Observer sensitivity to element reliability in a multielement visual display

This study tested whether selected visual display conditions can aid observers in prioritizing information from display elements that differ in reliability. The observer's task was to decide whether the information conveyed by an array of nine graphical elements represented a signal or noise input. The value displayed by each element was an independent sample from the signal or noise distribution. The reliability of a display element was manipulated by controlling the variance of these distributions (high reliability = low variance). Observers tended to weight high-reliability sources slightly more than low-reliability sources. The observers' detection performance and weighting efficiency were highest when the reliability of the source was cued by the luminance of the display element. Thus observers can prioritize visual information sources based on statistical properties such as variability if luminance cues are available during the presentation of the information.