Research on the Promotion Effect of Emotional Cues on Target Search

Objective—To explore the effect of emotional cues on target search through behavioral experiments, in order to provide experimental evidence for the optimization of man-machine interface. Methods—30 subjects were recruited to participate in this study and the double tasks experimental paradigm of target search was adopted. All subjects were required to complete the main and secondary task quickly and accurately. The correct rate of completing the main task and secondary task and the total reaction time of completing the dual tasks were collected. Two factors mixed design was used in the experiment. The first factor was gender, including two levels of male and female; and the second factor was designed within the subjects, which was designed around the visual coding of secondary task, including three levels of traditional triangle (M1), low intensity negative emotion pattern (M2) and high intensity negative emotion pattern (M3). The data were analyzed by two factor repeated measurement ANOVA in SPSS statistical software package. Results—The response time of subjects to complete dual tasks under three visual coding conditions was R1 > R2 > R3, R2 and R3 were significantly lower than R1 (p MT2 > MT1 for male subjects and MT2 > MT3 > MT1 for female subjects; the secondary task accuracy was ST2 > ST3 > ST1 for male subjects and ST3 > ST2 > ST1 for female subjects. There were statistical differences in the accuracy of dual tasks (p < 0.05). Conclusions—Emotional cues significantly improved the efficiency of visual search, which was manifested in the shortening of response time and the improvement of accuracy.