Training for Baggage Screener Study

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Training for Baggage Screener Study Thank you
for participating in this experiment. Imagine
that you are a baggage screener at the airport
and your job is to scan for something irregular
or potentially improvised explosives. You are
looking for a group of items that has a different
shape or color than the rest of the items. While
this experiment is about simulating the baggage
screeners job, you will not see real luggage.
Instead, you will see various groupings of
squares that vary in their shading. You will see
up to four sizes of squares in up to six shades
of white to black. Below is an example of the
sizes of the squares and the possible shades.
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What is an grouping? A grouping is a combination
of shapes. You will see groupings of these
squares located in various locations on the
monitor. While viewing these shapes, your task is
to determine which of these combinations would be
considered a threat. How will you do that? View
the screen as a block of 3 x 3, with each
grouping taking up one of the eight possible
blocks. Images will not appear in the center-most
square. There are two types of threats that we
will now cover cluster or density.
No threat
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6
X
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Criteria for Cluster Threats
Cluster threats can include all six of the below
shadings.
Cluster threat A block is over 1/3 filled with
any image, regardless of shading. Below is an
example of a cluster threat.
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Example of a cluster threat
As you can see in this picture, the image takes
up more than 1/3 of the available space. This
would be considered a threat.
Only consider what you can see, not what is
hidden or occluded by another image.
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Criteria for Density Threats
Density threats are composed only of the two
right-most shades.
Density threat A block is over ¼ filled with
either of the two possible density shadings,
regardless of the other shadings present.
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Example of a density threat
This is a threat because the dark image is more
than ¼ of the blocks area.
Only consider what you can see, not what is
hidden or occluded by another image.
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Any questions? You will now receive some
training to prepare you for the actual task.