Effects of Target and Distractor Saturations on the Cognitive Performance of an Integrated Display Interface

Color coding is often used to enhance decision quality in complex man-machine interfaces of integrated display systems. However, people are easily distracted by irrelevant colors and by the numerous data points and complex structures in the interface. Although an increasing number of studies are seriously focusing on the problem of achieving efficient color coding, few are able to determine the effects of target and distractor saturations on cognitive performance. To study the performances of target colors among distractors, a systematic experiment is conducted to assess the influence of high and low saturated targets on cognitive performance, and the affecting extent of different saturated distractors of homogeneous colors on targets. According to the analysis of the reaction time through the non-parametric statistical method, a calculation method of the cognitive performance of each color is proposed. Based on the calculation of the color differences and the accumulation of the reaction times, it is shown that with the different saturated distractors of homogeneous colors, the high saturated yellow targets perform better than the low saturated ones, and the green and blue targets have moderate performances. When searching for a singleton target placed oll a black background, the color difference between the target and the distractor should be more than 20AE＊ab units in the yellow saturation coding, whereas the color difference should be more than 40△E＊ab units in the blue and green saturation coding. In addition, as regards saturation coding, the influence of the color difference between the target and the background on cognitive performance is greater than that of the color difference between the target and the distractor. Seemingly, the hue attribute determines whether the saturation difference between the target and the distractor affects thc cognitive performance. Based on the experimental results, the simulation design of the instrument dials in a flight situation awareness interface is completed and tested. Simulation results show the feasibility of the method of choosing the target and distractor colors, and the proposed research provides the instruction for the color saturation design of the interface.

Effect of soil pH on the sorption capacity of soil organic matter for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in unsaturated soils

Sorption by soil organic matter(SOM)is considered the most important process affecting the bioavailability of hydrophobic organic chemicals(HOCs)in soil.The sorption capacity of SOM for HOCs is affected by many environmental factors.In this study,we investigated the effects of soil pH and water saturation level on HOC sorption capacity of SOM using batch sorption experiments.Values of soil organic carbon-water partition coefficient(K_(OC))of six selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs)were measured in an artificial soil under various soil pH and water saturation conditions.Passive sampling was used to measure K_(OC)with polydimethylsiloxane as the sampling material.Regardless of soil pH,K_(OC)increased with increasing soil water saturation level for lower-molecular-weight PAHs.In contrast,K_(OC)decreased with increasing soil water saturation level for higher-molecular-weight PAHs.Despite some fluctuations,K_(OC)tended to decrease with increasing soil pH at all water saturation levels.This indicates that earlier studies on the effects of soil pH on K_(OC)under saturated conditions could be extended to unsaturated soils.These K_(OC)tendencies were reproduced in three different natural soils,suggesting that the effects of soil water saturation level and pH might be generalized,at least for PAHs.The PAH sorption capacity of SOM was found to be resilient under dynamic soil pH conditions,which can be used to adjust the effects of soil pH.