Visual Search
Find the hidden letters
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What is the Visual Search?
Visual search is a task where you look for a target among distractors, such as finding a particular letter in a jumble of other letters. It is one of the most widely used methods in perception research. When the target shares features with the distractors, search time increases with the number of items in the display, because people must check items more carefully.
Researchers use letter-based visual search to study focused attention and visual scanning, and to compare easy "pop-out" searches with harder searches among similar letters. The Neuroptimize game, Visual Search, gives you a board of scattered letters and asks you to find every copy of a target letter while skipping look-alikes, such as an R hidden among Ps or a b among ds.
How to play the Visual Search
- The target letter is shown at the top of the screen next to "Find every", along with how many copies are left to find.
- Tap each copy of the target on the board. Found letters stay marked, and tapping a look-alike letter counts as a mistake and resets your combo.
- When you find every copy, you earn a board-clear bonus and a new board appears with a different target letter.
- Each board has its own time limit. If it runs out, the remaining targets are revealed, each one counts as a miss, and the next board begins.
- A session lasts 60 seconds. Your results show how many boards you cleared and your average time per board.
- As your level rises, boards hold more letters and more targets, and the look-alikes get closer: from very different letters, to letters built from the same strokes, to letters with tiny differences and mirror pairs. At the top levels the letters are tilted or fully rotated.
Strategies and tips
Know the telltale detail
Each board pairs the target with one or two look-alikes. Work out the one feature that separates them, such as the tail on a Q or the open bottom of a P, and scan for that detail alone.
Sweep the board in order
The letters are scattered, so random glancing makes it easy to miss one or recheck the same area. Sweep top to bottom in bands, then use the "left" counter to know when you are done.
Trust the counter
The count of letters left tells you exactly how many targets remain. If one is left and you have swept the board, go back over the areas you covered fastest rather than rescanning everything.
Pause on mirror pairs
Pairs such as b and d or p and q are easy to mix up at speed. For these boards, take a split second to confirm which way the letter faces before tapping, since a wrong tap costs your combo.
Mind the rotations
At the highest levels the letters spin to any angle, so their usual orientation is no help. Look for features that stay the same whatever the angle, such as the crossbar of a T meeting the middle of its stem rather than the end.
The science behind the Visual Search
Visual search is a perceptual task in which an observer looks for a target among distractors. When the target shares features with the distractors, search time increases with the number of items in the display. The task is widely used to study focused attention and visual scanning.
Frequently asked questions
What is a visual search task?
A visual search task asks you to find a target item among distractors as quickly and accurately as possible. Researchers measure how search time changes as more distractors are added and as the distractors become more similar to the target.
Why is it harder to find a letter among similar letters?
When the target differs from the distractors by a clear feature, it tends to stand out. When the letters share most of their strokes, such as E and F, you have to look at each one more closely, so the search takes longer as the board fills up.
What is the difference between Visual Search and Pop-Out Search?
In Pop-Out Search you find a single odd item in a grid of identical shapes. In Visual Search you hunt for every copy of a target letter among look-alike letters, which usually calls for more careful scanning.
Is Visual Search free?
Visual Search is a Pro game in Neuroptimize, and Pro starts with a 7-day free trial. Free players can also get it as the Pro game of the day in their daily workout.