Age-related differences in selection by visual saliency

We examined the ability of older adults to select local and global stimuli varying in perceptual saliency—a task requiring nonspatial visual selection. Participants were asked to identify in separate blocks a target at either the global or the local level of a hierarchical stimulus, while the saliency of each level was varied (across different conditions, either the local or the global form was the more salient and relatively easier to identify). Older adults were less efficient than young adults in ignoring distractors that were higher in saliency than were targets, and this occurred across both the global and local levels of form. The increased effects of distractor saliency on older adults occurred even when the effects were scaled by overall differences in task performance. The data provide evidence for an age-related decline in nonspatial attentional selection of low-salient hierarchical stimuli, not determined by the (global or local) level at which selection was required. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding both the interaction between saliency and hierarchical processing and the effects of aging on nonspatial visual attention.     

A saliency map in primary visual cortex

I propose that pre-attentive computational mechanisms in primary visual cortex create a saliency map. This map awards higher responses to more salient image locations; these responses are those of conventional V1 cells tuned to input features, such as orientation and color. Hence no separate feature maps, or any subsequent combination of them, is needed to create a saliency map. I use a model to show that this saliency map accounts for the way that the relative difficulties of visual search tasks depend on the features and spatial configurations of targets and distractors. This proposal links psychophysical behavior to V1 physiology and anatomy, and thereby makes testable predictions.     

Personality differences in hindsight bias

Ten personality correlates of hindsight bias were tested in a study with 75 participants answering almanac-type knowledge questions. Participants showed hindsight bias when hindsight estimates were compared to foresight estimates (memory condition), when hindsight estimates were compared to foresight estimates of other participants (BS = between-subjects hypothetical condition), and when hindsight estimates were compared to foresight estimates in response to equally difficult control items (WS = within-subject hypothetical condition). The magnitude of hindsight bias in both hypothetical conditions was positively associated with the participant's field dependence and his or her tendency for favourable self-presentation (as measured by social desirability and impression management). Between-subjects hypothetical hindsight was associated with the participant's conscientiousness and need for predictability and control (as measured by a rigidity scale). In a multiple regression analysis, 39% of the variance in BS hypothetical hindsight, 24% of the variance in WS hypothetical hindsight, but no significant proportion of the variance in memory hindsight could be accounted for by personality measures. It is concluded that individual differences in hindsight bias exist and must be taken into account in a complete model of the effect.     

Personality differences in hindsight bias

Ten personality correlates of hindsight bias were tested in a study with 75 participants answering almanac-type knowledge questions. Participants showed hindsight bias when hindsight estimates were compared to foresight estimates (memory condition), when hindsight estimates were compared to foresight estimates of other participants (BS = between-subjects hypothetical condition), and when hindsight estimates were compared to foresight estimates in response to equally difficult control items (WS = within-subject hypothetical condition). The magnitude of hindsight bias in both hypothetical conditions was positively associated with the participant's field dependence and his or her tendency for favourable self-presentation (as measured by social desirability and impression management). Between-subjects hypothetical hindsight was associated with the participant's conscientiousness and need for predictability and control (as measured by a rigidity scale). In a multiple regression analysis, 39% of the variance in BS hypothetical hindsight, 24% of the variance in WS hypothetical hindsight, but no significant proportion of the variance in memory hindsight could be accounted for by personality measures. It is concluded that individual differences in hindsight bias exist and must be taken into account in a complete model of the effect.     

Transfer effects in implicit memory and consumer choice

Two experiments investigated transfer effects in implicit memory and consumer choice, using a preference judgement task. Experiment 1 examined whether it is possible to obtain priming for unfamiliar food labels. Additionally, it investigated whether the experience of seeing a brand name with a particular product type would benefit subsequent processing of the brand name when linked with a different product type. Experiment 2 examined whether changes in modality between study and test would affect priming for unfamiliar brand names. Both questions are theoretically important, as well as pertaining to practical concerns in the consumer choice literature. Experiment 1 demonstrated significant priming for unfamiliar food labels, and established that priming was unaffected by changing the product type with which the brand name was associated. In Experiment 2, priming on both auditory and visual versions of the preference judgement task was reduced by changes in modality. The results and implications are discussed in relation to consumer choice and current theories of implicit memory. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Carryover bias in visual assessment.

Carryover of stimuli in sequential judgments was studied for a visual assessment task involving estimation of the percentage cover of black circles on a white image. Seven image types with different levels of cover density were arranged in a sequentially balanced design in which each image type was preceded the same number of times by all image types. In the absence of carryover, when images were preceded by images with the same cover density, the response scores were well fitted by a power function of percentage cover with a mean exponent of 0.73 over subjects. Carryover took the form of an assimilation, so that the cover estimate for a target image was generally higher when preceded by an image with higher cover, and lower when preceded by an image with lower cover. However, the magnitude of the carryover effect showed little evidence of increasing with difference in cover between successive images. Nonparametric and parametric methods for testing for carryover are presented. The need for development of psychological models to explain the proposed statistical models is discussed.     

Sex differences in interpretation bias in adolescents

Interpretation biases, in which ambiguous information is interpreted negatively, have been hypothesized to place adolescent females at greater risk of developing anxiety and mood disorders than same‐aged males. We tested the hypothesis that adolescent girls interpret ambiguous scenarios more negatively, and/or less positively, than same‐aged males using the Adolescent Interpretation and Belief Questionnaire (N = 67, 11–15 years old). We also tested whether adolescent girls and boys differed in judging positive or negative interpretations to be more believable and whether the scenario content (social vs. non‐social) affected any sex difference in interpretation bias. The results showed that girls had higher average negative interpretation scores than boys, with no sex differences in positive interpretation scores. Girls and boys did not differ on which interpretation they found to be most believable. Both sexes reported that positive interpretations were less likely to come to mind, and were less believable, for social than for non‐social scenarios. These results provide preliminary evidence for sex differences in interpretation biases in adolescence and support the hypothesis that social scenarios are a specific source of anxiety to this age group. A greater understanding of the aetiology of interpretation biases will potentially enhance sex‐ and age‐specific interventions for anxiety and mood disorders.     

Uncertainty in ethical consumer choice: a conceptual model

The market place has seen significant growth in the demand for ‘ethical’ products and services. Yet, consumers often experience knowledge, evaluation and choice uncertainties in decision‐making processes, particularly in relation to products such as ethical clothing. The authors explore this pertinent form of consumer uncertainty through three qualitative studies of ethical consumers that examine their approaches to clothing consumption. In‐depth interviews and focus groups confirm uncertainty arises; the results also identify the causes and consequences of consumer uncertainty in this context. The causes of uncertainty pertain to issues surrounding complexity, ambiguity, conflict and credibility that give rise to uncertainties that result in delaying purchase decisions, compromising beliefs and negative emotions. This study contributes to literature by offering a holistic understanding of the challenges facing consumers when making ethical choices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Domain knowledge moderates the influence of visual saliency in scene recognition

Is the sequence of eye‐movements made when viewing a picture related to encoding the image into memory? The suggestion of a relationship is supported by studies that have found that scanpaths are more similar over multiple viewings of a stimulus than would be expected by chance. It has also been found that low‐level visual saliency contributes to the initial formation of these scanpaths, and has lead to formation of theories such as the saliency map hypothesis. However, bottom‐up processes such as these can be overridden by top‐down cognitive knowledge in the form of domain proficiency. Domain specialists were asked to look at a set of photographs of real‐world scenes in preparation for a memory test. Then they were given a second set of stimuli and were asked to identify the picture as old (from the previous set) or new (never seen before). Eye tracking analyses (including scanpath comparison using a string editing algorithm) revealed that saliency did influence where participants looked and in what sequence. However, this was reliably reduced when participants viewed pictures from their specialist domain. This effect is shown to be robust in a repeated viewing of the stimuli.     

Modelling consumer entertainment software choice: An exploratory examination of key attributes,and differences by gamer segment

• From virtually nowhere 20 years ago to sales of US$9.5 billion in 2007, the video game industry has now overtaken movie industry box‐office receipts in terms of annual sales, and blockbuster video games can out perform blockbuster movies for opening‐week sales. This dramatic growth is likely to continue in coming years. Yet there has been little scholarly attention to consumers within the industry. This research fills this gap by providing a comprehensive study of consumer behaviour in the gaming industry, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB); a widely used, robust and reliable consumer research instrument. The study elicits key salient attributes for the major constructs in the TPB model – attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control – and shows how these key constructs affect purchase intention. To avoid aggregation error in analysing overall market data, this study segments the market and examines differences in perspective by gamer type. We therefore examine differences in these key salient attributes by gamer type to understand consumer motivations better.
• As the first systematic study to examine consumer behaviour issues in the gaming industry, this study provides useful insights to consumers' behaviour in a large, growing industry. Consumer perceptions and behaviour toward entertainment software is complex and this study is not the final word, but it is the first available empirical evidence and can thus move forward the discussion from speculation to replication, extension, and alternative approaches. For managers in this industry, this study demonstrates how a comprehensive model can be applied to entertainment software.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two kinds of bias in visual comparison illustrate the role of location and holistic/analytic processing differences

A number of studies have shown that two stimuli appearing successively at the same spatial location are more likely to be perceived as the same, even though location is irrelevant to the task. This bias to respond “same” when stimuli are at the same location is termed spatial congruency bias. The experiments reported here demonstrate that the spatial congruency bias extends to letter strings: Participants tend to respond “same” when comparing two strings appearing successively at the same location. This bias may arise because successive stimuli at the same location are more likely to be perceived as a single object. Bias is also affected by the nature of the comparison task. We show that if letters must be compared individually (analytical comparison), there is a bias to respond “different,” but if letter strings are compared as unified wholes (holistic comparison), there is no bias or a bias to respond “same.” This analytical bias is apparently separate from the spatial congruency bias. It appears whether the task requires localization of differences between strings, or counting the number of differences, or ignoring differences in some parts of the stimuli while attending to others. All of these analytical comparison tasks require that letters be selected individually, and the analytical bias may reflect difficulty in preventing interference from neighboring letters in this selection process. Each type of bias reflects a different aspect of visual processing, and both can be measured to probe how processing changes across different tasks.     

On self-referencing differences in judgment and choice

Compared to judgment, choice is argued to elicit more self-referent processing and thereby produce greater subsequent recall of evaluated information. This response mode effect is shown to be dependent upon sufficient visualization to overcome the use of heuristic processing during choice. When visualizing prior to the task, choice leads to increased thinking about personal consumption occasions relative to judgment, leading to enhanced recall of vivid (vs. non-vivid) attributes. This proposed interaction of task and visualization was found in two experiments that assessed incidental recall following a choice or judgment task. In experiment 1, participants recalled more vivid product attribute information after choosing between options than after rating each option separately, but only when instructed to visualize during evaluation. To eliminate a comparison-based explanation of this effect, a second experiment was conducted that presented only one option in each category. Participants who evaluated their intention to purchase the option (a judgment equivalent of choice) demonstrated greater recall of vivid product attribute information than did participants who rated their liking for the option, and this recall difference was again moderated by instructions to visualize.     

Response bias and hemispheric differences in dot localization

A series of studies investigated the accuracy of dot localization in left and right visual fields. The left visual field superiority previously reported for this task was found to be small and statistically inconsistent. It was unaffected by the presence of a frame of reference, the location of the response card, or the sex of the subject. It was observed, however, that the majority of subjects showed a response bias favoring the report of items in the left visual field. This suggests that the right hemisphere is less critical than the left in its assessment of incoming information, and may provide a basis for understanding previous reports of right hemispheric superiority on dot localization. It is concluded that dot localization does not provide a reliable measure of right hemisphere performance.     

Age-related differences in attentional bias for emotional faces

Past research suggests an aging-related positivity effect in orienting to faces. However, these studies have eschewed direct comparison of orienting when positive and negative faces are presented simultaneously, thereby potentially underestimating the degree to which emotional valence influences such effects. In the current study younger and older adults viewed face pairs for 1000 ms, and upon face-pair offset indicated the location of a dot that appeared in the former location of one of the faces, to assess attentional orienting. When shown negative–neutral pairs, both age groups were biased to attend to negative faces, but when shown positive–negative pairs only younger adults showed a bias toward negative; older adults showed a lack of orienting toward either emotional face. Results suggest younger adults have a negativity bias in attention orienting regardless of the valence of nearby stimuli, whereas older adults show an absence of this bias when positive information is present.     

Individual differences in consumer value for mass customized products

Mass customized products, compared with mass marketed alternatives, offer advantages for optimizing performance outcomes, improving aesthetic appeal, and matching products' symbolic meanings with consumers' expressive desires. Despite having identified these value drivers for mass customized products, extant research has not connected those value drivers to individual differences among consumers. As a result, researchers' and practitioners' abilities to predict consumer value for mass customized products remain limited. This study advances and tests a model of individual differences associated with the perceived value of a customized product and mediated by involvement and perceived risk. A field survey administered to a sample of 240 participants provided data to test the model. Path analysis using structural equations modeling suggests that consumer value for mass customized products differs according to individual differences in need for uniqueness, need for optimization, and centrality of visual product aesthetics. Results also suggest that product category involvement and perceived risk are informative theoretical perspectives from which to study consumer value for mass customized products. The findings hold implications for how firms should approach the design of mass customization toolkits and how they should structure marketing communications promoting mass customized products. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Age differences in visual statistical learning

Recent work has shown that older adults' lessened inhibitory control leads them to inadvertently bind co-occurring targets and distractors. Although this hyper-binding effect may lead to the formation of more superfluous associations, and thus greater interference at retrieval for older adults, it may also lead to a greater knowledge of information contained within the periphery of awareness. On the basis of evidence that younger adults only show learning for statistical regularities contained within attended information, we asked whether older adults may also show learning for regularities contained within to-be-ignored information. Older and younger adults viewed a series of red and green pictures and performed a 1-back task on one of the colors. Unbeknownst to participants, both color streams were organized into triplets that occurred sequentially. Implicit memory for the triplets from both the attended and ignored streams was tested using a speeded detection task. Replicating previous work, younger adults demonstrated more learning for the attended triplets than the unattended triplets. Older adults, however, demonstrated similar learning for both the attended and ignored triplets, suggesting that contrary to popular belief, they may actually know more than younger adults about the world around them, including how seemingly irrelevant events co-occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Individual differences in visual comparison processes

Two experiments are reported in which subjects compared the shape of two successively presented random visual forms. The first stimulus in the pair was one of five “standard” shapes, and the second stimulus was either the same as the standard or different by virtue of a perturbation in shape or an overall reflection. Marked individual differences were found in reaction time for the same-different comparison. For one type of subject “same” responses were faster than “different” responses, speed of “different” responses was unaffected by similarity of the test shape to the standard, and error rates and reaction times were not systematically related. For the other type of subject, “different” responses were generally faster than “same” responses, “different” reaction time decreased as the standard shape and the test shape became increasingly dissimilar, and error rates and reaction times were positively correlated. Implications of these individual differences for models of the same-different comparison process are discussed.