Visual Search Revived: The Slopes Are Not That Slippery: A Reply to Kristjansson (2015)

• Main Author: Jeremy M. Wolfe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2016-05-01
• Series: i-Perception
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669516643244

Kristjansson (2015) suggests that standard research methods in the study of visual search should be “reconsidered.” He reiterates a useful warning against treating reaction time x set size functions as simple metrics that can be used to label search tasks as “serial” or “parallel.” However, I argue that he goes too far with a broad attack on the use of slopes in the study of visual search. Used wisely, slopes do provide us with insight into the mechanisms of visual search.