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the text [21]. In addition to the reading and scene perception, the perceptual
span or the span of the effective stimulusisgenerallyreferredtoastheamount
of information available during each fixation. A great deal studies [22] - [26]
supplied the evidences that the larger the perceptual span of the stimulus refers
the more information input during each fixation. Thus, the stimulus is easy to be
identified and processed, in contrast, the stimulus with smaller perceptual span
is dicult. It is generally considered that text is one-dimensional for reading,
whereas picture is two-dimensional. Obviously, picture has larger perception span
than text, which makes picture easier to be identified than text [27]. In our study,
the visual search time in picture is significantly shorter than in text. The result
shows that picture which is the same as the text in visual effects is much easier
to be searched than text.
The result of the questionnaire shows that 84% participants prefer the picture
to text [
0
χ
05
(1) = 46
.
24
,P <
0
.
05], which is highly consistent with the result of
.
the search time.
4.2
Floating Ads Impact on Visual Information Search
Floating Ads don't Impact Visual Information Search Eciency.
As
one of the most popular Internet ads, floating ads usually appear on the Web
page when users view a new Web page. In this study, we further investigated
the effect of floating ads for visual search eciency on visual searching the text
or picture.
User's visual behavior on Web pages includes visual browsing and visual
search. Some studies about visual browsing on Web pages indicated that users
wouldn't pay attention to the useless Internet ads [14]. In addition, the study
on static banner ads also demonstrates that users usually take the avoidance
strategies according to their experience [28], namely, most users often neglect
the existence of Internet ads when they are browsing information on Web pages.
A study about visual search on Web pages showed that the animation flash pic-
tures would disperse the user's attention [15]. That is to say, animation ads
may affect users' visual search time. However, there were also some studies
showed that Internet ads had little effect for users' visual search behavior on
Web pages [12,13].
The results of this study demonstrated that, whether the search target was
text or picture, floating ads had no significant effect on users' search time (see
Fig. 3).
The floating ads as a rich media type of Internet ads are usually involving
the commercial activity, which are extension of the general media ads, such
as paper ads and TV ads. Different from the general media ads, floating ads
appear over the Web page, and people can selectively avoid or ignore them. Users
often believe that floating ads are not useful for their requirement. Especially
during users' searching information by eyes, they will be unconscious to consider
that floating ads have no relation to their desired information, and adopt the
avoidance strategies. In our study, whether the search target is text or picture,
few participants looked at the floating ads during they performed the visual
