Influence of subliminal cueing on visual search tasks

The phenomenon of subliminal perception is studied in psychology and is a compelling idea to unobtrusively yet effectively convey information from the computer to the user. Previous research reports conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of subliminal stimuli in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). These experiments are often reported on application level and are generally hard to reproduce. We aim at isolating the effect to learn how subliminal cueing can become a basis for future GUI widgets. Therefore, we look at specific properties and functions that can be realized using subliminal presentation. In this paper we present our ongoing work towards highlighting parts of the interface to guide the user's gaze. In the conducted study, participants had to look at targets appearing at different screen locations. Using different cueing variants, the participants received hints of the next location. The results indicate that visible cues are effective, whereas the studied simple and non-blinking subliminal cueing method does not improve visual search performance.

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