Visual skills in airport-security screening

Jason S. McCarley; Arthur F. Kramer; Christopher D. Wickens; Eric D. Vidoni; Walter R. Boot

doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00673.x

Visual skills in airport-security screening

Jason S. McCarley, Arthur F. Kramer, Christopher D. Wickens, Eric D. Vidoni, Walter R. Boot

Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

An experiment examined visual performance in a simulated luggage-screening task. Observers participated in five sessions of a task requiring them to search for knives hidden in x-ray images of cluttered bags. Sensitivity and response times improved reliably as a result of practice. Eye movement data revealed that sensitivity increases were produced entirely by changes in observers' ability to recognize target objects, and not by changes in the effectiveness of visual scanning. Moreover, recognition skills were in part stimulus-specific, such that performance was degraded by the introduction of unfamiliar target objects. Implications for screener training are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	302-306
Number of pages	5
Journal	Psychological Science
Volume	15
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00673.x
State	Published - May 2004

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Psychology

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10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00673.x

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title = "Visual skills in airport-security screening",

abstract = "An experiment examined visual performance in a simulated luggage-screening task. Observers participated in five sessions of a task requiring them to search for knives hidden in x-ray images of cluttered bags. Sensitivity and response times improved reliably as a result of practice. Eye movement data revealed that sensitivity increases were produced entirely by changes in observers' ability to recognize target objects, and not by changes in the effectiveness of visual scanning. Moreover, recognition skills were in part stimulus-specific, such that performance was degraded by the introduction of unfamiliar target objects. Implications for screener training are discussed.",

author = "McCarley, {Jason S.} and Kramer, {Arthur F.} and Wickens, {Christopher D.} and Vidoni, {Eric D.} and Boot, {Walter R.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to the first three authors and by a Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship to J.S.M. We thank Josh Rubinstein for stimuli and advice, and James Cutting, Calvin Nodine, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft.",

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AU - Boot, Walter R.

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Visual skills in airport-security screening

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