I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE: WHAT VISUAL SEARCH CAN TELL US ABOUT HOW WE SEE THE WORLD

We have all have experienced the frustration of looking for something we want, only to find a seemingly endless series of things we do not want. This process of looking for an object of interest is called visual search. We perform visual search all the time in everyday life, because the objects we want are almost always surrounded by many other objects. But, in some cases, it takes special training to find things, such as when searching for cancers in X-rays, weapons or explosives in airport luggage, or an enemy sniper hidden in the bushes. Understanding how we search for, and find, objects we are looking for is crucial to understanding how ordinary people and experts alike operate in the real world. While much remains to be discovered, what we have learned so far offers a fascinating window into how we see.