Visual search and background complexity: Does the forest hide the trees?

This research addresses the issue of cognitive complexity or cognitive load in a visual search task. Eye tracking methodology was employed to track users' eye fixations and scan patterns while counting targets in a visual array. Background complexity and number of targets were varied. Results showed that there was a positive relationship between fixation duration and background complexity and between fixation duration and number of targets in the array. Fixation duration and saccade predicted background complexity and number of targets for simple and systematically varied arrays. These results indicate that eye-tracking data may contribute effectively to the development of user models in crisis management systems.