Abstract
New tactical displays are being developed that depict military assets as realistic icons, whereas conventional displays show them as non-realistic symbols. Our previous research has revealed a mixed pattern of performance benefits for symbols and icons across different attributes of the represented assets. For both naming and visual search, we found that symbols were faster for platform and affiliation while icons were faster for heading. Platform category was not different between the two. This mix inspired us to create a hybrid — ‘Symbicon’ — symbology that combined the best aspects of symbols and icons. Symbicons possess the platform-identifying interior of standard military symbols and the cartoon outline of a ship or aircraft, adapted from icons, to conspicuously code for platform category (air, sea) and heading. Here, we compare visual search performance for icons, symbols and Symbicons for the four attributes mentioned. We document that Symbicons do, indeed, support the fastest search.