Modeling the Visual Search of Displays: A Revised ACT-R/PM Model of Icon Search Based on Eye-Tracking and Experimental Data

As computer use becomes more visual in nature, researchers and designers of computer systems would like to gain some insight into the visual search strategies of computer users and the characteristics of displays that encourage the most efficient of these strategies. Icons, which are becoming increasingly prevalent, serve as the focus for a set of studies on the interaction of human vision with computer displays. Previous work (Fleetwood & Byrne, 2002) presented a study of “icon search” and a set of computational models of the task in the ACT-R/PM architecture. Presented here are an eye tracking study, conducted to examine the search strategies of users, and a revised model based on the results of the eye tracking study. The revised model incorporates EMMA (Salvucci, 2001) and changes in search strategy. Findings indicate key environmental influences of icon search (particularly set size and icon quality), evaluate the vision module in the underlying cognitive architecture, and provide some illumination on the strategies of users.