The goal of this experiment is for participants to tell how many different particle flows they can identify. Each trial is divided into two phases.
In the first phase, participants had up to 45 seconds to tell how many different groups they perceived. They were encouraged to answer as fast as they could.
In the second phase, participants had to actually identify these groups, creating the appropriate number of groups and tagging each individual edge. As illustrated in the figure below, the diagram on the left features animated edge textures, while the one on the right contains a copy of that diagram featuring static, solid edges. Participants look at the left-hand side diagram to identify groups, and use the right-hand side one to tag edges. In this second phase, they were instructed to be as accurate as they could.
To tag an edge, participants could use one of the following two techniques:
Our experiment involved the following nine networks:
