Color contrast has been shown to aid in visual search tasks using electronic displays, while the research regarding the usefulness of color contrast in aiding visual search using a paper medium is mixed. The present study questions whether subjects’ performance will improve on a paper task where the search target is in high color contrast when compared with a task where the target color does not differ from the rest of the search field.
Thirty-nine adults with normal vision were administered two forms of the WAIS-R digit symbol subtest, one with low chromatic contrast and one with high chromatic contrast, in a within-subjects design. No significant difference was found in performance on the two tasks. Explanations offered for these results include the effects of surround luminance, contrast of saturation, and short-term visual memory
