The influence of placing orientation on searching for food in a virtual restaurant

Abstract We conducted three experiments to investigate the influence of placing orientation on the visual search for foods. In the first two experiments, the participants were asked to identify whether one of the foods or containers with angular ends had a different orientation from the other foods or containers on the same table in a virtual restaurant. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that searching for a food was faster when its angular end pointed towards the observers than when the same food pointed away from the observers; whereas an opposite trend was found for containers. In Experiment 2, foods were presented in containers whose angular ends pointed to the same or opposite directions, and the results revealed a faster detection of inward-pointing foods served in outward-pointing containers. Then Experiment 3 was run with simple geometric figures, and the results revealed that searching for an inward-pointing triangular target was faster and more accurate than when the same target pointed outward. Collectively, these results demonstrate how the visual detection of foods is influenced by the incidental aspects of their visual appearance.