devices, caution is advised when cues are imperfect.