The effects of presentation method and information density on visual search ability and working memory load

This study investigates the effects of successive and simultaneous information presentation methods on learner's visual search ability and working memory load for different information densities. Since the processing of information in the brain depends on the capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM), the limited information processing capacity of learners may affect the visual search ability and working memory load differently for successive and simultaneous presentations. A change-detection experiment was conducted in this research to analyze visual search ability and working memory load. Two 4 x 4 dot arrays with three information densities were designed for the two presentation methods to test twenty-two participants. The results of the study indicated significant differences between the visual search abilities and the working memory loads for the two types of presentations at higher levels of information densities. Furthermore, significant differences were identified between visual search abilities for different information densities, due to the limited capacity of VSTM. The correlations of visual search ability and working memory load showed that the attention of the learners with higher visual search ability and lower working memory loads would perform better than the learners with lower visual search ability and higher working memory load. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.