New research has shown that when you’re searching for something, knowing what NOT to look for can speed up the process reports Daily Mail.
A team of researchers at John Hopkins University has found that the art of ignoring can improve your performance when searching.
Obviously, knowing exactly what you’re looking for will help, but so too will knowing what you’re not looking for, as it will eliminate distracting information.
The experiments were conducted in two parts where participants were asked to search for specific letters on a computer screen.
Find the “T” in the image on the left. Now, find the “T” in the image on the right. Hint: it won’t be red.
One batch of participants was given no clues, while the other was told it would NOT be a certain colour.
Over time, the participants who knew what not to look for improved their search capabilities.
“Individuals who explicitly ignore distracting information improve their visual search performance, a critical skill for professional searchers, like radiologists and airport baggage screeners,” said Corbin A. Cunningham, lead author and a graduate student in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences’ Attention and Perception Lab.
“This work has the potential to help occupations that rely on visual search by informing future training programs.”
