Should prohibition signs always be designed as bar-over-pictogram in traffic and non-traffic contexts?

This study evaluated how the position of the diagonal bar affected the recognition efficiency of prohibition signs. With a 2 (bar position)  × 5 (familiarity) within-subject design, participants were asked to judge whether the prohibition signs and the textual explanation matched, both in an isolated context (Experiment 1) and in traffic scenes (Experiment 2). The results show that the response time was shorter for signs with the b ar as the foreground, but only for the familiar signs displayed in an isolated context and only for the unfamiliar signs embedded naturally in traffic scenes. Overall, the findings indicated that designing the prohibition signs with the bar as the foreground may improve the efficiency of recognizing prohibition signs, even in traffic scenes.
Source: Cognition, Technology and Work - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research