Imagine that you need to meet someone at the airport. You would notice him more quickly if he had told you "Look for the only person wearing a hat" than if he told you, "Look for the only person not wearing a hat." This situation is most similar to

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The scenario described is most similar to the feature-present/feature-absent effect, which suggests that people can more quickly identify the presence of a unique feature (e.g., wearing a hat) than the absence of a feature (e.g., not wearing a hat) in a visual search task.

Imagine That You Need to Meet Someone at the Airport