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Humans pay more attention to the upper half of their field of vision, according to a new study.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Toronto said the findings could provide important insight from how people perceive everything from traffic signs to software interface design.

"Specifically, we tested people's ability to quickly identify a target amidst visual clutter," lead researcher Dr. Jing Feng, an assistant professor of psychology at NC State, said in a news release. "Basically, we wanted to see where people concentrate their attention at first glance."

Participants in the latest study were asked to focus their eyes on the center of a computer screen. Researchers then flashed a target and distracting symbols onto the screen for 10 to 80 milliseconds. Afterwards, the symbols were replaced by an unrelated "mask" image to disrupt participants' thought processes.  Researchers then asked subjects to indicate the location of the target.

The study revealed that people were 7 percent better at detecting the target when it was located in the upper half of the screen.

"It doesn't mean people don't pay attention to the lower field of vision, but they were demonstrably better at paying attention to the upper field," Feng said.

"A difference of 7 percent could make a significant difference for technologies that are safety-related or that we interact with on a regular basis," Feng explained.

"For example, this could make a difference in determining where to locate traffic signs to make them more noticeable to drivers, or where to place important information on a website to highlight that information for users," he concluded.

The findings were published online in the open-access journal i-Perception.