Abstract
Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) and Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) are an integral part of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) multilayered security program. Both officers are required to visually search their environments for prohibited items and cues that might be indicative of a threat. The purpose of this project was to identify factors that predicted the visual search success of these officers. A simulated visual search task was completed by 375 TSOs and BDOs, along with a battery of surveys designed to measure individual differences in personality traits, abilities, hobbies, and spatial ability. Results showed that TSOs and BDOs were highly accurate in their searches but that TSOs searched images faster than BDOs without sacrificing accuracy. Additional results showed that the strongest predictors of visual search accuracy were search speed and search consistency, but spatial ability emerged as a significant predictor for TSOs and frequency of video-game play emerged as a significant predictor for BDOs. Additional traits were also correlated with search performance but did not emerge as significant predictors in our regression models. Practical implication and directions for future research are discussed.