This study investigated the effectiveness of redundant color coding in multidimensional identification. Statistical analysis showed that redundant color in multidimensional identification did not necessarily improve performance and response speed might even deteriorate if subjects were not informed of the use of redundant color. Merely informing subjects of the use of redundant color might not benefit identification speed either; subjects had to actually use color in responding to facilitate response speed. Further, redundant color might be more appropriate to associate with the less-salient or the less-familiar stimulus attribute. Implications of the results for the design of multidimensional display and for human information processing were discussed.
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