Selectively maintaining an object's feature in visual working memory: A comparison between highly discriminable and fine-grained features.

Selectively maintaining information is an essential function of visual working memory (VWM). Recent VWM studies have mainly focused on selective maintenance of objects, leaving the mechanisms of selectively maintaining an object's feature in VWM unknown. Based on the interactive model of perception and VWM, we hypothesized that there are distinct selective maintenance mechanisms for objects containing fine-grained features versus objects containing highly discriminable features. To test this hypothesis, we first required participants to memorize a dual-feature object (colored simple shapes vs. colored polygons), and informed them about the target feature via a retro-cue. Then a visual search task was added to examine the fate of the irrelevant feature. The selective maintenance of an object's feature predicted that the irrelevant feature should be removed from the active state of VWM and should not capture attention when presented as a distractor in the visual search task. We found that irrelevant simple shapes impaired performance in the visual search task (Experiment 1). However, irrelevant polygons did not affect visual search performance (Experiment 2), and this could not be explained by decay of polygons (Experiment 3) or by polygons not capturing attention (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that VWM adopts dissociable mechanisms to selectively maintain an object's feature, depending on the feature's perceptual characteristics.

Target switch costs in visual search arise during the preparatory activation of target templates.

Prior research on task switching has shown that the reconfiguration of stimulus-response mappings across trials is associated with behavioral switch costs. Here, we investigated the effects of switching representations of target-defining features in visual search (attentional templates). Participants searched for one of two color-defined target objects that changed predictably every two trials (Experiment 1) or every four trials (Experiment 2). Substantial costs were observed for search performance on target switch relative to target repeat trials. Preparatory target template activation processes were tracked by measuring N2pc components (indicative of attentional capture) to a rapid series of task-irrelevant color singleton probes that appeared during the interval between search displays, and either matched the currently relevant or the other target color. N2pcs to relevant target color probes emerged from 800 ms before search display onset on target repetition trials, reflecting the activation of a corresponding color template. Crucially, probe N2pcs only emerged immediately before target onset on target switch trials, indicating that preparatory template activation was strongly delayed. In contrast, irrelevant color singleton probes did not trigger N2pcs on either repeat or switch trials, suggesting the absence of any target template inertia across trials. These results show that switching the identity of search targets delays preparatory target template activation and impairs subsequent attentional guidance processes. They suggest that performance costs on switch versus repeat trials are associated with differences in the time course of task preparation.

Investigating an effort avoidance account of attentional strategy choice.

People often choose suboptimal attentional control strategies during visual search. This has been at least partially attributed to the avoidance of the cognitive effort associated with the optimal strategy, but aspects of the task triggering such avoidance remain unclear. Here, we attempted to measure effort avoidance of an isolated task component to assess whether this component might drive suboptimal behavior. We adopted a modified version of the Adaptive Choice Visual Search (ACVS), a task designed to measure people's visual search strategies. To perform optimally, participants must make a numerosity judgment-estimating and comparing two color sets-before they can advantageously search through the less numerous of the two. If participants skip the numerosity judgment step, they can still perform accurately, albeit substantially more slowly. To study whether effort associated with performing the optional numerosity judgment could be an obstacle to optimal performance, we created a variant of the demand selection task to quantify the avoidance of numerosity judgment effort. Results revealed a robust avoidance of the numerosity judgment, offering a potential explanation for why individuals choose suboptimal strategies in the ACVS task. Nevertheless, we did not find a significant relationship between individual numerosity judgment avoidance and ACVS optimality, and we discussed potential reasons for this lack of an observed relationship. Altogether, our results showed that the effort avoidance for specific subcomponents of a visual search task can be probed and linked to overall strategy choices.

Distractor similarity and category variability effects in search.

Categorical search involves looking for objects based on category information from long-term memory. Previous research has shown that search efficiency in categorical search is influenced by target/distractor similarity and category variability (i.e., heterogeneity). However, the interaction between these factors and their impact on different subprocesses of search remains unclear. This study examined the effects of target/distractor similarity and category variability on processes of categorical search. Using multidimensional scaling, we manipulated target/distractor similarity and measured category variability for target categories that participants searched for. Eye-tracking data were collected to examine attentional guidance and target verification. The results demonstrated that the effect of category variability on response times (RTs) was dependent on the level of target/distractor similarity. Specifically, when distractors were highly similar to target categories, there was a negative relation between RTs and variability, with low variability categories producing longer RTs than higher variability categories. Surprisingly, this trend was only present in the eye-tracking measures of target verification but not attentional guidance. Our results suggest that searchers more effectively guide attention to low-variability categories compared to high-variability categories, regardless of the degree of similarity between targets and distractors. However, low category variability interferes with target match decisions when distractors are highly similar to the category, thus the advantage that low category variability provides to searchers is not equal across processes of search.

ATLAS: Mapping ATtention's Location And Size to probe five modes of serial and parallel search.

Conventional visual search tasks do not address attention directly and their core manipulation of 'set size' - the number of displayed items - introduces stimulus confounds that hinder interpretation. However, alternative approaches have not been widely adopted, perhaps reflecting their complexity, assumptions, or indirect attention-sampling. Here, a new procedure, the ATtention Location And Size ('ATLAS') task used probe displays to track attention's location, breadth, and guidance during search. Though most probe displays comprised six items, participants reported only the single item they judged themselves to have perceived most clearly - indexing the attention 'peak'. By sampling peaks across variable 'choice sets', the size and position of the attention window during search was profiled. These indices appeared to distinguish narrow- from broad attention, signalled attention to pairs of items where it arose and tracked evolving attention-guidance over time. ATLAS is designed to discriminate five key search modes: serial-unguided, sequential-guided, unguided attention to 'clumps' with local guidance, and broad parallel-attention with or without guidance. This initial investigation used only an example set of highly regular stimuli, but its broader potential should be investigated.

Invariant contexts reduce response time variability in visual search in an age-specific way: A comparison of children, teenagers, and adults.

Contextual cueing is a phenomenon in which repeatedly encountered arrays of items can enhance the visual search for a target item. This is widely attributed to attentional guidance driven by contextual memory acquired during visual search. Some studies suggest that children may have an immature ability to use contextual cues compared to adults, while others argue that contextual learning capacity is similar across ages. To test the development of context-guided attention, this study compared contextual cueing effects among three age groups: adults (aged 18-33 years, N = 32), teenagers (aged 15-17 years, N = 41), and younger children (aged 8-9 years, N = 43). Moreover, this study introduced a measure of response time variability that tracks fluctuations in response time throughout the experiment, in addition to the conventional analysis of response times. The results showed that all age groups demonstrated significantly faster responses in repeated than non-repeated search contexts. Notably, adults and teenagers exhibited smaller response time variability in repeated contexts than in non-repeated ones, while younger children did not. This implies that children are less efficient at consolidating contextual information into a stable memory representation, which may lead to less stable attentional guidance during visual search.

Greater benefits of deep learning-based computer-aided detection systems for finding small signals in 3D volumetric medical images.

Purpose: Radiologists are tasked with visually scrutinizing large amounts of data produced by 3D volumetric imaging modalities. Small signals can go unnoticed during the 3D search because they are hard to detect in the visual periphery. Recent advances in machine learning and computer vision have led to effective computer-aided detection (CADe) support systems with the potential to mitigate perceptual errors. Approach: Sixteen nonexpert observers searched through digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) phantoms and single cross-sectional slices of the DBT phantoms. The 3D/2D searches occurred with and without a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based CADe support system. The model provided observers with bounding boxes superimposed on the image stimuli while they looked for a small microcalcification signal and a large mass signal. Eye gaze positions were recorded and correlated with changes in the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Results: The CNN-CADe improved the 3D search for the small microcalcification signal ( Δ AUC = 0.098 , p = 0.0002 ) and the 2D search for the large mass signal ( Δ AUC = 0.076 , p = 0.002 ). The CNN-CADe benefit in 3D for the small signal was markedly greater than in 2D ( Δ Δ AUC = 0.066 , p = 0.035 ). Analysis of individual differences suggests that those who explored the least with eye movements benefited the most from the CNN-CADe ( r = - 0.528 , p = 0.036 ). However, for the large signal, the 2D benefit was not significantly greater than the 3D benefit ( Δ Δ AUC = 0.033 , p = 0.133 ). Conclusion: The CNN-CADe brings unique performance benefits to the 3D (versus 2D) search of small signals by reducing errors caused by the underexploration of the volumetric data.

Individual differences in visual search: A systematic review of the link between visual search performance and traits or abilities.

Visual search (VS) comprises a class of tasks that we typically perform several times during a day and requires intentionally scanning (with or without moving the eyes) the environment for a specific target (be it an object or a feature) among distractor stimuli. Experimental research in lab-based or real-world settings has offered insight into its underlying neurocognitive mechanisms from a nomothetic point of view. A lesser-known but rapidly growing body of quasi-experimental and correlational research has explored the link between individual differences and VS performance. This combines different research traditions and covers a wide range of individual differences in studies deploying a vast array of VS tasks. As such, it is a challenge to determine whether any associations highlighted in single studies are robust when considering the wider literature. However, clarifying such relationships systematically and comprehensively would help build more accurate models of VS, and it would highlight promising directions for future research. This systematic review provides an up to date and comprehensive synthesis of the existing literature investigating associations between common indices of performance in VS tasks and measures of individual differences mapped onto four categories of cognitive abilities (short-term working memory, fluid reasoning, visual processing and processing speed) and seven categories of traits (Big Five traits, trait anxiety and autistic traits). Consistent associations for both traits (in particular, conscientiousness, autistic traits and trait anxiety - the latter limited to emotional stimuli) and cognitive abilities (particularly visual processing) were identified. Overall, however, informativeness of future studies would benefit from checking and reporting the reliability of all measurement tools, applying multiplicity correction, using complementary techniques, study preregistration and testing why, rather than only if, a robust relation between certain individual differences and VS performance exists.

Skills and cautiousness predict performance in difficult search.

People differ in how well they search. What are the factors that might contribute to this variability? We tested the contribution of two cognitive abilities: visual working memory (VWM) capacity and object recognition ability. Participants completed three tasks: a difficult inefficient visual search task, where they searched for a target letter T among skewed L distractors; a VWM task, where they memorized a color array and then identified whether a probed color belonged to the previous array; and the Novel Object Memory Test (NOMT), where they learnt complex novel objects and then identified them amongst objects that closely resembled them. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that there are two latent factors that explain the shared variance among these three tasks: a factor indicative of the level of caution participants exercised during the challenging visual search task, and a factor representing their visual cognitive abilities. People who score high on the search cautiousness tend to perform a more accurate but slower search. People who score high on the visual cognitive ability factor tend to have a higher VWM capacity, a better object recognition ability, and a faster search speed. The results reflect two points: (1) Visual search tasks share components with visual working memory and object recognition tasks. (2) Search performance is influenced not only by the search display's properties but also by individual predispositions such as caution and general visual abilities. This study introduces new factors for consideration when interpreting variations in visual search behaviors.

The potential role of robust face representations learned within families when searching for one's child in a crowd.

Own child's face is one of the most socially salient stimuli for parents, and a faster search for it than for other children's faces may help provide warmer and more sensitive care. However, it has not been experimentally examined whether parents find their child's face faster. In addition, although own child's face is specially processed, the search time for own child's face may be similar to that for other socially salient stimuli, such as own or spouse's faces. This study tested these possibilities using a visual search paradigm. Participants (parents) searched for their child's, own, spouse's, other child's, same-sex adult's, or opposite-sex adult's faces as search targets. Our findings indicate that both mothers and fathers identified their child's face more quickly than other children's faces. Similarly, parents found their own and spouse's faces more quickly than other adults' faces. Moreover, the search time for family members' faces increased with the number of faces on the search display, suggesting an attentional serial search. These results suggest that robust face representations learned within families and close relationships can support reduced search times for family members' faces.

A comparison of perceptual-cognitive skills in expert and non-expert sports officials: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to systematically compare and assess the differences in perceptual-cognitive skills between expert and non-expert sports officials, and further explore the potential differences caused by different types of sports officials, in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the perceptual-cognitive skills of sports officials. Methods: Relevant literature published before 31 December 2022 was searched in four English databases. Review Manager 5.4 and Stata 12.0 software were used for meta-analysis and bias test. Results: Expert sports officials are significantly more accurate in their decision-making than non-expert sports officials, and exhibit a large amount of effect size (SMD = 1.09; 95%CI: 0.52, 1.66; P < 0.05). Expert sports officials had significantly fewer number of fixations than non-expert sports officials and showed a moderate amount of effect size (SMD = 0.71; 95%CI: 1.25, 0.17; P < 0.05). Expert sports officials' duration of fixation (SMD = 0.23; 95%CI: 0.25, 0.71; P = 0.35) were not significantly different from non-expert sports officials. Discussion: It can be seen that there are differences in the Perceptual-cognitive skills of expert and non-expert sports officials. Decision-making accuracy can serve as an important indicator for distinguishing the perceptual-cognitive skills of expert and non-expert sports officials. Number of fixations can serve as important indicators to differentiate the perceptual-cognitive skills of monitors. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=418594, identifier: CRD42023418594.

In the Eye of the Beholder-Visual Search Behavior in Equestrian Dressage Judges.

This study investigated the visual search behavior of equestrian dressage judges at different expertise levels during the assessment of Grand Prix horse-rider combinations. Twenty judges (11 foundational level, 9 advanced level) participated in the study, with their eye movements recorded using Tobii Fusion Eyetracker as they evaluated video recordings of dressage tests. Fixation metrics, namely Total Duration of Fixation (TDF), Average Duration of Fixation (ADF), and Total Number of Fixations (TNF), were analyzed across four Areas of Interest (AOIs): front, back, rider, and horse's feet. Statistical analysis utilized linear mixed-effects models. Results demonstrated that judges consistently focused more on the front of the horse, with additional differences in fixation duration and frequency based on judge experience and specific movements. Advanced judges focused more on the horses' feet, suggesting they draw meaning from specific areas indicative of performance quality. Conversely, foundational level judges focused more on the rider, reflecting different evaluative priorities at lower levels of the sport. These findings suggest that judges focus on a limited number of highly relevant areas, differing across movements and expertise levels. The study underscores the necessity of understanding both gaze behavior and subsequent interpretations of visual information to increase judging transparency, fairness, and equine welfare.

Atypical local and global biological motion perception in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Perceiving biological motion (BM) is crucial for human survival and social interaction. Many studies have reported impaired BM perception in autism spectrum disorder, which is characterised by deficits in social interaction. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often exhibit similar difficulties in social interaction. However, few studies have investigated BM perception in children with ADHD. Here, we compared differences in the ability to process local kinematic and global configurational cues, two fundamental abilities of BM perception, between typically developing and ADHD children. We further investigated the relationship between BM perception and social interaction skills measured using the Social Responsiveness Scale and examined the contributions of latent factors (e.g. sex, age, attention, and intelligence) to BM perception. The results revealed that children with ADHD exhibited atypical BM perception. Local and global BM processing showed distinct features. Local BM processing ability was related to social interaction skills, whereas global BM processing ability significantly improved with age. Critically, general BM perception (i.e. both local and global BM processing) may be affected by sustained attentional ability in children with ADHD. This relationship was primarily mediated by reasoning intelligence. These findings elucidate atypical BM perception in ADHD and the latent factors related to BM perception. Moreover, this study provides new evidence that BM perception is a hallmark of social cognition and advances our understanding of the potential roles of local and global processing in BM perception and social cognitive disorders.

Activation thresholds, not quitting thresholds, account for the low prevalence effect in dynamic search.

The low-prevalence effect (LPE) is the finding that target detection rates decline as targets become less frequent in a visual search task. A major source of this effect is thought to be that fewer targets result in lower quitting thresholds, i.e., observers respond target-absent after looking at fewer items compared to searches with a higher prevalence of targets. However, a lower quitting threshold does not directly account for an LPE in searches where observers continuously monitor a dynamic display for targets. In these tasks there are no discrete "trials" to which a quitting threshold could be applied. This study examines whether the LPE persists in this type of dynamic search context. Experiment 1 was a 2 (dynamic/static) x 2 (10%/40% prevalence targets) design. Although overall performance was worse in the dynamic task, both tasks showed a similar magnitude LPE. In Experiment 2, we replicated this effect using a task where subjects searched for either of two targets (Ts and Ls). One target appeared infrequently (10%) and the other moderately (40%). Given this method of manipulating prevalence rate, the quitting threshold explanation does not account for the LPE even for static displays. However, replicating Experiment 1, we found an LPE of similar magnitude for both search scenarios, and lower target detection rates with the dynamic displays, demonstrating the LPE is a potential concern for both static and dynamic searches. These findings suggest an activation threshold explanation of the LPE may better account for our observations than the traditional quitting threshold model.

A study on the impact of icon structural features in human-computer interface on visual search efficiency.

This article, from the perspective of structural features, focuses on in-car user interface icons and explores the impact of different icon structural features on visual search efficiency. Initially, we categorised the icons into four groups based on structural features: individual structure icons (ISI), enclosed structure icons (ESI), horizontal structure icons (HSI) and vertical structure icons (VSI). Subsequently, we conducted a visual search experiment with structure as the sole variable, recording participants' behaviours and eye-tracking data. Finally, data analysis was conducted using methods including analysis of variance and logistic regression. The results indicate that differences in icon structural features significantly affect visual search efficiency, showcasing significant intergroup differences. HSI exhibit the highest visual search efficiency, while ESI show the lowest efficiency. ISI have shorter response times but the lowest matching accuracy. VSI only perform better than ESI. These findings hold significant implications for optimising icon design and enhancing visual search efficiency.

Visual search efficiency of icons is crucial for human-computer interaction. We investigated how the structural features of icons influence visual search efficiency. Horizontal icons are most effective, enclosed icons the least. Individual icons are quick but less accurate. Vertical icons outperform enclosed ones. Structural features should be considered in design.

The effect of an odd-one-out visual search task on attentional bias, body size adaptation, and body dissatisfaction.

Body image disturbance is a both a risk factor for, and a symptom of, many eating disorders and refers to the misperception of and dissatisfaction with one's own body. Women with high body dissatisfaction have been shown to direct more attention to low body mass index (BMI) bodies, which results in the overestimation of body size via body size adaptation. Therefore, attention may have a causal role in body image disturbance. We conducted a novel training visual search task with 142 young adult women who we trained to attend to either high or low BMI bodies. We assessed the effects of this training on attention to bodies of different sizes, body size adaptation, and body dissatisfaction. Women trained to attend to low BMI bodies decreased their perceptions of a 'normal' body size via adaptation from pre- to post-training (p < 0.001); however, women trained to attend to high BMI bodies showed no change in their perception of a 'normal' body size. We found no lasting effects of the training on attention to body size or body dissatisfaction; however, our visual search task showed poor internal consistency as a measure of attention. These findings indicate that attention to low BMI bodies may exacerbate body image disturbance in women. However, more reliable measures of attentional are required to confirm this finding.

What is the Role of Spatial Attention in Statistical Learning During Visual Search?

Our ability to learn the regularities embedded in our environment is a fundamental aspect of our cognitive system. Does such statistical learning depend on attention? Research on this topic is scarce and has yielded mixed findings. In this preregistered study, we examined the role of spatial attention in statistical learning, and specifically in learned distractor-location suppression. This phenomenon refers to the finding that during visual search, participants are better at ignoring a salient distractor at a high-probability location than at low-probability locations - a bias persisting long after the probability imbalance has ceased. Participants searched for a shape-singleton target and a color-singleton distractor was sometimes present. During the learning phase, the color-singleton distractor was more likely to appear in the high-probability location than in the low-probability locations. Crucially, we manipulated spatial attention by having the experimental group focus their attention on the target's location in advance of the search display, using a 100%-informative spatial precue, while the control group was presented with a neutral, uninformative cue. During the subsequent test phase, the color-singleton distractor was equally likely to appear at any location and there were no cues. As expected, the results for the neutral-cue group replicated previous findings. Crucially, for the informative-cue group, interference from the distractor was minimal when attention was diverted from it (during learning) and no statistical learning was observed during test. Intertrial priming accounted for the small statistical-learning effect found during learning. These findings show that statistical learning in visual search requires attention.

The impact of clock timing on VDT visual search performance under time constraint.

Introduction: Conducting Visual Display Terminal (VDT) visual search tasks under time constraint has broad applications in fields such as security checks, medical diagnostics, and rescue operations. While excessive time pressure can impair performance, moderate time pressure can motivate individuals to complete tasks and increase productivity. Investigating the positive impact of time pressure on visual search tasks has become a crucial area of study. Clock timing plays a vital role in the visual interface, influencing the perception of time pressure and impacting visual search performance. However, existing research has paid little attention to the induction of time pressure and the impact of clock timing in VDT visual interfaces on visual search performance. Hence, the objective of this study is to investigate the impact of clock timing on VDT visual search performance under time constraint. Methods: The content of the experimental tasks was determined through a pilot experiment. The formal experiment was conducted in two phases over six sessions. Participants were tasked with locating the letter "E" embedded within the distractor letter "F," displayed with a clock area above the interface. The first phase of experiments included conditions of no clock, 4-min clock timing, and 4-min countdown clock timing. In the second phase of the experiment, the clock display method was a countdown clock, with three experiments conducted featuring long time, medium time, and short time. Search speed and accuracy were used as primary performance evaluation metrics to examine the impact of clock timing methods and duration on visual search performance. Twenty-one undergraduate students participated in the formal experiment. Results: In the first phase of experiments, participants demonstrated significantly faster reaction times (RTs) in tasks where a clock display was present compared to tasks without (ANOVA, F(2, 60) = 4.588, P = 0.014). However, there were no significant differences in accuracy rates across different timing conditions (ANOVA, F(2, 60) = 0.146, P = 0.865), and no significant correlation between RTs and accuracy was found (Kendall's R = 0.11, P = 0.914). During the second phase, RTs decreased significantly as time constraints became more stringent (ANOVA, F(2, 60) = 7.564, P < 0.05). Conversely, accuracy rates decreased significantly under shorter time constraints (ANOVA, F(2, 60) = 4.315, P < 0.05), with a negative correlation observed between RTs and accuracy (Kendall's R = 0.220, P < 0.01). Discussion: Compared to conditions without clock displays, having clock displays significantly improved the speed of the visual search task, although the difference in accuracy was not statistically significant. In the context of shorter clock countdown limits, Shorter timing constraints resulted in faster search speeds but also led to reduced accuracy and increased fatigue. Overall, a correlation exists between search speed and accuracy in visual tasks, where higher speed often correlates with lower accuracy. These findings provide valuable insights into clock timing design for visual search interfaces under time pressure.

Eye tracking in digital pathology: A comprehensive literature review.

Eye tracking has been used for decades in attempt to understand the cognitive processes of individuals. From memory access to problem-solving to decision-making, such insight has the potential to improve workflows and the education of students to become experts in relevant fields. Until recently, the traditional use of microscopes in pathology made eye tracking exceptionally difficult. However, the digital revolution of pathology from conventional microscopes to digital whole slide images allows for new research to be conducted and information to be learned with regards to pathologist visual search patterns and learning experiences. This has the promise to make pathology education more efficient and engaging, ultimately creating stronger and more proficient generations of pathologists to come. The goal of this review on eye tracking in pathology is to characterize and compare the visual search patterns of pathologists. The PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched using 'pathology' AND 'eye tracking' synonyms. A total of 22 relevant full-text articles published up to and including 2023 were identified and included in this review. Thematic analysis was conducted to organize each study into one or more of the 10 themes identified to characterize the visual search patterns of pathologists: (1) effect of experience, (2) fixations, (3) zooming, (4) panning, (5) saccades, (6) pupil diameter, (7) interpretation time, (8) strategies, (9) machine learning, and (10) education. Expert pathologists were found to have higher diagnostic accuracy, fewer fixations, and shorter interpretation times than pathologists with less experience. Further, literature on eye tracking in pathology indicates that there are several visual strategies for diagnostic interpretation of digital pathology images, but no evidence of a superior strategy exists. The educational implications of eye tracking in pathology have also been explored but the effect of teaching novices how to search as an expert remains unclear. In this article, the main challenges and prospects of eye tracking in pathology are briefly discussed along with their implications to the field.

Visual search for real-world scenes in patients with Alzheimer's disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

BACKGROUND: Visual attention-related processes that underlie visual search behavior are impaired in both the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), which is considered a risk factor for AD. Although traditional computer-based array tasks have been used to investigate visual search, information on the visual search patterns of AD and MCI patients in real-world environments is limited. AIM: The objective of this study was to evaluate the differences in visual search behaviors among individuals with AD, aMCI, and healthy controls (HCs) in real-world scenes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 92 participants were enrolled, including 28 with AD, 32 with aMCI, and 32 HCs. During the visual search task, participants were instructed to look at a single target object amid distractors, and their eye movements were recorded. RESULTS: The results indicate that patients with AD made more fixations on distractors and fewer fixations on the target, compared to patients with aMCI and HC groups. Additionally, AD patients had longer fixation durations on distractors and spent less time looking at the target than both patients with aMCI and HCs. DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that visual search behavior is impaired in patients with AD and can be distinguished from aMCI and healthy individuals. For future studies, it is important to longitudinally monitor visual search behavior in the progression from aMCI to AD. CONCLUSION: Our study holds significance in elucidating the interplay between impairments in attention, visual processes, and other underlying cognitive processes, which contribute to the functional decline observed in individuals with AD and aMCI.