Individual differences in visual search: A systematic review of the link between visual search performance and traits or abilities

Wagner J; Zurlo A; Rusconi E

Individual differences in visual search: A systematic review of the link between visual search performance and traits or abilities

dc.citation.issue	September 2024
dc.citation.volume	178
dc.contributor.author	Wagner J
dc.contributor.author	Zurlo A
dc.contributor.author	Rusconi E
dc.coverage.spatial	Italy
dc.date.accessioned	2024-12-04T19:40:08Z
dc.date.available	2024-12-04T19:40:08Z
dc.date.issued	2024-09
dc.description.abstract	Visual search (VS) comprises a class of tasks that we typically perform several times during a day and requires intentionally scanning (with or without moving the eyes) the environment for a specific target (be it an object or a feature) among distractor stimuli. Experimental research in lab-based or real-world settings has offered insight into its underlying neurocognitive mechanisms from a nomothetic point of view. A lesser-known but rapidly growing body of quasi-experimental and correlational research has explored the link between individual differences and VS performance. This combines different research traditions and covers a wide range of individual differences in studies deploying a vast array of VS tasks. As such, it is a challenge to determine whether any associations highlighted in single studies are robust when considering the wider literature. However, clarifying such relationships systematically and comprehensively would help build more accurate models of VS, and it would highlight promising directions for future research. This systematic review provides an up to date and comprehensive synthesis of the existing literature investigating associations between common indices of performance in VS tasks and measures of individual differences mapped onto four categories of cognitive abilities (short-term working memory, fluid reasoning, visual processing and processing speed) and seven categories of traits (Big Five traits, trait anxiety and autistic traits). Consistent associations for both traits (in particular, conscientiousness, autistic traits and trait anxiety - the latter limited to emotional stimuli) and cognitive abilities (particularly visual processing) were identified. Overall, however, informativeness of future studies would benefit from checking and reporting the reliability of all measurement tools, applying multiplicity correction, using complementary techniques, study preregistration and testing why, rather than only if, a robust relation between certain individual differences and VS performance exists.
dc.description.confidential	false
dc.format.pagination	51-90
dc.identifier.author-url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38970898
dc.identifier.citation	Wagner J, Zurlo A, Rusconi E. (2024). Individual differences in visual search: A systematic review of the link between visual search performance and traits or abilities.. Cortex. 178. September 2024. (pp. 51-90).
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.cortex.2024.05.020
dc.identifier.eissn	1973-8102
dc.identifier.elements-type	journal-article
dc.identifier.issn	0010-9452
dc.identifier.pii	S0010-9452(24)00173-4
dc.identifier.uri	https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/72197
dc.language	eng
dc.publisher	Elsevier Ltd, London, United Kingdom
dc.publisher.uri	https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945224001734
dc.relation.isPartOf	Cortex
dc.rights	(c) The author/s	en
dc.rights.license	CC BY	en
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Cognitive abilities
dc.subject	Personality
dc.subject	Systematic review
dc.subject	Traits
dc.subject	Visual search
dc.subject	Humans
dc.subject	Individuality
dc.subject	Visual Perception
dc.subject	Cognition
dc.subject	Memory, Short-Term
dc.subject	Attention
dc.subject	Reaction Time
dc.subject	Psychomotor Performance
dc.title	Individual differences in visual search: A systematic review of the link between visual search performance and traits or abilities
dc.type	Journal article
pubs.elements-id	489614
pubs.organisational-group	Other