Abstract:

The color encoding in digital interfaces of complex systems has an important influence on the interface design. How to use reasonable color encoding to reduce visual information chaos and improve cognitive performance is remain a problem for optimizing the interface design. Considering the visual layered perception guide attentional capture and visual behavior, relationships between visual perceptual layers and attentional capture levels are analyzed on the basis of color system and capture attention theory. Any two colors’ levels of attentional capture are judged by searching times of it’s interfere with each other. The pay attention to capture color test is held with the equidistance division on human’s perception according to the three color attributes of Munsell color solid. Combined with the color difference, visual perceptual layers and attentional capture levels for different hue, lightness and saturation are obtained by identifying and integrating, and the influences of color differences on cognitive speeds are compared. The results show that colors with different hue lie on the same visual perception level besides red under the black background. A lower visual perception level goes with the reduction of lightness and saturation. Under a fixed color difference between the target and the distractor, colors with the lower lightness have better recognition performances than those with the higher ones. With the same color difference between low light backgrounds and high light backgrounds to the saturated target, the optimal cognitive performance of the former is verified, on emulational interface design of the corner situation of airplane assist takeoff system.

Key words: attentional capture, color difference, color encoding, interference level, visual perceptual layering