Visual search of different types of stimuli is differently influenced by visual complexity and visual similarity in both Chinese children and adults

The effects of visual complexity and visual similarity between target items and distractors in visual search of letters, symbols, and Chinese characters by adults and children were investigated in the p resent study. Participants included 165 third grade Chinese children and 60 university students. When the target-distractor similarity was low, symbol search became slower for both children and adults when the items were visually simple. Chinese character search, on the other hand, became slower for both children and adults when the items were visually complex. When the target-distractor similarity was high, symbol search became slower when the items were complex, while Chinese character search became slower when the items were simple. Interestingly, letter search showed a similar pattern as Chinese character for adults, but for children it was similar to symbol search. These findings underscore the influence of stimulus type on visual search. Relevant developmental differences are considered as well.