This study explores visual search asymmetry and the detection process between parallel and serial search strategies, building upon Treisman's Feature Integration Theory [3]. Our experiment examines how easy it is to locate an oblique line among vertical distractors versus a vertical line among oblique distractors, a framework previously validated by Treisman & Gormican (1988) [4] and Gupta et al. (2015) [1]. We hypothesised that an oblique target among vertical lines would produce a perceptual 'pop-out' effect, allowing for faster, parallel search, while the reverse condition would require serial search strategy. Seventy-eight participants from Utrecht University engaged in trials with varied target-distractor orientations and number of items. We measured reaction times and found a significant effect of target type on search speed: oblique targets were identified more quickly, reflecting 'pop-out' behaviour, while vertical targets demanded focused attention ('glue phase'). Our results align with past findings, supporting our hypothesis on search asymmetry and its dependency on distinct visual features. Future research could benefit from eye-tracking and neural network analysis, particularly for identifying the neural processing of visual features in both parallel and serial search conditions.

翻译：本研究基于特雷斯曼的特征整合理论[3]，探讨了视觉搜索中的不对称性以及并行与串行搜索策略之间的检测过程。我们的实验检验了在垂直干扰项中定位倾斜线条与在倾斜干扰项中定位垂直线条的难易程度，该框架先前已由特雷斯曼与戈尔米坎（1988）[4]以及古普塔等人（2015）[1]验证。我们假设倾斜目标在垂直线条中会产生感知上的“突现”效应，从而实现更快速的并行搜索，而相反条件则需要串行搜索策略。来自乌得勒支大学的78名参与者参与了包含不同目标-干扰项方向和项目数量的实验试次。我们测量了反应时间，发现目标类型对搜索速度有显著影响：倾斜目标被识别得更快，反映了“突现”行为，而垂直目标则需要集中注意（“粘合阶段”）。我们的结果与既往研究一致，支持了关于搜索不对称性及其对不同视觉特征依赖性的假设。未来研究可借助眼动追踪和神经网络分析，特别是用于识别并行与串行搜索条件下视觉特征的神经处理过程。