Effect of Entropy in Icons and Background on Selection Accuracy

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of icon and background entropy on selection accuracy under differing cognitive conditions. A series of two experiments are reported here. Both experiments used a 4×2 design (very high/ high/ medium/ low entropy background × high/ low entropy icon), measuring selection accuracy under two different conditions (untimed/3 second timed). The sample included undergraduate students at a university in Thailand (n = 100). Results were analysed using chi-square. The analysis showed that under untimed conditions, there were no significant differences in selection accuracy between different background and icon entropy levels. However, under timed conditions, very high entropy background/high entropy icon selection was significantly lower than other conditions, while low entropy background/low entropy icon selection was higher. This implies that while under normal conditions, visual entropy in field or figure does not impede distinguishing different figures, under conditions of cognitive stress entropy could reduce ability to distinguish such images.