The effects of time limitations on target identification

Motivation - Aiming at making image interpretation more efficient, we studied the effects of limiting exposure durations on performance. Research approach - Two psychophysical experiments were performed examining the performance of 36 expert image analysts. The targets were presented at three image quality levels. Findings - The results suggest that limiting the exposure duration of an image to four seconds does not impair the performance of the analysts, i.e., four seconds suffice for identification in an the image interpretation task, no matter what the quality of the image. Research Implications - This finding suggests that limiting the exposure duration during actual image interpretation would be beneficial since it would shorten the total amount of time needed for interpretation while not lowering the probability of correct identification. Take away message - Sometimes unlimited time is not necessary in order to obtain the best results. When someone is an expert at what s/he does, making a quick decision might yield equivalent outcomes.