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Advertisers and marketers increasingly adopt and invest in audiovisual formats for their communications. In contrast, academic researchers often rely on static visual stimuli to test advertising- and marketing-related research questions. In this research note, we discuss whether and how academic research could benefit from the ability to develop and use dynamic audiovisual stimuli and we consider the validity-related trade-offs inherent in their use. We first outline the components researchers should consider in constructing dynamic audiovisual stimuli. Then, in an attempt to reduce barriers to creation of dynamic audiovisual stimuli in advertising research, we review tools researchers can use to design realistic dynamic stimuli. We conclude with ways in which the use of dynamic stimuli can open new research approaches, thus expanding advertising-related theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows users to experience multisensory and interactive environments that simulate real or imaginary scenarios. The effect of different VR immersive technology on mental workload (MWL), i.e., the amount of resources required to perform a task, is still debated; however the potential role of EEG in this context was never exploited. This paper aims to investigate the effects on MWL of performing a cognitive task in a VR environment in two conditions characterized by different degrees of immersion using a multimodal approach which combines well-assessed subjective evaluations of MWL with physiological EEG measures. A cognitive task based on the n-back test was proposed to compare the performance and MWL of participants who used either a head-mounted display (HMD) or a desktop computer to present the stimuli. The task had four different complexity levels (n = 1 or 2 with either visual or visual and audio stimuli). Twenty-seven healthy participants were enrolled in this study and performed the tasks in both conditions. EEG data and NASA Task Load indeX (NASA-TLX) were used to assess changes in objective and subjective MWL, respectively. Error rates (ERs) and reaction times (RTs) were also collected for each condition and task level. Task levels had significant effects on MWL, increasing subjective measures and decreasing performance, in both conditions. EEG MWL index have shown a significant increase especially if compared to rest. Different degrees of immersion did not show significant differences neither in individual's performance nor in MWL as estimated by subjective ratings. However, HMD reduced the EEG-derived MWL in most conditions indicating a lower cognitive load. In conclusion, HMD may reduce the cognitive load of some tasks. The reduced level of MWL, as depicted by the EEG MWL index, may have implications for the design and future evaluation of VR-based applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWe examined spontaneous external offloading in a study requiring participants to plan the shortest route to connect locations on maps while satisfying ordering constraints. We manipulated map difficulty (low/high) and the possibility for participants to offload cognition by allowing/not allowing them to use a pen during planning (offloading/no offloading). Participants used more types of offloading strategies in the high (vs. low) difficulty maps and showed a better performance in the offloading (vs. no offloading) condition in the high difficulty maps only. However, even in the low difficulty maps, cognition was offloaded, especially when participants solved the high difficulty maps first (perseveration effect). The use of offloading strategies and offloading-supported planning performance were positively related with visual search ability, while performance in the no offloading condition was positively related with spatial working memory. Findings show that offloading strategies are spontaneously deployed in a partly adaptive way in route planning on maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the concept of affordance, which refers to the perception of opportunities for action that objects in the environment offer to individuals. It discusses how affordance has been applied to various areas such as bodily action, perception, emotions, social cognition, and psychopathology. The article presents different perspectives on the definition and application of affordance, including its role in mental actions and thoughts. It also explores how affordance can inform the understanding of reasons for action, language, and affectivity. Additionally, the text discusses the applications of affordance in understanding the affective character of experience, social interactions, social norms, neurodivergence, psychopathology, architecture, education, and morality. Overall, the article highlights the versatility and potential of the concept of affordance in understanding human perception and behavior in different contexts. [Extracted from the article]

Objectives: Animal studies have suggested that dietary iron deficiency (ID) negatively affects dopamine (DA) synthesis and re-uptake, which in turn negatively affects memory and cognition. This study was intended to assess whether the pattern electroretinogram (pattern ERG) could be used as an indirect measure of DA in college-age women with and without ID by determining the extent to which features of the ERG were sensitive to iron status and were related to other indirect measures of DA. Methods: The pattern ERG was measured in 21 iron deficient non-anemic (IDNA) and 21 iron sufficient (IS) women, who also performed a contrast detection and probabilistic selection task, both with concurrent electroencephalography (EEG). Both spontaneous and task-related blink rates were also measured. Results: The implicit times of the A- and B-waves were significantly longer for the IDNA than for the IS women. Both the amplitudes and implicit times of the A- and B-waves were significantly correlated with levels of serum ferritin (sFt). Only the amplitude of the A-wave was correlated with spontaneous blink rate. It was possible to accurately identify a woman's iron status solely on the basis of the implicit time of the B-wave. Finally, the implicit times of the ERG features mediated the relationship between iron levels and accuracy in the probabilistic selection task. Conclusions: Results suggest the utility of the pattern ERG in testing the hypothesis that iron deficiency affects DA levels in humans and that this may be one of the mechanisms by which iron deficiency negatively affects cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition memory, the ability to recognise previously encountered information, correlates with pupil diameter changes during the recognition period. This physiological response, known as the pupil old/new effect, generally reflects the variation in pupil dilation when encountering previously studied (old) stimuli compared to new stimuli. To develop a more precise understanding of the pupil old/new effect, we conducted a meta-analysis of 17 eye-tracking experiments (across 12 articles spanning from 2008 to 2023) involving 560 healthy adults with a mean age of 22.31 years. Analysis of publication bias showed a rather low risk of bias in the selected articles. The main meta-analysis revealed a significant and large pooled pupil old/new effect (Cohen's dz = 0.73, 95% CI [0.50, 0.95]). Further analysis of moderators showed that the number of participants included in the experiments and the criteria for selecting trials (only correct trials vs. all trials) had a significant impact on the meta-analytic results. In general, the analyses revealed a robust pupil old/new effect across all selected articles. This finding underscores its potential utility as a marker of recognition memory across different stimuli type, and various experimental designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selectively remembering more valuable information can improve memory efficiency. Such value effects have been observed on long-term memory for item-colour binding, but the possible contributory factors are unclear. The current study explored contributions from attention (Experiment 1) and verbal rehearsal (Experiment 2). Across two experiments, memory was superior for item-colour bindings that were associated with high (relative to low) point values at encoding, both in an immediate test and a delayed re-test. When availability of attentional resources was reduced during encoding, value only influenced immediate and not delayed memory (Experiment 1). This indicates that a transient value effect can be obtained with little attentional resources, but attentional resources are involved in creating a longer lasting effect. When articulatory suppression was implemented during encoding (Experiment 2), value effects were somewhat reduced in the immediate test and abolished in the delayed re-test, suggesting a role for verbal rehearsal in value effects on item-colour binding memory. These patterns of value effects did not interact with encoding presentation format (i.e., sequential vs. simultaneous presentation of objects). Together, these results suggest that attentional resources and verbal rehearsal both contribute to value effects on item-colour binding memory, with varying impacts on the durability of these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of videos with educational purposes on social media offers unprecedented opportunities for informal learning in virtual space. Yet, research on learner engagement with educational videos in informal learning on social media has been scarce, despite its central role in learning. This study addresses this research gap. Specifically, we investigate how signalling mechanisms (signals and anchors) affect cognitive engagement. We sample YouTube educational videos and analyse the effects of signals and anchors on cognitive engagement on Reddit. Our analyses show that different signals and anchors affect cognitive engagement differently. Textual signals positively associate with cognitive engagement, while visual signals do not. Mathematical models are negatively related to cognitive engagement, and physical models are not correlated with cognitive engagement significantly. Our findings provide valuable empirical knowledge on cognitive engagement with educational videos on social media. This study enriches the understanding of signalling mechanisms and extends the literature on educational videos and multimedia learning. It is also beneficial for video designers and developers to optimise cognitive engagement with the appropriate use of signals and anchors and make online experiences more engaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objects that are congruent with a scene are recognised more efficiently than objects that are incongruent. Further, semantic integration of incongruent objects elicits a stronger N300/N400 EEG component. Yet, the time course and mechanisms of how contextual information supports access to semantic object information is unclear. We used computational modelling and EEG to test how context influences semantic object processing. Using representational similarity analysis, we established that EEG patterns dissociated between objects in congruent or incongruent scenes from around 300 ms. By modelling the semantic processing of objects using independently normed properties, we confirm that the onset of semantic processing of both congruent and incongruent objects is similar (∼150 ms). Critically, after ∼275 ms, we discover a difference in the duration of semantic integration, lasting longer for incongruent compared to congruent objects. These results constrain our understanding of how contextual information supports access to semantic object information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) is key to achieving the flexible automation required by the mass personalization trend, especially towards human-centric intelligent manufacturing. Nevertheless, existing HRC systems suffer from poor task understanding and poor ergonomic satisfaction, which impede empathetic teamwork skills in task execution. To overcome the bottleneck, a Mixed Reality (MR) and visual reasoning-based method is proposed in this research, providing mutual-cognitive task assignment for human and robotic agents' operations. Firstly, an MR-enabled mutual-cognitive HRC architecture is proposed, with the characteristic of monitoring Digital Twins states, reasoning co-working strategies, and providing cognitive services. Secondly, a visual reasoning approach is introduced, which learns scene interpretation from the visual perception of each agent's actions and environmental changes to make task planning strategies satisfying human–robot operation needs. Lastly, a safe, ergonomic, and proactive robot motion planning algorithm is proposed to let a robot execute generated co-working strategies, while a human operator is supported with intuitive task operation guidance in the MR environment, achieving empathetic collaboration. Through a demonstration of a disassembly task of aging Electric Vehicle Batteries, the experimental result facilitates cognitive intelligence in Proactive HRC for flexible automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: This research aims to: (i) compare the effects of different sidewall entrainment facilities on drivers' visual behavior; (ii) compare the effects of the same sight entrainment facilities on drivers in different lanes; (iii) give recommendations for engineering applications based on the results of the study; Methods: The study designed four different scenes, each with symmetrically designed visual facilities on the both sidewalls of the tunnel, scene a represents a typical urban tunnel in China (horizontal stripes on sidewalls), scene b includes vertical stripes on sidewalls in addition to scene a, scene c introduces an LED-arch based on scene b, and scene d features a rhythmic pattern (Wave pattern on sidewalls). 30 participants, 21 men and 9 women, aged 21–54, drove the four scenes. Eye movement data of participants in each lane for different scenes were collected using an eye-tracking device. Visual performance indicators including fixation duration, number of fixations, saccade duration, and saccade amplitude were utilized to comprehensively evaluate drivers' visual behavior. Factor analysis was employed to analyze the impact of different visual guiding facilities on drivers' visual searching abilities. Results: There is a significant effect of sidewall guiding facilities and lane location on drivers' visual behavior and loading. Across scenes, drivers' visual load is ranked as follows, from highest to lowest: scene a (baseline) > scene b (horizontal stripes added to scene a) > scene c (LED-arch added to scene b) > scene d (Wave pattern). Furthermore, under the same scene, drivers' visual load in each lane is ranked in descending order: Middle lane > Right lane > Left lane. Conclusion: Due to the effect of the tunnel structure on the drivers' visual field, drivers in the left lane have the highest visual load in any scenario compared to the other two lanes, which can be ameliorated but not eliminated. Traditional guiding facilities and decorated pattern both improve the visual behavior and reduce drivers' visual load in urban tunnels, especially in scene c and scene d, but scene d should not be used for the entire length of the tunnel in order to prevent driver distraction. In engineering practice, scene c (LED-arch added to scene b) can be set up in general sections of urban tunnels, and decorated pattern can be added to fatigue reminder regions to alleviate driving fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural languages contain systematic relationships between verb meaning and verb argument structure. Artificial language learning studies typically remove those relationships and instead pair verb meanings randomly with structures. Adult participants in such studies can detect statistical regularities associated with words in these languages and their use of novel words will adhere to those statistical regularities. However, word use in natural languages is associated with more than distributional statistics. Using an artificial language learning paradigm, we asked how a relationship between verb meaning and sentence structure affected learning and structure generalization. Twenty-four English-speaking adults watched videos described in an artificial language with two possible sentence structures. Half of the participants (statistics-only condition) learned a language with no relationship between verb meaning and sentence structure. The other half (semantics condition) learned a language in which verb meaning predicted which structures a verb occurred in. Although all learners were able to comprehend the learned structures with novel verbs, participants in the semantics conditions made grammaticality judgments and productions with novel verbs that were more consistent with the target language than participants in the statistics-only condition. The availability of semantic cues to verb subcategory supports artificial language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the number of operator errors, task completion time, and workload of subjects at different levels by imposing conditions such as focused text boldness, noise disturbance, and time pressure to simulate a realistic cloud change business process in the laboratory. Results of the study showed that the text bolding of important content reduced the number of errors, whereas noise interference increased the number of errors. Text boldness only reduced the number of corrected errors, and noise interference only increased the number of uncorrected errors. Moreover, bolding was found to have different effects on the number of errors under different noise levels and time pressure levels, with text boldness significantly reducing the number of total errors only in quiet or low time pressure states. Time pressure had no effect on cloud change task error counts, but high time pressure resulted in higher subjective workload. Practitioner Summary: Operator error is one of the main causes of service failure, and reducing operator error in cloud change operations is of practical importance. In this study, we found focused text boldness could reduce operator errors, while noise could increase the number of errors. High time pressure would lead to a high workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visual approach is the most accident-prone phase of a flight, especially in low-visibility conditions. This preliminary study aimed to examine the effects of flight experience on pilots' decision-making and visual scanning pattern in low-visibility approaches. Twenty pilots were separated into two groups based on their flight experience and completed the high- and low-visibility approaches in balanced order using a high-fidelity flight simulator. Pilots' mental workload and visual scanning patterns were recorded via an eye tracker. The results showed that, compared to less flight-experienced pilots (20%, 3/15), experienced pilots (80%, 4/5) were more likely to make go-around decisions in the low-visibility approaches. Furthermore, they exhibited a more flexible and adaptable visual scanning pattern by quickly shifting their attention, as evidenced by decreased fixations and increased saccades. These findings suggest that the integration of visual scanning strategy and training solution with a marginally meteorological approach may enhance decision-making safety for novice pilots. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: This study investigates the 'expertise effects' in visual scanning pattern, mental workload and decision-making among pilots with different levels of flight experience in a modern flight simulator. For safer decision-making, less flight-experienced pilots should enlarge their visual scanning span in a more unburdened manner, especially in low-visibility approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractVisual letter identification refers to humans’ use of a visual system to recognize the 26 letters in the English alphabet. Letters may be partially occluded by nonadjacent small occlusion blocks (called discrete occlusion) or a single occlusion block (called continuous occlusion) in the real world, thereby affecting visual letter identification. The effects caused by discrete occlusion have been investigated in existing research. The results indicate that humans possess the ability to identify partially occluded letters and a large occlusion ratio results in low identification accuracy. However, few studies have explored the effects caused by continuous occlusion and revealed precise reflections on occlusion effects. This study presents an evaluation to explore the effects of continuous occlusion on visual letter identification. A controlled experiment is designed to achieve two research goals: identifying the maximum extent of occlusion ratio (named upper bound) that does not affect visual letter identification and investigating the change patterns of the accuracy of occluded letter identification with the gradual increase in occlusion ratio. The experimental results are analyzed in detail, and three main findings are obtained. First, moderately occluded letters can be accurately identified in a continuous occlusion scene. Second, the precise upper bounds are obtained for each of the 26 letters. Lastly, the change patterns for the 26 letters present three nonlinear decline patterns. The findings could inspire technical advancements in the fields of visualization, computer vision, and healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) enable people to control external devices by focusing on repetitive visual stimuli (RVS). However, RVS can be visually annoying and cause user discomfort. To address this issue, this study proposes subtle flickering RVS to enhance visual comfort with SSVEP-based BCIs. Previous research on mitigating this discomfort has explored various stimuli characteristics, such as frequencies, colors, and patterns, but some studies are contradicting and have their limitations. This study investigates whether modulation depth (MD) can reduce user discomfort when using LCD-displayed stimuli. Specifically, MDs ranging from 1 down to 0.0125 and their effect on SSVEP response and BCI performance have been computed. Results demonstrate that stimuli with a 0.5 MD achieve accuracy and information-transfer rate (ITR) performance of 80.06% and 41.6 bpm which are at par with a baseline BCI having stimuli with a MD of 1, having 79.98% accuracy and 41.08 bpm ITR. These findings demonstrate that a lower flicker annoyance may be obtained with stimuli having a MD of 0.5. By reducing user discomfort, the proposed subtle flickering RVS can improve user experience without significant degradation in performance, potentially increasing the adoption and usability of SSVEP-based BCIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that applying anodal transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) to the medial-frontal cortex can improve how quickly subjects learn to make simple discriminations (i.e., red from blue). Here, we tested the idea that this enhanced task learning is attributable to superior encoding of relevant information into visual long-term memory. Thirty subjects completed an anodal stimulation session and a sham session, with order counterbalanced across subjects, before performing recognition-memory tasks using pictures of real-world objects and visually presented words or nonwords. These tasks allowed us to detect potential memory differences across types of memoranda. Contrary to the hypothesis that the medial-frontal cortex helps control encoding fidelity, we found that anodal tDCS delivered over this brain region did not significantly improve subjects’ memory for visual stimuli, regardless of stimulus type. Our findings show no evidence that targeting medial-frontal cortex with tDCS changes the fidelity of our visual long-term memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-verbal communication, especially eye contact, plays a crucial role in human interaction. Integrating eye contact capabilities into robotic behavior presents challenges that require comprehensive interdisciplinary collaboration from the fields of vision science and robotics. This study introduces an innovative methodology to improve the user's perception of the tabletop social robot Haru's direct gaze by explaining how eye and head movements can be managed through simulating visual perception processing. By considering the mechanisms of eye and head movements during visual perception processing, the robot's eye and head gaze behaviors are intended to replicate human gaze movements with Vestibulo-Ocular Movement (VOM) during face-to-face interaction, ultimately enhancing the user's perception of the robot's direct gaze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Heautoscopic hallucinations are rare visual experiences consisting of the perception of the image of one's own body or face within space. Method: The point of view can be internal, like in front of a mirror, or external. Results: Heautoscopic phenomena are classified among the disorders of somatoagnosia, or disorders related to the alteration of the body schema. It is not clear which sensory system is primarily involved in the generation of this alteration. Discussion: This case report discusses a 21-year-old male student with first episode psychosis who presented heautoscopic hallucinations. His neurological and medical examinations were unremarkable. By explaining the theoretical background on the heterogeneity of autoscopic phenomena in psychiatric and neurological disease, our clinical observation contributes for the first time to enrich the literature on autoscopic hallucinations in patients with non-affective psychosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive control facilitates the resolution of representational conflict during language comprehension when incompatible interpretations vie for selection due to linguistic ambiguity. However, it remains unknown if control is required only when conflict arises between multiple, strongly supported interpretations, or even when there is substantial evidence for one interpretation and competition from weak alternatives. We investigated referential ambiguities such as "She will eat the red ... ", in which listeners temporarily consider multiple red objects as potential referents, including those that are partially consistent with the input (e.g. heart satisfies "red" but not "eat"). We introduce a remote visual-world paradigm to track listeners' interpretive commitments via webcam, combined with a cross-task adaptation manipulation of cognitive-control engagement. We replicated subtle competition effects in referential ambiguity but found that upregulated cognitive control did not modulate competition. This suggests that a competing representation must reach a certain activation threshold before conflict arises, requiring cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhythm is essential in early music education. To acquire rhythm abilities, the synchronisation between body and rhythm patterns is fundamental. Extensive research has shown the link between the auditory-motor system and rhythm acquisition; however, other sensorimotor systems also improve rhythm skills. Rhythm acquisition can be trained using new technologies, such as video games; however, most of these use mainly auditory stimuli to improve it. Therefore, in this work, we explore tactile stimuli to improve rhythm skills using a video game and how visual elements affect rhythm perception using different stimuli. We evaluate and compare the synchronisation of 27 participants following either vibrotactile or auditory stimuli emitted through a rhythm video game in two difficulty levels and we evaluated the user experience. Consistent with the literature, our results indicate that participants synchronised slightly better using auditory than vibrotactile stimuli and players' performance was better when they had visual guides. A fatigue effect persisted and increased over playtime in both conditions. In the current study, usability measures indicate no significant differences. These findings suggest that vibrotactile stimuli are also suitable to train rhythm skills in a video game environment and the game-elements play an important role in players' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Converging evidence suggests a facilitation effect of multisensory interactions on memory performance, reflected in higher accuracy or faster response time under a bimodal encoding condition than a unimodal condition. However, relatively little attention has been given to the effect of multisensory competition on memory. The present study adopted an adaptive staircase test to measure the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS), combined with a delayed matched-to-sample (DMS) task to probe the effect of audiovisual competition during the encoding stage on subsequent unisensory retrieval. The results showed that there was a robust visual dominance effect and multisensory interference effect in WM retrieval, regardless of the subjective synchronous or subjective asynchronous audiovisual presentation. However, a weakened visual dominance effect was observed when the auditory stimulus was presented before the visual stimulus in the encoding period, particularly in the semantically incongruent case. These findings revealed that the prior-entry of sensory information in the early perceptual stage could affect the processing in the late cognitive stage to some extent, and supported the evidence that there is a persistent advantage for visuospatial sketchpad in multisensory WM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye tracking research technologies are often used to study how individuals attend visually to different types of AAC displays (e.g. visual scene displays, grid displays). The assumption is that efficiency of visual search may relate to efficiency of motor selection necessary for communication via aided AAC; however, this assumption has not received direct empirical study. We examined the relation between speed of visual search and speed of motor selection of symbols. Ten individuals on the autism spectrum (AS; Study 1) and nine with Down syndrome (DS; Study 2) participated in a search task using simulated AAC displays with a main visual scene display (VSD) and a navigation bar of thumbnail VSDs. Participants were given an auditory prompt to find one of four thumbnail VSDs in the navigation bar. Eye tracking technologies measured how long it took participants to fixate visually on the thumbnail VSD, and recorded how long it took participants to select the thumbnail VSD with a finger. A statistically significant relationship emerged between visual fixation and selection latencies, confirming the positive relationship between visual processing and motor selection for both groups of participants. Eye tracking data may serve as a useful proxy measure for evaluating how display design influences selection of AAC symbols, especially when individuals are unwilling or unable to comply with traditional behaviorally-based assessment tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous investigations have shown that search for an object with a unique identity is more efficient than search based on unique orientation. Here we asked whether giving an orientation target an identity label is sufficient to boost search efficiency. Participants completed two blocks of search for a line (Experiment 1) or a face (Experiment 2) with a unique orientation. Between blocks we induced an identity-based connection between the participant and search target using the self-reference effect (SRE): participants associated the target with themeselves, and distractors with “strangers.” In both experiments, search was similarly inefficient when the instructions were to search “for you” as they were in search for orientation. The results rule out an intuitively appealing explanation for the large individual differences typically observed in search efficiency, and suggest that associating a target with a more meaningful category is not in itself enough to make search more efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although visual depictions of epidemiological data are not new in public health, the US public saw more of them during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever before. In this study, we considered visualizations of forecasts (i.e. predictions of how a disaster will unfold over time) formatted as line charts. We investigated how two choices scientists make when creating a forecast visual – the outcome of focus (cases or deaths) and the amount of data provided (more or less data) about the past or the potential future – shape behavioral intentions via risk-related appraisals (e.g. threat and efficacy). In an online experiment, participants (N = 236) viewed a written health alert about a novel airborne virus, with one of the eight versions of a forecast visual or no visual (text only). The results of the experiment showed that exposing people to a health alert with a forecast visual in it may be less effective than anticipated. Reading a written health alert with a forecast visual was, at best, equal to outcomes from reading an alert without it, and sometimes it performed worse: participants appraised the novel virus as a less urgent threat and the recommended solutions as less efficacious. Implications of the findings for theories of risk and visual health communication and practical considerations for future health communicators were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, with the increasing demand for visual perception and high-level computational vision tasks, the field of low-light enhancement is rapidly developing. However, models trained on existing datasets often fail or suffer significant performance degradation in real-world low-light scenarios. This performance degradation is frequently due to the limitations of current databases, which typically contain small quantities of paired images of a single type. This article proposes an unsupervised model with a unique data augmentation technique that transforms a regular image database into a paired image database. By adjusting image parameters during training to change exposure, a regular image database can be converted into a paired one. The model restores low-exposure images by extracting lighting features through comparative learning. Evaluations of the LOL and DIV2K datasets demonstrate the proposed model's effectiveness, achieving notable results in low-light image enhancement. This method removes dataset restrictions, broadening the model's range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a letter to the editor of the Journal of Genetic Psychology, written by Alessandro Carollo, Mengyu Lim, and Giorgio Vallortigara. The authors discuss their interview with Prof Giorgio Vallortigara, a renowned expert in animal cognition and neuroscience. They highlight his work on brain lateralization, core cognitive knowledge, and developmental pathways using animal models. The authors emphasize the importance of animal research in understanding the origins of cognition in humans and non-human species. They also mention Vallortigara's views on the future of animal cognition and human development, including the integration of genetics and neurobiology and the study of minimal cognition. [Extracted from the article]

Creating a map style from scratch is challenging. Cartographers may find inspirations from artistic paintings and transfer their style to maps. However, the reference painting and the extracted style elements may not fit well with the content and function of maps, resulting in undesirable or even frustrating map stylization. The question of how to choose appropriate paintings as inspirations and utilize their essential visual elements to stylize maps remains unanswered. As neuroscience has developed, an increasing number of neural mechanisms underlying visual perception have been discovered, deepening our understanding of artistic styles and their adaptation to maps. In this paper, we draw connections between visual neurons and style elements of both artistic paintings and maps by examining seven neural mechanisms (i.e. central-peripheral vision, color-to-contour adhesion, double-opponent effects, visual filling-in, orientation selectivity, latency variation, and what-where separation) that are typical of artistic paintings. We also demonstrate that these mechanisms are transferable to maps. We then create a cartographic style syntactics to generally indicate how and to what degree these mechanisms can be reflected in four cartographic stylistic criteria (i.e. identification, expressiveness, aesthetic appeal and emotional impact). Our work contributes to the integration of principles from neuroscience with cartographic design to deepen our understanding of map perception and to facilitate map style transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to empirically investigate the role of price-related marketing stimuli and the visual appeal of the user interface (UI) on online impulse buying. The mediating effects of cognitive and affective components, which are influenced by price-related and visual-appeal UI, on online impulse buying are checked. A survey-based research design was employed by floating the structured questionnaire among 370 respondents in both online and offline modes. These responses were further analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) and AMOS software. The result of the study indicated that affective shopping behavior, visual appeal of the website, and cognitive shopping behavior significantly influence online impulsive buying compared to price-related stimuli. Though the direct effect of price-related stimuli on online shopping is insignificant, its indirect effect via affective shopping behavior is highly significant. Meanwhile, the website's visual appeal, directly and indirectly, affects online shopping behavior. It was also found that affective shopping behavior fully mediates between price-related marketing stimuli and online impulsive buying. In contrast, cognitive shopping behavior is partially mediated by the visual appeal of UI and online impulsive buying. The research results direct that people may engage in online impulsive buying mainly due to affective shopping behavior and the visual appeal of the UI, but at the same time, they are equally price conscious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peoples' recognition memory for pictorial stimuli is extremely good. Even complex scientific visualisations are recognised with a high degree of accuracy. The present research examined recognition memory for the branching structure of evolutionary trees. This is an educationally consequential topic due to the potential for contamination from students' misconceptions. The authors created six pairs of scientifically accurate and structurally identical evolutionary trees that differed in whether they included a taxon that cued a misconception in memory. As predicted, Experiment 1 found that (a) college students (N = 90) had better memory for each of the six tree structures when a neutral taxon (M = 0.73) rather than a misconception-cuing taxon (M = 0.64) was included in the tree, and (b) recognition memory was significantly above chance for both sets of trees. Experiment 2 ruled out an alternative hypothesis based on the possibility that 8–12 sec was not enough time for students to encode the relationships depicted in the trees. The authors consider implications of these results for using evolutionary trees to better communicate scientific information. This is important because these trees provide information that is relevant for everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To find a target in visual search, it is often necessary to filter out task-irrelevant distractors. People find the process of distractor filtering effortful, exerting physical effort to reduce the number of distractors that need to be filtered on a given search trial. Working memory demands are sufficiently costly that people are sometimes willing to accept aversive heat stimulation in exchange for the ability to avoid performing a working memory task. The present study examines whether filtering distractors in visual search is similarly costly. The findings reveal that individuals are sometimes willing to accept an electric shock in exchange for the ability to skip a single trial of visual search, increasingly so as the demands of distractor filtering increase. This was true even when acceptance of shock resulted in no overall time savings, although acceptance of shock was overall infrequent and influenced by a plurality of factors, including boredom and curiosity. These findings have implications for our understanding of the mental burden of distractor filtering and why people seek to avoid cognitive effort more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to elucidate whether insight problem solving could be facilitated by the cognitive component of humour. The authors take interest in whether the logical mechanisms of humour can affect how fast insight problems are solved. To that end, the authors conducted two experiments where participants solved insight problems after watching visual humorous stimuli such as videos and slideshows. The first experiment demonstrated the overall impact of facilitation by humour on insight problem solving; however, it did not show any difference in how particular logical mechanisms of humour affect the solution time of insight problems. The second experiment showed that the cognitive component of humour could selectively affect insight problems whose difficulty stems from different sources. These results suggest that the cognitive component of humour, when operationalised as logical mechanisms and schema switching, contributes to solving insight problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attentional bias to threat has been almost exclusively examined after participants experienced repeated pairings between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). This study aimed to determine whether threat-related attentional capture can result from observational learning, when participants acquire knowledge of the aversive qualities of a stimulus without themselves experiencing aversive outcomes. Non-clinical young-adult participants (N = 38) first watched a video of an individual (the demonstrator) performing a Pavlovian conditioning task in which one colour was paired with shock (CS+) and another colour was neutral (CS−). They then carried out visual search for a shape-defined target. Oculomotor measures evidenced an attentional bias toward the CS+ colour, suggesting that threat-related attentional capture can ensue from observational learning. Exploratory analyses also revealed that this effect was positively correlated with empathy for the demonstrator. Our findings extend empirical and theoretical knowledge about threat-driven attention and provide valuable insights to better understand the formation of anxiety disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies showed that deep learning techniques and image processing can identify the distinguishing design principles in architectural façades. However, predicting the strength of a principle is still a challenging task, as it requires a huge amount of annotated design variations. The difficulties in both searching such big numbers of data – and its labelling by experts – slow down the research. This paper proposes a computation approach for obtaining this type of data faster. With the help of parametric modelling and evolutionary algorithms, we could manipulate the design elements, and thereby generate different solutions. An integrated fuzzy logic decision mechanism could enable to carry human knowledge in the judging and labelling of alternatives automatically. The final synthetic data developed from real building images could be used for machine learning applications to enhance our understanding of artistic expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designed to answer the call for a new methodology that 'combine[s] analysis of the translated product with an investigation of the translation process', this essay uses graphic materials from a translator's notebooks for a glimpse of the birth of a translation. It concentrates on the seating maps David Hawkes drew when translating some banquet scenes in China's greatest eighteenth-century novel, The Story of the Stone, and experiments on exploring the continuity between visual representations and verbal representations in the translation process, thereby adding a new visual dimension to traditional verbal and textual modes of investigation. Continuing my interest in how the translator-as-reader's mental experience of fictional worlds represented by the source text influences the reader-as-translator's translation process and the textual outcome of the translation, this essay argues that the translator's maps and mapping offer innovative explanations for some important translational decisions, and foreground some hitherto neglected translatorial behaviors, thereby furnishing translation studies with a new perspective to understand the logical systems that inform the translator's decision-making and the becoming of a translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to infer the effectiveness of officers' training and experience by assessing consistency of behavioural responses between them. If officers facing the same scenario respond in similar ways, this implies their use of shared cognition, through acquired in-common tactical knowledge. Officers (n = 42) responded to a live-acted scenario in which an assailant ultimately discharged his weapon. Triangulated camera positions assessed their movement patterns, final positions, and weapon responses relative to when the assailant fired his weapon. We also assessed the officers' visual search and gathered information regarding their experience and rest. Our second aim was to examine sources of variability in the officers' responses. We found extensive variability in all aspects of the response. Experience did not impact spatial or temporal behavioural responses. However, longer hours awake and lower reported rest negatively impacted officers' responses. We conclude that officers had insufficient training and experience to demonstrate in-common knowledge. Practitioner summary: Police officers showed high spatial and temporal variability in response to the same scenario. This implies inadequate tactical training, and is supported by our finding that training and experience did not impact performance. Instead, the officers' variability was constrained by their visual search, and the hours awake before being tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studies using representational similarity analysis (RSA) of fMRI data, the reliability of the neural representational dissimilarity matrix (RDM) is a limiting factor in the ability to detect neural correlates of a model. A common strategy for boosting neural RDM reliability is to employ repeated presentations of the stimulus set across imaging runs or sessions. However, little is known about how the benefits of stimulus repetition are affected by repetition suppression, or how they compare with the benefits of increasing the number of participants. We examined the effects of these design parameters in two large data sets where participants performed a semantic decision task on visually presented words. We found that reliability gains from stimulus repetition were strongly affected by repetition suppression, both within and across scanning sessions separated by multiple weeks. The results provide new insights into these experimental design choices, particularly for item-level RSA studies of semantic cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalography may be a valuable tool for assessing lexico-semantic processing in conditions where behavioural measures are unreliable. Detecting and quantifying effects in individuals is crucial for clinical applications, but individual-subject analyses are frequently not reported, and are hampered by low signal-to-noise. Multivariate analyses (MVPA) may be more sensitive than traditional approaches, so we asked how robustly they could detect differential neural responses to semantically matched and mismatched word/picture pairs in individuals. With clinical application in mind, we compared data from a research-grade EEG system to concurrently recorded data from the wireless Emotiv EPOC +. In both EEG systems, despite robust group-level effects, we only detected statistically significant processing of lexico-semantic condition in 50% of individuals. Surprisingly, detection rates were similar for MVPA and univariate analyses. MVPA may be advantageous when individual responses are heterogeneous, but in this simple paradigm, lexico-semantic processing could not be reliably detected at the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the impact of four visual elements, namely text, colour, image, and shape, on the visual perception of Chinese consumers when observing nutrition labels, as well as to enhance their attention towards nutritional information, this study examines the visual effects of nutrition labels incorporating these elements through eye movement experiments, questionnaire surveys, subjective evaluations, and other research methods. The aim is to determine the optimal design solution. The results revealed that participants displayed the highest level of attention towards the round x image group, followed by the colour group. Thus, exceptional image design and a suitable colour scheme can significantly enhance consumers' attention during browsing. This study offers valuable references and guidance for the redesign of food nutrition labels, while also presenting research insights for the application of visual perception in other domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of the standing center of gravity sway by providing visual stimulus information as if the subjects were walking in virtual reality (VR) and by monitoring conditions with different corridor widths. We included 25 healthy young individuals in our study. The center of gravity sway was measured during open- and closed-eye static standing using images of walking in corridors of different widths (780 and 1600 mm) presented on a VR and personal computer monitor (Monitor). The parameters measured for the center of gravity sway were swing path length (SPL), height of excursion (HoE), and width of excursion (WoE). The results showed that the SPL and HoE values were significantly greater in the VR group than those in the Monitor group. The greater center of gravity sway in the VR compared with the Monitor group can be attributed to the ability of the head-mounted VR display to cover the entire field of vision and its head-tracking function. There was no change in the center of gravity sway with respect to the corridor width, which may be because the width of the corridor alone did not provide sufficient visual stimulation to affect physical function. This research could lead to further studies which could impact the motivation of patients for rehabilitation therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

\nHighlightsStudying pigeons during homing has offered an opportunity to investigate visual–functional brain lateralization in the context of free flying and long distance navigation. In the current study we examine at a high scale of spatial resolution the flight paths of pigeons, which vary with respect to monocular and binocular treatment, as they familiarise themselves with landscape and landmark features during repeated flights home from two locations. The analysis of the flight paths of monocularly occluded pigeons revealed that pigeons using the right eye/left hemisphere visual system were more likely to display more tortuous paths over tracts of 500 m along the flight path home compared to both pigeons using the left eye/right hemisphere visual system and control birds. Accompanying this finding was the observation that pigeons using the right eye/left hemisphere system were more likely to perform flight “loops”, suggesting that, without right hemispheric visual processing, pigeons are more motivated to seek out visual input, behaviourally expanding the now monocularly reduced visual field. Taken together, the data are consistent with a more important role of the left eye/right hemisphere system in processing visual features of the landscape, which may contribute to the construction of the familiar landmark-based map used for navigation. More broadly, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that the right cerebral hemisphere of the avian brain plays a more important role in memorising and using the relational properties of visual stimuli to guide performance on spatial tasks. Pigeons challenged to learn visual landscape features with only the left or right eye displayed different patterns of flight behaviour.Birds using the right eye/left hemisphere showed a greater high spatial resolution tortuosity than birds using the left eye/right hemisphere.The results are consistent with an important role of the avian right brain hemisphere in memory-based, visuo-spatial tasks.Pigeons challenged to learn visual landscape features with only the left or right eye displayed different patterns of flight behaviour.Birds using the right eye/left hemisphere showed a greater high spatial resolution tortuosity than birds using the left eye/right hemisphere.The results are consistent with an important role of the avian right brain hemisphere in memory-based, visuo-spatial tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ceuta and Melilla are considered exemplary models of the border spectacle. The fences of these cities typify the notion of ‘Fortress Europe’ and impel the emotional engagement of the inhabitants with migration control policies. This article focuses on the experiences of local activists who have resisted migration containment policies. Through a close examination of the emotional geographies of activism in border areas, and the effect of migration policies on the everyday, this article aims to uncover the civic emotions underlying the lived realities of activists. Furthermore, by addressing the methodological challenges of investigating social emotions, this study integrates visual elicitation methods into ethnographic research. The evocative power of cinema allows films to act as visual stimuli that convey the intimate narratives of activists, which encompass compassion, outrage, or fatigue in the context of pro-migrant mobilization. By drawing on the mundane experiences of borders, this article delves into the intersection of emotions, activism, and borders to elucidate experiences against migration control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the potential of visual search services (VSSs) to increase the size of the global visual search market, there is no VSS effectiveness measurement scale in the literature. Prior studies of traditional text-based search services have aimed to establish a method for assessing the performance of web search services. Our primary objective is to integrate state-of-the-art research in the fields of information-seeking behavior, visual search performance, and human–computer interaction pertaining to evaluating VSS effectiveness. The key dimensions of VSS effectiveness were identified by adopting the Delphi method, and the associated measures were developed. Then, survey data were collected from 426 VSS users, and the developed measures of VSS effectiveness were validated using the exploratory factor analysis technique. Finally, the scale developed includes 19 measures belonging to three key dimensions: user dependency on VSSs, the perceived ability to use VSSs, and VSS retrieval performance. The nomological validity of the developed scale's three dimensions was also ensured and was evident from the positive correlations between them and VSS user continuance intention. Overall, we find that the better the functionality of a VSS is, the more users with a high perceived ability can acquire better information. This study also contributes to the theory development in the literature on search service effectiveness measures in terms of highlighting the VSS feature to be considered when providing a VSS that is suitable for the user's preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth of smart terminal industry and User-Generated Content products, Social Media Applications (SMA) products, represented by TikTok, have been booming growth. How to capture and maintain users' attention in order to prolong their stay on the product and increase customer stickiness has become the focus of the industry. Therefore, according to the duration and characteristics of users using SMA, this paper takes the layout of SMA as an example to study the visual attention quality. Firstly, through the literature review, the study of visual attention quality in SMA was summarized into four aspects, including the span, maintenance, allocation, and switch of attention. Secondly, eye movement and behavior experiments were designed based on common content consumption tasks of SMA users to verify the hypotheses proposed in this paper. According to the results: (1) In terms of attention maintenance, linear layout outperformed masonry layout, masonry layout outperformed matrix layout, and in terms of attention span, the reverse was true; (2) In attention allocation, linear layout showed the best anti-interference characteristics; The masonry layout is suitable to be used in the task search stage and also in the dual-task execution stage; (3) In terms of attention switch, the energy cost of attention switch increased in the order of matrix layout, masonry layout and linear layout. (4) In terms of interaction, double-clicking interaction had more advantages in attention allocation and cognitive load than swiping interaction. The research in this paper has provided objective and quantitative data support for the design and operation of SMA products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement of users' perception and visual behaviors to anthropomorphic design cues of chatbots can improve our understanding of chatbots and potentially optimize chatbot design. However, as two typical and basic features, how chatbot appearances and conversational styles jointly affect users' perception and visual behaviors remains unclear. Therefore, this study conducted an eye-tracking experiment to explore users' perception and visual behaviors. Results indicate that anthropomorphic appearances and human-like conversational styles jointly increased users' perception of chatbots' social presence, trust in chatbots, and satisfaction with chatbots. In contrast, on users' visual behaviors, such a joint effect was not found, although chatbots with higher anthropomorphic appearances and human-like conversational styles triggered more fixation counts and longer dwell time. These findings suggest that anthropomorphic appearance and human-like conversational style can improve users' perception and attract more visual attention to chatbots. These findings provide theoretical contributions and practical implications for relevant researchers and designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with homonymous hemianopia (HH) benefit from applying compensatory scanning behaviour that limits the consequences of HH in a specific task. The aim of the study is to (i) review the current literature on task-specific scanning behaviour that improves performance and (ii) identify differences between this performance-enhancing scanning behaviour and scanning behaviour that is spontaneously adopted or acquired through training. The databases PsycInfo, Medline, and Web of Science were searched for articles on scanning behaviour in people with HH. The final sample contained 60 articles, reporting on three main tasks, i.e., search (N = 17), reading (N = 16) and mobility (N = 14), and other tasks (N = 18). Five articles reported on two different tasks. Specific scanning behaviour related to task performance in search, reading, and mobility tasks. In search and reading tasks, spontaneous adaptations differed from this performance-enhancing scanning behaviour. Training could induce adaptations in scanning behaviour, enhancing performance in these two tasks. For mobility tasks, limited to no information was found on spontaneous and training-induced adaptations to scanning behaviour. Performance-enhancing scanning behaviour is mainly task-specific. Spontaneous development of such scanning behaviour is rare. Luckily, current compensatory scanning training programs can induce such scanning behaviour, which confirms that providing scanning training is important. Scanning behaviour that improves performance in people with homonymous hemianopia (HH) is task-specific. Most people with HH do not spontaneously adopt scanning behaviour that improves performance. Compensatory scanning training can induce performance-enhancing scanning behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transposing two words in a sentence (e.g. "cat" and "was" in "the white cat was big") creates a sequence that is harder to classify as ungrammatical than control sequences (e.g. "the white was cat slowly"), suggesting that word position coding is noisy and can be affected by syntactic expectations. In the present research, this transposed-word effect was examined more closely using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) formats which provided either clear temporal cues to word order but no spatial cues, or both types of cues. Compared to when all words were presented simultaneously, the two RSVP formats reduced the transposed-word effect to the same degree while having no parallel impact on another ungrammatical comparison condition involving no transposition. These results are discussed in the context of serial and parallel models of reading as well as models that propose a later processing stage for the locus of the transposed-word effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]