An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding why Targets Are Missed During Interactive Searches

Interactive searches involve manipulating objects or physically moving through the environment to either
find targets or deem them absent. To date, a limited number of these studies exist because they are very
time- and cost-intensive to run. In addition, interactive search has primarily been studied from a
psychological perspective, and ignored the role that the hands and grip play in physically manipulating
objects, and also ignored how we navigate the environment when searching. These phenomena have
been studied extensively by the members of the supervisory team in Health Sciences and Music. This
project will take an interdisciplinary approach and utilize the research and technical expertise of the
supervisory team. Following recent studies of interactive search, the experiments will involve
participants searching through a set of shuffled shapes in a "tray". The experiments will be presented
virtually (Experiment 1) or physically (Experiments 2 and 3). In Experiment 1, interactive behaviour will
be examined by analysing participants' mouse movements. Experiment 2 will focus upon the errors and
associated hand movements made by participants using hand tracking hardware and software. In
Experiment 3, participants will search through the trays as they are placed in shelving throughout a room
whilst their hand and body movements are monitored. Overall, the experiments conducted will enable
the first systematic examination of interactive search from an interdisciplinary perspective. By adopting
techniques used in the different disciplines, previously intractable methodological issues will be tackled,
enabling a significant step forward in the field.