The “lag effect” in dichoptic viewing

Ten subjects were asked to report both of two different consonant-vowels (CVs) presented to the same foveal area, but in different eyes (“dichoptically”). Stimuli were presented at stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) ranging from 0 to 150 msec in 25-msec steps. Correct identifications were significantly depressed for the eye receiving the leading stimulus at SOAs of 25 to 75 msec. Monoptic data from three subjects indicated no significant reductions in correct identification as a function of SOA. The dichoptic results can be understood in terms of current theories of visual backward masking and are similar to the “lag effect” observed with dichotic listening to speech stimuli. Similarity of results for the two modalities suggests a similar “two-process” explanation may underlie both phenomena.     

The Associations between Mobile Media use and Food Consumption in Parent-Child Dyads

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Mobile media is an emerging factor that may affect children’s dietary behaviors in the family environment. However, little research has examined...     

Odor Semantics and Visual Cues: What We Smell Impacts Where We Look,What We Remember,and What We Want to Buy

The current research uses eye‐tracking technology in a consumer context to explore the interactive effects of olfactory and visual cues on consumers' eye gaze patterns. We manipulate the semantic correspondence between pictorial objects depicted in print advertisements and odors smelled (or not) while looking at the ads. The results indicate that smelling a scent that shares learned semantic associations with an object in the advertisement diverts consumers' eye gazes to the semantically related object in the ad, with positive downstream effects on advertising recall and purchase intent. This is the first study we are aware of demonstrating multisensory integration of odors and pictures on consumer eye gaze patterns with clear implications for consumer choice. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is "Blank" a suitable neutral prime for event-related potential experiments?

We report an experiment that evaluates whether BLANK or an unrelated prime is a more suitable baseline for assessing priming for an ERP study. Sixteen subjects performed a lexical decision task with a 1 s prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony. Increased amplitude for the N400 was observed for targets in the unrelated prime condition whereas targets in the BLANK prime condition evoked activity that was more like that in the related prime condition. Theoretically, we conclude that the N400 reflects semantic integration. Pragmatically, we conclude that the BLANK prime is a better neutral prime but that unrelated primes yield stronger N400 effects.