elements or even show other variations of the basic plane. Exceptions to Hick's law have been identified in studies of verbal response to familiar stimuli, where there is no relationship or only a subtle increase in the reaction time associated with an increased number of elements, and saccade responses, where it was shown that there is either no relationship, or a decrease in the saccadic time with the increase of the number of elements, thus an antagonistic effect to that postulated by Hick's law. The generalization of Hick's law was also tested in studies on the predictability of transitions associated with the reaction time of elements that appeared in a structured sequence. This process was first described as being in accordance to Hick's law, but more recently it was shown that the relationship between predictability and reaction time is sigmoid, not linear associated with different modes of action. Hick's law is sometimes cited to justify menu design decisions. For example, to find a given word (e.g. the name of a command) in a randomly ordered word list (e.g. a menu), scanning of each word in the list is required, consuming linear time, so Hick's law does not apply. However, if the list is alphabetical and the user knows the name of the command, he or she may be able to use a subdividing strategy that works in logarithmic time. See also Power law of practice The Paradox of Choice Fitts's Law Notes References External links Usability Glossary: Hick's Law Experimental psychology Human–computer interaction