Tailoring visual images to fit: Value creation in persuasive messages

The present studies aimed to extend Regulatory Fit Theory in the domain of persuasive communication by (a) using printed advertisement images without any verbal claim, instead of purely or mostly verbal messages; (b) selecting the images to fit the distinct orientations of regulatory mode rather than regulatory focus; and (c) priming regulatory mode orientation instead of relying on chronic prevalence of either locomotion or assessment orientation. We found that recipients primed with a locomotion orientation experienced fit, and were more persuaded, when exposed to “dynamic” versus “static” visual images; conversely, recipients primed with an assessment orientation experienced fit and were more persuaded when exposed to “static” versus “dynamic” images. Our findings show that the experience of fit can be induced by visual messages, resulting in positive effects in terms of attitude toward product advertisement and estimated price of advertised products. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Successive vs simultaneous processing of superimposed visual stimuli

A visual analogue of Savin’s (1967) auditory task was used to examine preferred order of recall and order of recall accuracy for two pairs of visually superimposed digits. Savin (1967) and Rollins, Everson, and Schurman (1972) found that Ss preferred to recall simultaneous auditory information in successive order, even though the information was presented over a single channel. In the present experiments, Ss were found to prefer strongly to recall visual information in simultaneous order. On the other hand, the results of Rollins et al (1972), that Ss are equally accurate when forced to recall simultaneous auditory information in either the preferred or nonpreferred mode, were replicated for this visual task. The results of these experiments, together with the experiment reported by Rollins et al (1972), indicate that verbal information is processed differently by these two sensory systems.     

Temporal integration between visual images and visual percepts

Using a temporal integration task, subjects in 5 experiments were expected to combine information from temporally separated visual presentations. Evidence from these experiments indicated that perceptual information can be integrated with previously generated and currently maintained visual images to form a representation that contains information from each source. Properties and limitations of this integration process were also explored, including the time required to generated the image, the speed at which percepts were integrated with images, and the capacity of the representation. Implications for theories of visual processing and memory are discussed.     

Short-term retention of superimposed and of spatially distinct multiletter visual arrays

On each trial, Ss attempted to retain a series of five visually presented letters while concurrently “shadowing” (repeating aloud) a rapid series of aurally presented letters. If serial-position accuracy is ignored, they were able to store more than only the last letter of a typical series, even though all five letters appeared on the same screen, and that performance was superior to the retention of five auditorily presented letters. Together, these findings suggest that a form of visual storage might have been employed for the retention of visual stimuli and, specifically, one that was relatively immune to erasure as compared to “iconic” storage. In further support of that hypothesis, retention of such visual series as measured by free-recall accuracy was not inferior to that of five letters, each of which was presented on a separate screen.     

Integrating visual images and visual percepts across time and space

Recent studies suggest that visual information can be integrated over a relatively long delay (> 1500 ms) to form a more complete representation (image-percept integration). The current studies investigated whether this process can occur between stimuli that differ in their spatial properties. Participants viewed two dot arrays that filled all but one space in a square or rectangular grid when combined, and reported the missing space. The arrays differed either in size or orientation. Performance reached a comparable level as when spatial properties were matched. However, such performance depends on at least two processes. We suggest an early encoding process and a later image formation/spatial attention reallocation process are required. The flexibility of the image-percept integration process suggests a strong mechanism to form more complete or detailed representations over time, even when the retinal size and orientation of the scene may change between successive views.     

Visual antipriming: Evidence for ongoing adjustments of superimposed visual object representations

A fundamental question of memory is whether the representations of different items are stored in localist/discrete or superimposed/overlapping manners. Neural evidence suggests that neocortical areas underlying visual object identification utilize superimposed representations that undergo continual adjustments, but there has been little corroborating behavioral evidence. We hypothesize that the representation of an object is strengthened, after it is identified, via small representational changes; this strengthening is responsible for repetition priming for that object, but it should also be responsible for antipriming of other objects that have representations superimposed with that of the primed object. Functional evidence for antipriming is reported in young adults, amnesic patients, and matched control participants, and neurocomputational models. The findings from patients dismiss explicit memory explanations, and the models fit the behavioral performance exceptionally well. Putative purposes of priming and comparisons with other theories are discussed. Priming and antipriming may reflect ongoing adjustments of superimposed representations in neocortex.     

Factors affecting reports of fragmenting visual images

Seven experiments employing simulation as well as actual voluntary stabilization were performed to study the reporting of fragmenting visual images. The results indicated a significant bias toward the reporting of meaningful fragments when verbal reports were used throughout each trial. Moreover, tracings of fragments were completely accurate only when one line segment of the original pattern remained, with errors becoming increasingly likely as the number of segments remaining increased. Diagonally oriented line segments disappeared more frequently than those oriented either vertically or horizontally. Locus of fixation proved important, but Hebb’s hypothesis concerning the preponderance of meaningful fragments was not supported.     

Memory scanning for words in visual images

This study attempts to replicate an experiment reported by Seamon (1972). In the present investigation, as in the study by Seamon, the scanning of short-term memory was compared when its contents were rehearsed words vs. a mental image. Memory sets were composed of either one, two, or three words. In the relational imagery group, subjects were required to form a single interactive mental scene of the entities which the memory set words represent. Nonimagery subjects were given instructions to covertly rehearse the memory set. In both groups, the usual memory set size (m) effect was obtained, i.e., reaction time (RT) increased linearly with m. Moreover, the set size effect was the same for both groups. This latter finding stands in marked contrast to the result obtained by Seamon; he found no effect of set size when subjects were given interactive imagery instructions. Because of the failure to replicate Seamon, an additional group of subjects were given imagery instructions. For this latter group, some of the procedural discrepancies between the relational imagery group of the present study and the corresponding group in Seamon’s study were resolved. Also, in this additional group, the set size effect was examined as a function of the subjects’ ratings of the quality of the images which they had formed. The same set size effect was found for this additional group, and the effect was independent of image quality.     

Enrichment of words by visual images: books, slides, and videos

This article reviews additions to 3 ways of visually enriching verbal accounts of the history of psychology: illustrated books, slides, and videos. Although each approach has its limitations and its merits, taken together they constitute a significant addition to the printed word. As such, they broaden the toolkits of both the learners and the teachers of the history of psychology. Reference is also made to 3 earlier publications.     

Sex bias in visual images evoked by generics: A new zealand study

Male biases are known to exist in the usage, evaluation, and interpretation of masculine generics. This study explored, by means of a tachistoscope, sex-specific biases in visual images evoked by masculine (All men are created equal, At university a student can study whatever he wants) and feminine (The feminists protested outside the town hall, At university a student can study whatever she wants) generics. Photographs of male and female faces were presented in a deliberately ambiguous (subthreshold) viewing field while maintaining the masculine or feminine generic sentence on constant view. It was predicted and found in a sample of 48 university students that if generics invoked sex-specific images, the images would affect the direction in which the viewer would resolve the ambiguous faces, resulting in more reported male faces in the masculine than in the feminine generic condition.Preparation of this article was supported by a New Zealand Social Sciences Research Fund Committee grant (8632/21/24/8604) to S. H. Ng.     

Selective interference during the retrieval of visual images

Twenty-six subjects memorized lists of (low I and high I) noun pairs under imagery or verbal mediation instructions. At recall the subjects were presented a digit (“1” or “2”) either auditorily or visually as an interfering stimulus.

Visual interference was found to selectively affect the retrieval of high I response terms. Also, the retrieval of nouns studied by imagery mediation was found to be selectively disrupted by visual interference.

These results suggest that the qualities of a visual image are retained all the way from image acquisition to retrieval, and that the visual components of images generated at the acquisition stage are probably not lost by subsequent coding processes.     

Detection versus discrimination of visual orientation

The role of focused attention in vision is examined. Recent theories of attention hypothesize that serial search by focal attention is required for discrimination between different combinations of features. Experiments are reported which show that the mixture of a few (less than five) horizontal and vertical line segments embedded in an aggregate of diagonal line segments can be rapidly counted (also called 'subitizing') by a parallel (preattentive) process, while the discrimination between horizontal and vertical orientation requires serial search by shifting focal attention to each line segment. Thus detecting and counting targets that differ in orientation can be done in parallel by a preattentive process, whereas knowing 'what' the orientation of a target is (horizontal or vertical, ie of a single conspicuous feature) requires a serial search by focal attention.     

Temporal integration of spatially filtered visual images.

Factors which govern the temporal integration of spatial information were examined in a group of five experiments. A series of high-pass and low-pass spatially filtered versions of a visual scene were generated. Observers' ratings of these filtered versions of the scene for perceived image quality indicated that quality was determined both by the bandwidth of spatial information and the presence of high-spatial-frequency edge information. When sequences of three different versions of the scene were presented over an interval of 120 ms the perceived quality of the resulting composite image was determined both from the ratings of the individual components of that sequence and from the order in which these components were presented. When the order of spatial information in a sequence moved from coarse to fine detail the perceived quality of the composite image was significantly better than when the order moved from fine to coarse. This evidence of a coarse-to-fine bias in pattern integration was further investigated with a detection paradigm. The pattern of errors once again indicated that temporal integration of spatial information was superior when a coarse-to-fine mode of information delivery was employed. Taken together the data indicate that the pattern-integration mechanism has an inherent order bias and does not accumulate spatial information so efficiently when the 'natural' coarse-to-fine order is violated.