Visual Search Task 1

Visual Search Task: Gender Differences in Visual Search Task

Siti Nazirah binti Md Nor

Nur Izzaty binti Mohd Ahzan
Nurul Syahirah binti Mohd Jamel
Abdul Kader Janeelu bin Thajudeen

International Islamic University Malaysia

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Abstract
The present study examined the different in reaction time between males and females in
visual search task. 30 undergraduate students of IIUM, consist of 15 males and 15 females with
age ranged from 19 to 25 years old were divided into two groups according to their gender.
Participants in both group were asked to search a visual image for a particular item and to
respond as quickly as possible once they find the item. The time taken to respond to the visual
task was recorded. It is predicted that male take less time than female to respond to visual task.
The collected data were analyzed using independent sample t-test. The result shows that there is
no significant different between male and female participants in relation to reaction time, thus the
time taken between male and female participants to react to visual task are similar. Visual
perception, different muscle contraction between male and female as well as physical and mental
distress are among the reasons to explain the obtained results.
Keywords: Attention, visual search task, reaction time, gender differences.

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Gender Differences in Visual Search Task
Most of everyday work and activities involve visual search such as looking for missing
keys and finding a friend in crowds. According to Kieras (2010), visual search is the process of
concentrating on the environment to locate the object of interest for further activity. The visual
search requires the ability to concentrate on specific features of the environment which is known
as attention (Goldstein, 2011). Massive studies have been conducted on attention, as there are
lots of unique and special characteristic to be discovered. Visual search is the example of study
that helps investigators to find special features of attention.
LaBerge and Brown (as cited by Bleckley et.all, 2014) stated that there are two general
attention guiding mechanism which could accommodate to find the target which are; i) topdown, and ii) bottom-up activation. Top-down activation encompasses the idea that if observer
know the targets unique feature, this could help them to guide their attention. On the other hand,
bottom-up as mentioned by Treisman (as cited by Suchow et.all, 2013) is when several
distractors share several same features as for example, colour, they would go through some form
of mutual inhibition generate in the corresponding feature map.
As suggested by Apoorvagiri & Nagananda (2013), there are many factors that may
influence the reaction time such as an arousal, age, left or right handed, personality type and the
order of presentation. Nicholas, Katharine & Yuko (2013) added that reaction time, which can
also be understood as the rate at which people process information appears to influence many
aspects of cognition across the lifespan, which explained that the performance of the reaction
time may differs in children compared to adults, due to the change and development of
information in working memory, and decision-making which would lead to processing speed in
cognition.

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However, is there any difference between males and females in relation to reaction time
to the visual task? According to Torres (as cited by Bennett , 2011), males usually outperform
females in areas of spatial ability and mechanical reasoning and females were good in verbal
ability and perceptual speed. Another study (as cited by Bannett (2011) which was conducted by
Roalf, Lowery & Turetsky, shows that males perform equally fast compared to female when they
were asked to find a large letter in stimuli that consist of large and small letter.
Jain et.all (2015) in their research on reaction time of different genders in which the
participants were asked to respond when the target stimulus appears on the screen or beep tone
were presented also suggested that male have faster reaction time compared to female in both
auditory and visual stimuli.
As there are enormous studies that have been conducted on visual search task and
reaction time, previous studies have put much consideration on reaction time and visual search
task in general thus lead to the lack of attention on the specific studies on the reaction time in
visual search task based on gender differences especially among university students. Therefore
the present study aimed to fix the research gap by exploring the reaction time of visual search
task between male and female among IIUM students, with age ranged between 19 to 25 years
old. It is hypothesized that male participants react faster than female in the visual search task.
Method
Participants
A total of 30 healthy, right handed and Malaysian undergraduate
students of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (N = 30) were
randomly selected as the participants for this experiment. The participants

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were equally consist of 15 male and 15 female students whose current level
of studies are level 1 to level 4 with age ranged from 19 to 25 years old.
Materials
Materials used consist of a laptop which was used for power point
presentation to show to the participants the visual search slide, a pen and
datasheet for the researcher to record the time taken by each of the
participant to respond to the task, and a stopwatch as a timer to record the
reaction time.
Procedure
The design used in this experiment is between group designs whereby
the 30 participants were equally divided into two groups, male and female.
The study was conducted in the psychology experimental lab. Participants
were given inform consent for the approval of their willingness to involve in
this study at an initial meeting. Each consent form contained an assigned
identification number and brief information about the experiment. Next,
participants were given an instruction about the visual search task.
Participants were asked to look at the power point presentation of visual
search task provided by the instructor (as illustrated in Appendix B) and were
required to look for the target letters on the slideshow. Next, participants
were asked to say YES loudly once they found the items. Before the
experiment begins, participants were requested to adjust their seat so that
they can see the slide clearly and comfortably. Once the participants were

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ready, the researcher started to show the visual search slide. The time taken
for the participants to respond to the visual search task was recorded for
three trials. Finally, participants were given token of appreciation for their
willingness to participate in the experiment.
Result
An independent sample t-test was conducted to measure reaction time between male and
female groups in visual search task. The mean for reaction time for Male group is (M=9.361,
SD=3.142) while for Female group, the mean is (M=10.337, SD=4.849) with a mean difference
of 0.9766. The test shows that there is no significant difference between time taken for male
group and female group, t (28) = -.655, p= .518. Therefore the reaction time in visual search task
for males and females groups are similar, thus accept the null hypothesis.
The average time taken for Male group to respond to visual search task in trial A (M =
4.433, SD = 2.262) is faster than female group (M = 5.383, SD = 3.923) with a mean difference
0.950. The t-test conducted show no significant difference between the male and female group, t
(28) = -.812, p = .423. Since, there is no difference between two groups, the null hypothesis is
accepted. For trial B, the mean for Male group (M = 1.859, SD = 0.688) is faster than female
group (M = 1.955, SD = 1.063) with a mean difference of 0.096. The t-test conducted show no
significant difference between the male and female group, t (28) = -.294, p= .771. Since, there is
no difference between two groups, the null hypothesis is accepted.
The average time taken for female group in Trial C (M = 1.125, SD = 0.420) is faster than
Male group (M = 1.340, SD = 0.722) with a mean difference of 0.215. The t-test conducted show
no significant difference between the male and female group, t (28) = .998, p= .327. Since, there

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is no difference between two groups, the null hypothesis accepted. Lastly, in trial D, the average
time taken for female group in Trial D (M = 1.873, SD = 1.395) is slower than Male group (M =
1.727, SD = 0.799) with a mean difference of 0.146. The t-test conducted show no significant
difference between the male and female group, t (28) = -.352, p= .728. Since, there is no
difference between two groups, the null hypothesis is accepted.
All results have been systematically transferred from SPSS output to the new table as
presented in appendix A.
Discussion
The purpose of the present study is to compare the reaction time on visual search task
between male and female. Researcher predicted that male will take less time compared to female
in respond to the visual search task. The result reveals there is no significant difference of the
reaction time between male group and female group in the visual search task, therefore reject the
initial hypothesis. It can be concluded that the reaction time in both male and female participants
in visual search task is similar, thus failed to reject the null hypothesis.
In relation to the result obtained, it was found that some of the male participants were
extremely tired based on the received informed consent letter. According to Apoorvagiri, &
Nagananda, (2013), mental distress caused by increase in workload may lead to negative impact
in reaction time. As the experiment was conducted at 11.30 a.m, most participants had to attend
several classes as early at 8.30 a.m. This may lead to the feeling of exhausted which could prime
to distress.
Based on the overall result, the mean for male participants is quite higher than female,
even though the difference is not significant. As discussed by Jain et.all (2013), the difference in

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reaction time between male and female is due to the interval between the presentation of the
stimulus and the beginning of muscle contraction. It is reported that motor responses in males
are comparatively stronger than females, thus explained the reason why males react faster than
females for visual stimuli.
In Trial C, it was recorded that the average time taken for female participants were faster
than male participants. This may be due to the changed of letter M in the previous two trials to
letter Q in the next two trials. However, in Trial D, males managed to get back on track in
leading females participants in term of reaction time. The changes in reaction time can be best
explained by the work of Theeuwes et al. (as cited by Moher et.all, 2013), which explained that
participants responded more quickly when the identity of the target letter was repeated than when
it was not and if the items were placed constantly in the task, it will make it easier to the observer
to find the target. Moreover, a research done by Brian (2013) also indicated that the attentional
selection is influenced by physical stimulus salience. Thus, the reaction time in visual search task
can be slowed down by the presence of a physically salient non target.
Another brief explanation to described the above phenomena can be best understood in
the work done by Treisman (as cited by Kristjansson & Campana, 2010) which indicated that
human perceptions were influenced by what they seen in the past and this help them to find the
targets as they familiar with it. In present study, male participants took longer time in the visual
search task compared to female participants may be due to the perceptions that they hold in
previous two trials, which the target was letter M, thus lead them to mistakenly look again for
letter M in Trial C, whereas the target should be letter Q. These effects were known as
perceptual priming in which human possess implicit memory that strongly influences how they
allocate their visual attention.

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In addition, if the target feature or the spatial position were similar between trials, this
will result in better performance compared to the changes of feature from trial to trial. Thus, it
suggests that priming patterns reflect the selection through the operation of visual attention
(Kristjansson & Campana, 2010). This claim provides us better understanding on the reason why
male participants had faster reaction time in Trial D which is due to the similar target feature in
the previous trial.
Other limitations found in the present study may be due to the static position of the
distractor and therefore participant easily found the target items. The arrangement of target letter
to be discovered in all four slide are uniformed and the pattern can be easily guessed thus making
the participant spotted the intended letter earlier than expected. To amend this, the researcher has
to make sure that the letter to be spotted have to be in different places for each slide, for which
the position of the distractors can be in scattered in all trials as well as the target item.
Secondly, researcher cannot verify whether the participant truly found the target items or
the participants just simply responded YES. To encounter this barrier, researcher can ask the
participant to point out their finger to the target item. Next, there were some participants who
willingly to participate in the experiment even though they were extremely exhausted. It can be
suggested that to improve the reaction time of the participant, researchers should look for
participant whom are not in a dire situation or those who are having emotional instability.
Healthy participants should comprises both physically and mentally. Besides that, some student
have a hectic lifestyle than others thus it is better for the future researchers to ensure that the
participants will only be experimented on the day that they are less busy.

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References
Apoorvagiri, & Nagananda, M.S., (2013). Mental stress and its implications on reaction time.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT), Vol 4(5), 1426-1430.
Bennett, N., (2011). Sex Differences in Intelligence Areas and Response Time Tasks. Honors
Research Thesis. Ohio State University.
Bleckley M. K., Jeffrey L.F., Randall W. E., (2014). Working memory capacity accounts for the
ability to switch between object-based and location-based allocation of visual attention.
Journal of Memory & Cognition, 43 (3), 379-388
Brian A. A., (2013) A value-driven mechanism of attentional selection. Journal of Vision 13(3):7,
116.
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology. (3rd Ed.). US : Cengage Learning for
International Students. 3rd Edition.
Jain, A., Bansal, R., Kumar, A., & Singh, KD (2015). A comparative study of visual and auditory
reaction times on the basis of gender and physical activity levels of medical first year
students. Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research. 5(2): 124127.

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Johnson, A.L., (2013). Laboratory Report: Reaction Times for Detection of Objects in Two
Visual Search Tasks. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th
Edition. 6-12.
Kieras, D. (2010). Modeling Visual Search of Displays of Many Objects: The Role of
Differential Acuity and Fixation Memory. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Department, University of Michigan. 127-132.
Kiss, M., Grubert, A., Petersen, A., & Eimer, M., (2012). Attentional Capture by
Salient Distractors during Visual Search Is Determined by Temporal Task
Demands. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 24(3):749-59.
Kristjansson, A., & campana, G., (2010). Where perception meets memory: A review of
repetition priming in visual search tasks. Journal of Attention, Perception and
Psychophysics. Vol. 72(1), 5-18.
Moher, J., Brandon, K. A., & Howard, E.E., (2013) Detection is unaffected by the deployment of
focal attention. Journal of Frontiers in Psychology. Vol 4 (284), 1-10.
Nicholas, J. C., Katharine, A. B., and Yuko, M., (2013). Speed isn't everything: complex
processing speed measures mask individual differences and developmental changes in
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Vol. 110 (2) p. 785-90.

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Appendices
Appendix A

Table 1: Mean of reaction time for visual search task by the Male group vs. Female
group.
n

Male
Group
Female
Group
Total (n)

Standard
Deviation
(SD)

15

Mean number
of
words/pictures
correctly
recalled(SD)
9.361

15

10.337

4.849

3.143

-.655

p-value

0.518

30

Table 2: Mean of reaction time for Trial A, B , C and D in visual search task by the
Male group vs Female group.
n
Mean
(SD)
Mean
(SD )
Mean
(SD)
Mean
(SD)

Trial A

30

Male
Group
4.433

Female
Group
5.383

p-value

-.812

.423

Trial B

30

1.859

1.955

-.294

.771

Trial C

30

1.340

1.125

.998

.327

Trial D

30

1.727

1.873

-.352

.728

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Appendix B

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