The human visual system is still an important factor in military warfare; military personnel receive training on effective search strategies, and camouflage that can effectively conceal objects and personnel is a key component of a successful integrated survivability strategy. Previous methods of camouflage assessment have, amongst others, used psychophysics to generate distinctiveness metrics. However, the population from which the human observers are drawn is often not well defined, or necessarily appropriate. In this experiment we designed a new platform for testing multiple patterns based on a camouflaged object detection task, and investigate whether trained military observers perform better than civilians. We use a two-alternative forced choice paradigm, with participants searching images of woodland for a replica military helmet displaying Olive Green, Multi Terrain Pattern, US Marine Pattern or, as a conspicuous control, UN Peacekeeper Blue. Our data show that there is no difference in detection performance between the two observer groups but that there are clear differences in the effectiveness of the different helmet colour patterns in a temperate woodland environment. We conclude that when tasks involve very short stimulus presentation times, task-specific training has little effect on the success of target detection and thus this paradigm is particularly suitable for robust estimates of camouflage efficacy.

人类视觉系统仍然是军事战争中的一个重要因素；军事人员接受有效搜索战略的培训，能够有效隐藏物体和人员的伪装是成功的综合生存战略的关键组成部分。以前的伪装评估方法使用心理物理学来生成独特性指标。然而，人类观察者所来自的人群通常没有明确定义，或者不一定合适。在这个实验中，我们设计了一个基于伪装物体检测任务来测试多种模式的新平台，并调查训练有素的军事观察员的表现是否优于平民。我们使用两种可选的强制选择范式，参与者在林地图像中寻找显示橄榄绿色、多地形图案、美国海军图案或作为显眼对照的联合国维和者蓝色的复制军用头盔。我们的数据表明，两个观察者组之间的检测性能没有差异，但不同头盔颜色图案在温带林地环境中的有效性存在明显差异。我们得出的结论是，当任务涉及非常短的刺激呈现时间时，特定于任务的训练对目标检测的成功几乎没有影响，因此这种范式特别适用于伪装功效的稳健估计。我们的数据表明，两个观察者组之间的检测性能没有差异，但不同头盔颜色图案在温带林地环境中的有效性存在明显差异。我们得出的结论是，当任务涉及非常短的刺激呈现时间时，特定于任务的训练对目标检测的成功几乎没有影响，因此这种范式特别适用于伪装功效的稳健估计。我们的数据表明，两个观察者组之间的检测性能没有差异，但不同头盔颜色图案在温带林地环境中的有效性存在明显差异。我们得出的结论是，当任务涉及非常短的刺激呈现时间时，特定于任务的训练对目标检测的成功几乎没有影响，因此这种范式特别适用于伪装功效的稳健估计。