Effective visual cue for guiding peoples’ attention to important information based on subjective and behavioral measures

This study examined attentional attractiveness and impressions on visual cues for helping people to focus their attention to important information on a display. Two experiments were performed using behavioral (reaction times for visual search) and subjective (Semantic Differential method) measures. In the first experiment, we found two types of cues effectively reduced reaction times for detecting a target, showing these cues attracted observers’ attention. In the second experiment, we found that three factors (‘evaluation’, ‘potency & activity’, and ‘novelty’) affected impressions on visual cues. From the comparison of the results in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, we discuss the relationship between the attentional attractiveness of visual cues and the impressions on them.