Navigating Natural Complexity: Investigating Joint Visual Search in Dynamic, Real-World Environments

This study focuses on understanding how individuals collaborate to find objects in real-world contexts, specifically within a real zoo setting. Prior research suggested that participants spontaneously form cooperative behaviors like dividing the search space and using communication to enhance search efficiency. Our explorative endeavor revolves around the comparative efficiency of joint versus solitary search, and how communication influences the search process. We recruited 22 observers who each searched in joint and solitary conditions and recorded eye movements using portable eye-tracking glasses. The findings demonstrated that during joint search, participants' fixations were more distributed, implying a degree of collaboration to boost search efficiency. However, only three animals produced statistically significant results, and the effect sizes were relatively small. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in search performance between joint and solitary search conditions. However, the modeling results suggest that communication and consensus formation are key factors in joint search behavior. They significantly contribute to search accuracy and other metrics. Labor division seems to play a role in influencing fixation durations, particularly when there's no communication involved. However, overall, the model with both communication and consensus formation as predictors provided the best fit and contributed the most evidence across all search metrics. Overall, the results from this explorative study provide a basis for further development of models that contribute to predicting joint search in real-world contexts.