The low-level cognitive processes involved in the visual search of pull-down menus and computer screens, as revealed by cognitive modeling

The field of human-computer interaction does not have an empirically validated model of the low-level perception, decision, and motor processes that people use when they look for an item on a computer screen. The goal of this dissertation is to provide such a model. The approach will be to (1) build computational cognitive models that simulate people accomplishing various specific visual search tasks, such as menu selection tasks, (2) validate the proposed visual search models by using the models to accurately predict how much time people require to accomplish the same visual search tasks, and (3) provide the field of human-computer interaction with some specific practical benefit from these models, such as explanations of how screen layout design guidelines affect the cognitive processes involved in visual search.