# Framing the area for avoiding visual interference and optimizing visual search in adolescents and adults

Sabrina Bouhassoun, Christian Gerlach, Grégoire Borst, Nicolas Poirel

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## To cite this version:

Sabrina Bouhassoun, Christian Gerlach, Grégoire Borst, Nicolas Poirel. Framing the area for avoiding visual interference and optimizing visual search in adolescents and adults. FLUX, Sep 2022, Paris, France. . hal-04043209

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# FRAMING THE AREA FOR AVOIDING VISUAL INTERFERENCE AND
OPTIMIZING VISUAL SEARCH IN ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS

Sabrina Bouhassoun<sup>a,b,c</sup>, Christian Gerlach<sup>c</sup>, Grégoire Borst<sup>a,d</sup>, Nicolas Poirel<sup>a,b,d</sup>

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Université
Paris Cité

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LaPsyDÉ

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Cyceron

PROGRAMME D'INGÉNÉRATRICE BIOMÉDICA

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## BACKGROUND

### Visual distractions as a key factor during visual search

Because of our limited attentional capacity (Desimone & Duncan, 1995), searching for relevant information frequently induces attentional competition between relevant and distracting information.

Handling with visual distractors plays a key role during effective visual search and depends, at least in part, on the target and distractors attributes (e.g., Duncan & Humphreys, 1989).

Ignoring visual distractors is critical to ensure optimal working memory performance through lifespan (e.g., Zanto & Gazzaley, 2009).

The use of compound stimuli has proven helpful in teasing apart the effects of global and local properties of visual stimuli on both object recognition (Gerlach & Poirel, 2018) and visual search tasks (Kimchi et al., 2005).

Searching for details in our visual environment frequently requires cognitive resources (Poirel et al., 2014; see also Navon, 2003; Poirel et al., 2008).

During visual search task, participants require more time to identify a target at the local level as the number of distractors increases (e.g., Krakowski et al., 2015).

## AIMS OF THE STUDY

We investigated the developmental impact of a frame that delimits a portion of a screen during visual search, and how the frame can prevent the processing of irrelevant stimuli located outside of it during a demanding detail-local oriented attentional task

## METHODS

### Target :

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Local-oriented trial

Inside-frame and outside-frame distractor conditions

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### Sample

- **Adolescents**: n=41 (M = 12.4 years, SD = 0.6) with normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity.

- Frame group : n=21 (M= 12.6 years, SD = 0.5)

- No-frame group : n=20 (M= 12.3 years, SD = 0.7)

- **Adults**:

- Frame group : n=46 (M = 22.5 years, SD = 5.0) with normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity.

**Stimuli** All the stimuli were hierarchical Navon-like figures (Navon, 1977). Target stimuli contained a square at the target level (local or global level) and circles at the irrelevant level

**Frame group procedure** The frame appeared at one of five possible positions on the screen (upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left, or center)

- Target-present trials (50%) : The target was located inside a gray frame with one or more inside and outside distractors.

- Target-absent trials (50%) : Trials were matched with each target-present trial by replacing the target stimulus with a non-target.

**No-frame group procedure:** The exact same items were used, except that the frame was absent.

## RESULTS

### ADOLESCENTS :

There was a significant target level x group x number of outside-frame distractor interaction effect ($p$<.001, $\eta_p^2$ =.64).

Frame group:

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VS.

No-frame group:

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The RTs **were not affected by the increasing of outside-frame distractors** during the local visual search task.

The RTs **were affected by the increasing number of distractors** during local target processing (all $p$<.001).

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### ADULTS :

There was no main effect of the number of outside-frame distractors ($p$=.246) and non significant target level x number of outside-frame distractors interaction x trials interaction ($p$=.351), reflecting the lack of influence of the outside-frame distractors on RTs when searching for a target (present or absent-target) at both the global and local levels.

### Developmental trajectory of the effect of physical framing :

Adults were faster during the local visual search task with the frame compared to adolescents ($p$<.001, $\eta_p^2$ =.62).

There was non-significant interaction with age group (adolescents ; adults)(all $p$'s>.10).

## DISCUSSION

These results suggest that a frame presented on a visual display **can prevent attentional resources from being caught by irrelevant stimuli presented outside of the frame** (Bouhassoun et al., 2021).

The present results suggest that:

(1) Using a frame that delimits a topographical visual area is a concrete and efficient approach for **optimizing the allocation of attention during visual search in both middle-school adolescents and adults**.

(2) This effect of physical framing on visual search performance is found in both adults and adolescents, although adults are faster, which probably reflects a better executive control with age related to the maturation of the prefrontal cortex (e.g., Gogtay et al., 2004).

Our findings also provide evidence that **local details processing can be improved without modifying the structure of the stimulus** (Bouhassoun et al., 2021). These findings afford a **better understanding of the deployment of attention during visual search and hold implications for daily real-world situations** such as academic/learning situations that require visual attention to be maintained over long periods of time.

## TAKE HOME MESSAGE

When a frame delimits a restricted topographical visual area, it refrains the influence of an increasing number of outside-frame distractors for both adolescents and adults.

## REFERENCES

Bouhassoun, S., Gerlach, C.,
Borst, G., & Poirel, N. (2021).
Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology.

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Desimone, R., & Duncan, J. (1995). *Annual Review of Neuroscience*.
Duncan, J., & Humphreys, G. W. (1989). *Psychological Review*.
Gerlach, C., & Poirel, N. (2018). *Scientific Reports*.
Gogtay, N. et al., (2004). *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*.

Krakowski, C. S., Borst, G., Pineau, A., Houdé, O., & Poirel, N. (2015). *Acta Psychologica*.
Navon, D. (2003). *Acta Psychologica*.
Poirel, N., Pineau, A., & Mellet, E. (2008). *Acta Psychologica*.
Poirel, N., Krakowski, C. S., Sayah, S., Pineau, A., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2014). *Experimental Psychology*.
Zanto, T. P., & Gazzaley, A. (2009). *Journal of Neuroscience*.

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brina.bouhassoun@gmail.com

Funding Acknowledgments: This work was supported by a grant from Hamelin Group and the National Association for Research in Technology [grant number 2019/0407].

<footnote><sup>a</sup> LaPsyDÉ, UMR CNRS 8240, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>b</sup> GIP Cyceron, Caen, France</footnote>

<footnote><sup>c</sup> Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark</footnote>

<footnote><sup>d</sup> Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Paris, France</footnote>