The Effect of Lifeguard Experience upon the Detection of Drowning Victims in a Realistic Dynamic Visual Search Task

Lifeguard surveillance is a complex task that is crucial for swimmer safety, though few studies of applied visual search have investigated this domain. This current study compared lifeguard and non‐lifeguard search skills using dynamic, naturalistic stimuli (video clips of confederate swimmers) that varied in set size and type of drowning. Lifeguards were more accurate and responded faster to drowning targets. Differences between drowning targets were also found: Passive drownings were responded to less often, but more quickly than active drownings, highlighting that passive drownings may be less salient but are highly informative once detected. Set size effects revealed a dip in reaction speeds at an intermediate set‐size level, suggesting a possible change in visual search strategies as the array increases in size. Nonetheless, the ability of the test to discriminate between lifeguards and non‐lifeguards offers future possibilities for training and assessing lifeguard surveillance skills. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.