The Effects of Posture on Body Part Width Representations
Body perception, affordances, somatosensation, visual perception
Despite the ubiquity of our bodily experiences, our representations of our body’s size are not geometrically accurate. For example, when estimating the length of body parts using the hand as a metric, consistent patterns of distortions across body parts are observed. Given the presence of these distortions, some have proposed that representations of length and width emerge directly, or indirectly, from the organisation of somatotopic maps in somatosensory cortex, rather than from their actual relative dimensions. However, whilst length representations are well researched with respect to this notion, less is known about representations of body part width across the body. Moreover, it is unclear from previous research whether body part width representations may be confounded by participants’ posture. Specifically, individuals have shown an enhanced tendency to overestimate body part width when seated upon a chair, suggesting that the chair may become incorporated into the body representation. Consequently, the aim of the current investigation was to further elucidate how width is represented across body parts and whether posture moderates these representations. Participants estimated how many hands widths made up the width of the back, shoulders, hips, torso, thigh, and head in one of three conditions: standing (n = 37), seated upon a chair (n = 33), or seated upon a backless stool (n = 39). Whilst estimates did differ across body parts, no effect of posture was observed. Moreover, the patterns of distortions observed differed from those seen in previous investigations. Results therefore indicate that body part width representations are neither accurate nor fixed, rather, they show distortions which vary across individuals and contexts. It is proposed that inter-individual heterogeneity in width representations may result from humans possessing alternative perceptual mechanisms for judging aperture passability. Therefore, maintaining fixed width representations is unnecessary, and hence too energetically costly to maintain.
Method Participants Ethical approval for this study was obtained from Lancaster University Psychology Department on 31st May 2023. As this study aimed to investigate body part width representations in healthy populations, only participants aged 18-55 years without any physical, or mental impairment were included in the study. However, as previous research (Readman et al., 2021) using the same paradigm for length estimates has shown no influence of anxiety or depression on body part estimates, participants with diagnoses of these conditions were not excluded. Participants were excluded if they had any current or historic diagnosis of cognitive impairment, as this can affect instruction comprehension (Han et al., 2011), or visual impairment, to ensure difficulties in seeing the body parts did not confound findings. Furthermore, given the associations between other psychiatric impairments (e.g., Priebe & Röhricht, 2001), neurological impairments (e.g., Blanke et al., 2004), or eating disorders (Mölbert et al., 2017) with distorted body perceptions, individuals with a current or historic diagnosis of a condition falling within any of these categories were excluded. A total of 123 (61 females) participants ranging from 18 to 68 years (M = 28.80 years, SD = 10.79) were recruited via opportunity sampling for this study. Participant recruitment was ended before the required N = 150 due to time constraints. All participants were entered into a draw to win one of two £25 vouchers as an expression of goodwill. A total of 15 participants were excluded for failing to meet the inclusion criteria, leaving a final sample of N = 108 (50 females). Participants were aged 18 to 55 years (M = 27.98 years, SD = 9.56); the majority of participants were right-handed (n = 99) and over half the participants had normal vision (52.78%), with the remaining participants having corrected-to-normal vision. Reasons for exclusion included a current or historic psychiatric impairment (n = 2) or eating disorder (n = 4), falling outside the study age restrictions (n = 3), visual impairment (n = 2), being pregnant (n = 1), failing to provide demographic information needed to determine eligibility (n = 2), and a self-reported misunderstanding of task instructions (n = 1). Design This study constituted a 3x6 mixed design with condition (standing, chair, or stool) as the between-subjects variable and body part (torso, hips, shoulders, back, thigh, or head) as the within-subjects variable. The dependent variable was participants’ accuracy ratios for each body part (actual size/ estimated size) where an accuracy ratio of over 1.0 indicated overestimation, and under 1.0 indicated underestimation of body part width. Materials and Procedure After providing their consent, participants completed a self-report demographic and clinical questionnaire administered via Qualtrics (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) which asked about participants’ age, biological sex, preferred hand, and details regarding their neurological, cognitive, and psychiatric history. Following this, participants were randomised to one of the three conditions (Standing, Chair, or Stool). In each condition, participants were asked to estimate how many hand widths of their dominant hand made up the width of six different body parts: the torso, shoulders, hips, back, head, and thigh. Participants were instructed to be as accurate as possible, using fractions where necessary. They were asked to refrain from touching the body part with their hand, or basing estimates off estimates for previous body parts if the two body parts were proportionally related. The researcher defined each body part verbally and pointed to their endpoints on their own body prior to the participant making their estimate. Participants in the standing condition performed all estimates whilst stood upright, without leaning on any surfaces. In the chair condition, participants were seated upon a standard desk chair with a high back and no arm rests. In the stool condition, participants were seated upon a fixed height bar stool with no back. The condition completed by participants was counterbalanced, and the order of body parts estimated was randomised. After making their estimates, the researcher used a soft tape measure to measure the actual width of the cued body parts before debriefing participants. The study took around 10 minutes to complete. Analysis Prior to conducting the analysis, outliers were removed using the median absolute deviation (MAD) approach. This procedure involves removing participants whose accuracy ratios deviated more than three absolute deviations from the median for a given body part. The MAD approach was chosen as it is more robust than traditional methods of outlier detection based upon standard deviations from the mean (Jones, 2019; Leys et al., 2013). To calculate the dependent variable of accuracy ratios, first, participants’ hand estimates for each body part were converted to centimetres by multiplying their estimate in hands by their measured hand width. After this, estimates for each body part were divided by the actual width of the body part to produce an accuracy ratio. To test the study hypotheses, data was analysed using a 3x6 mixed ANOVA using the rstatix package available from RStudio (Version 4.2.1). Body Part was entered as the within-subjects variable, and Condition as the between-subjects variable. The assumption of normality was checked using the Shapiro-Wilks test, and the sphericity assumption via Mauchly’s test. Partial eta-squared was used as a measure of effect size. Though frequently used in analysis, frequentist statistics are not without limitations. It is typically assumed that a p-value of <.05 is evidence for the alternative hypothesis, however this value only represents the probability of obtaining results as extreme as those observed, if the null is true (Wagenmakers et al., 2018). Therefore, data which is unusual under the null hypothesis is not automatically any less unusual under the experimental hypothesis (Wagenmakers et al., 2017). Moreover, a non-significant finding in frequentist analyses cannot be taken as evidence in favour of the null hypothesis (Kruschke & Liddell, 2018). In this regard, Bayesian statistics have several advantages over frequentist statistics including the ability to incorporate prior knowledge, quantify the degree of uncertainty surrounding the existence of an effect, and the ability to quantify the strength of evidence in favour of the null, or alternative hypotheses (see Wagenmaker et al., 2018 for a discussion). Consequently, to provide further support for conclusions drawn using frequentist analyses, a Bayesian Mixed ANOVA was conducted using the anovaBF function from the BayesFactor available in RStudio (Version 4.2.1). Default priors were used given that these reflect average effect sizes observed across all psychological experiments, and hence are likely to be more reliable than priors drawn from a single, potentially methodologically flawed, study (Rouder et al., 2012). Where a significant main effect of Body Part or Condition was observed, Holm-Bonferroni adjusted frequentist, and Bayes Factor, pairwise t-test comparisons were conducted to determine the pattern of differences underlying these effects. In addition, to determine whether body part width estimates differed significantly from 1.0 (i.e., an unbiased estimate), Holm-Bonferroni adjusted frequentist, and Bayes Factor, one-sample t-tests were conducted for each body part. To judge the strength of evidence provided by the Bayes Factor analyses, Kass and Raftery (1993) criteria was used. By this criteria, Anecdotal evidence is regarded as inconclusive. Percentage error (a measure of certainty in the estimate) was reported alongside Bayes Factors, where <20% is regarded as an acceptable level of uncertainty (Van Doorn et al., 2021).
Does Noise Affect How Children Learn Grammar in the Classroom?
In a classroom environment noise can be a significant impediment, obstructing and distorting essential information being taught. Extensive prior research consistently indicates that noise has a detrimental impact on learning, those who learn in noise retain and comprehend far less information than their counterparts who learn in quiet. To date there are no studies that investigate the effect of noise on learning grammar specifically -the primary aim of the current study is the address this research gap. This paper details our recruitment of 16 children aged 7– 12 through the Babylab database at Lancaster university. This study employed a between participants design, where children completed a three-part audio evaluation, engaged in an artificial grammar paradigm, and a undertook a working memory task. The artificial grammar paradigm was employed as our primary assessment tool, participants were exposed to the grammar either in noise or in quiet. Results were analysed using a multiple regression with total grammar score as the dependent variable and age, gender, condition, and working memory as the independent variables. In contrast the prior research, our results revealed that the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable was statistically nonsignificant, proving our null hypotheses to be true. These findings suggest that background noise does not affect how children learn grammar in the classroom challenging the existing understanding that noise negatively impacts learning.
Participants 16 children aged 7-12 years old participated in this study, unfortunately due to technical issues 5 participants’ data were excluded leaving 11 children’s data to be included in the analysis (M=8.64, SD=1.63, female=7, male=4). Children were recruited through the Lancaster University Babylab database and by flyers posted on social media and local community. A requirement of the current study was that children be English speaking monolinguals, this is because an abundance of research has indicated that those who can speak two or more languages are at a far greater advantage when it comes to new language acquisition (Antoniou et al., 2015). Therefore, in order to control the likelihood of extraneous variables such as this we ensured all participants were English speaking monolinguals only. Furthermore, children were also required to have normal vision or corrected to normal vision. To rule out hearing loss all children had to pass an otoscope inspection, a tympanometry test, and a pure tone hearing screening at 20dB in the standard frequencies (250Hz-8kHZ). The current study employed a between participant design whereby subjects were allocated to a condition based on their age and gender -age was categorised into 7-9 and 10-12- in order to ensure that there were as equal an amount of males and females in each condition over all ages. It is crucial for the validity of the study that children are only exposed to the artificial grammar paradigm once or data will be rendered unreliable as they will have an unfair advantage over the other participants. Ethics for the current study have been obtained from the Departmental Ethics Committee (DEC), Psychology Department at Lancaster University. Materials This study was conducted within a double walled soundproof chamber at Lancaster University’s PELiCAN lab where the participant sat at a desk with a monitor placed in front of them. A secondary researcher was present in the lab for health and safety purposes. Consent and assent forms, a background questionnaire on the child’s hearing, audio evaluation results, and task data were all recorded on REDCap (Harris et al., 2009; Harris et al., 2019): a GDPR compliant application for data capture. Travel compensation was provided: £5 within 40 minutes and £10 for over 40 minutes. Furthermore, children received a certificate and book of their choosing from the PELiCAN lab. The audio evaluation This study was comprised of three sections: an audio evaluation whereby an otoscope examination, tympanometry test, and audiogram using Affinity Suite were conducted. During the audiogram participants wore headphones and had a handheld button that they pressed when they heard the pure tone sounds. The Artificial Grammar Paradigm After passing the hearing evaluation the children completed an artificial grammar paradigm previously used by Torkildsen et al. (2013) consisting of two grammatical forms: aX and Yb. The paradigm was presented in the form of an alien game whereby the children helped an alien learn a new language. We presented the paradigm in this format in order to increase engagement; children are motivated by the colourful and curious nature of a game (Blumberg et al., 2019) and therefore we are far more likely to obtain more data (less drop outs due to fatigue and boredom). This task was created in PsychoPy and hosted by Pavlovia. The background noise In order to imitate the background noise of a classroom speech shaped noise (SSN) (e.g. Leibold et al., 2013) was emitted through a speaker on the back wall of the booth behind the child. The background noise speaker was 180 degrees on the azimuth, and the target speaker was 0 degrees on the azimuth. Background stimuli was calibrated so that for the quiet condition the stimulus was emitted at 35dB and for the noisy condition it was played at 65dB. The n-back Test of Working Memory Lastly, we conducted the 1-back test of working memory (Owen et al., 2005) which was also created on PsychoPy and hosted by Pavlovia Procedure Prior to the commencement of the study guardians gave informed consent (See Appendix C), if the child was 11 or older they gave informed assent in addition to this (See Appendix D). Guardians were then asked to complete a short background questionnaire pertaining to their child’s hearing (See Appendix H). Whilst they completed these forms the researcher began the study inside the booth; using Affinity suite it was ensured that the microphone inside the booth was turned on in order for the guardian to be able to hear what was going on inside the booth by using the headphones places outside the booth. As aforementioned, the audio evaluation consisted of three tests, these were administered in the booth by the researcher and took up to 15 minutes. Firstly, an ear inspection was conducted using an otoscope, participants were required to have clear ears free of perforations and/or any infection. Secondly, a tympanometry test was conducted whereby participants must have passed with type A (normal) results. Lastly a pure tone hearing screening was conducted at 20dB in the standard frequencies (250Hz-8kHZ). The researcher left the booth for the audiogram in order to run the program on the desktop outside the booth while the child remained inside the booth. The task consisted of 11 blocks comprised of 4 exposure items and 2 test items, before the test portion children were exposed to 4 examples of what is expected of them, they had to get these right in order for the software to move onto the test phase. If children did not get these right the researcher explained and promoted them to pick the correct answer. Children were required to press ‘x’ on the keyboard for right and ‘n’ on the keyboard for wrong, answers were saved and recorded automatically on Pavlovia. The software was run by the researcher from outside the booth and was mirrored onto the desktop inside the booth. Lastly, we conducted the 1-back test of working memory (Owen et al., 2005), where children were exposed to a number of animal sounds and were required to record weather the stimuli was a new sound or one they had heard before, ‘x’ represented repeated sound and ‘n’ represented a new sound, participants had to ensure they made a button press after each noise. Once all tasks were completed the researcher collected the child from inside the booth and a short verbal and written debrief was given to the child and guardian. Guardians were given and signed for their travel compensation, and children received a certificate from the PELiCAN lab and were able to choose a book of their liking. Participants were walked back to their car or bus to bring a close to the visit. Analysis In order to answer our research questions we will carry out a multiple linear regression using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 28). We will be employing a between participants design where we will examine the effect of background noise (noisy and quiet) on total grammar score. Our additional independent variables will be working memory, gender and age. If we find a statistically significant result with regard to grammar score then we will be conducting a post hoc test on grammar score breaking them down into aX and Yb in order to determine the difference between the two types of grammar.
The effects of code switching in the level of persuasiveness of advertising and marketing messages on bilingual consumers.
Bilingualism Code-switching Language Manipulation Advertising Communication Language Comprehension/Cognition
Bilingualism and advertising are two concepts which are not commonly related, but based on recent statistics they definitely should be. Recent numbers show that more than 50% of the world’s population is bilingual (Grosjean, 2010). However, there has been minimal research concerning bilingual consumers and how bilinguals may differently encounter advertising messages, based on their ability to speak two languages. The research that has been done, is primarily based on code switching; the practice of switching between languages during speech. It is a very common practice between bilinguals, which they use to better communicate and better express themselves during a conversation in a specific social context. This study will attempt to analyse the effects of language manipulation upon bilingual individuals, by implementing the concept of advertising and more specifically bilingual advertising. participants will firstly encounter a manipulation of attitude towards language, before encountering a set of advertising slogans of certain products, in a code-switched format. They will then have to rate the products, based on the persuasiveness of the advertising slogans.
Firstly, a manipulation of attitude towards the language took place. Participants were presented with a random mock article, either in Greek or English. Participants were then presented with four audio recordings of advertising messages/slogans of four different products. Slogans were either all in Greek or English and they were presented in the same code-switching direction; from primary to Secondary or from Secondary to primary. A single word was chosen from each slogan and was code-switched to the opposite language appropriately. Participants were then asked to evaluate the featured products based on the advertising message they heard. Evaluations were obtained through a series of six questions, asking the participant to rate the featured product on a Likert type scale, varying from one to six. These included: “poor/high quality”, “level of appeal”, “odds of recommending the product to others”, “odds of buying the product”, “mediocre/exceptional” and “bad/good”.
Interacting in a Virtual Environment, the role of visual perception, the human hand and the recognition of rescaling.
Visual Perception Rescaling effects Virtual Reality Hand-size Constancy Body size effects.
A common assumption from perception research is that we can estimate the size of the environment by using our own hand as a perceptual metric by comparing the size of our hand to the environment. Further research aimed to explore this effect by manipulating the size of the hand to see if it could accurately estimate the size of objects and found that even when the hand was magnified or minimized people perceived their hand to stay around the same size. The effect that the hand is perceived as a constant size is called the hand-size constancy effect and the current research has aimed to expand on previous research by examining if hand-size constancy still occurs even when hand size increases whilst in the presence of the participant. This research was done using a new method which eliminates more demand characteristics than previous hand-size constancy research. Participants took part in a virtual scenario using virtual reality in which each time a participant attempted the task, their hand or non-corporeal hand gradually increased in size, until a total of 38% size increase. Results from this research found that participants did recognise their hand size increase in the non-corporeal condition and did not notice hand size change in the real hand condition. These results support previous research by finding that hand size constancy can still occur even when eliminating demand characteristics that may have occurred in previous research using a more discrete method.
Participants. The participants were 30 typically developing adults between the ages of 19 and 50 (N = 30, 12 male and 18 female, M = 24.39 years old, SD = 7.76 years). Participants were mainly recruited from a major university in the North West of England using posters on the university campus and online advertisements. Participants received £5 in return for their participation. Materials The current research used the Oculus Rift with leap motion to detect hand movement. The experiment was created using the Unity game engine software to create a programme called the virtual bowling alley. The virtual bowling alley was created to mimic a real table top bowling alley in which all the items in the game were created for this experiment including the bowling ball, the pins and the virtual hand used in the experiment. Two questionnaires were essential to this study, “The Embodiment Questionnaire” and “The Virtual Presence Questionnaire”. The Embodiment questionnaire was an adaptation from Sanchez-Vives’ research which explored visual hand illusions (Sanchez-Vives, Spanlang, Frisoli, Bergamasco, & Slater, 2010). The embodiment questionnaire was used to test the extent of different variables the participant may exhibit whilst within virtual reality. Variables related to ownership of limbs in virtual reality e.g. “I sometimes felt as if my hand was located where my virtual hand was to be” the illusion of movement which looked at how much your virtual arm impacted on the movement of your real arm, validity which looked at how your movements impacted on your virtual arm and control regarding how much control you had of your virtual arm. The Embodiment Questionnaire uses a 7-point Likert scale in which you rate how much you agree with the statement (Appendix 1). The other questionnaire required for this study was “The Virtual Presence Questionnaire” which was an adapted version from Usoh’s paper looking at presence questionnaires (Usho, Catena, Arman, & Slater, 2000). The virtual presence questionnaire was used to examine how much the participant rated their immersion within the virtual scenario. Rating of virtual immersion was done through questions which examined whether their sense of immersion whilst being within the virtual scenario was stronger than their sense of place in their actual location within the virtual reality lab. For example, questions like “To what extent were there times the virtual bowling scenario was reality for you” was used to examine immersion and presence within virtual reality. The virtual presence questionnaire also used a 7-point Likert scale (1 = disagree, 7 = agree) (Appendix 2). Other materials required were a calculator to count the amount of bowling pins knocked down each attempt and to total the amount of bowling pins knocked down per participant. All the appropriate ethical documentation was also required (Information sheet, Virtual Reality health and safety sheet, consent document and debriefing sheet). Procedure After the 30 participants required for the study were obtained, the participants were asked to sign a digital calendar in which they selected which day they were free to take part in the study with the promise of a 30-minute experiment and £5 reward for taking part. Participants were advised to arrive to the lab 10 minutes prior to the study and when they did arrive they were greeted by the researcher at the door of the lab. After a short introduction, the participant was then sat down at a table with some documents and writing equipment. The participant was asked to look at the study information sheet first, this sheet contained contextual knowledge about the study regarding the task that they would get involved in. After the participant stated that they understood all the information on the information sheet then they were given the ethics consent form to sign. The ethics consent form contained all the participants ethical rights (right to withdraw, anonymisation of the data etc…), the participants were advised to carefully read through the sheet to make sure they understood their ethic rights and asked to sign their name, age and date on the ethic sheet. Also, on a separate piece of paper, the researcher noted the participants participant number which was used to code the data anonymously. When the participant completed the ethics consent form, they were told that the experiment would now begin. The participant was escorted to a different desk with a computer set up on the desk. Noticeably, the computer was set up in a way in which the chair was at a set distance from the oculus rift sensor to allow for full immersion. The participant was sat down on the chair that was at the set distance away from the computer, in which the computer was set to the home screen and the researcher assisted the participant in putting on the oculus rift head mounted display (HMD), the HMD had a hand sensor attached to the front of it to detect hand movement. When the participant was sat down, they were asked to confirm that they were comfortable with the HMD on and that they could see clearly. When the participant gave consent, they were told that they were going to enter the virtual bowling alley now, the virtual bowling alley was an in-house created virtual scene used for this experiment. The virtual bowling alley was created in the unity engine using C++ to create virtual objects such as the pins and ensuring they had an interaction engine script attached to them to give them physics. The virtual bowling alley was a table top bowling simulation, created with the intention that there would be a lot of hand exposure during the experiment as the participants would have to use their hands to push the ball and knock over the pins Participants were assigned to 1 of 2 groups; the hand group or the non-corporeal hand group. The group the participant was assigned to impacted on what type of hands they would have during the virtual bowling scenario, for example, when entering the virtual bowling alley in the hand group your hands would be regular virtual hands that are created to mimic real hands. (Figure 2). Participants who were assigned to group 2 (the non-corporeal hand group) when entering the virtual bowling alley, they would see blocks in place of their hands, these block hands were created to replace their hands in virtual reality with objects that could complete the same tasks that a hand could, but did not represent the hand in any way, a non-corporeal hand. When participants entered the virtual bowling scenario and confirmed that they were calibrated to the bowling scenario (their visual view point was correct, and they could move their hands around accurately) then they were told they had 20 attempts to knock down as many pins as they could, with 10 pins an attempt this means there was a total of 200 pins. Each time an attempt was completed by the participant, the experiment would press a key on the keyboard which reset the pins and the bowling ball for the participant. Each time the virtual bowling alley attempt was reset the participants hand (group 1) or cubes (group 2) increased in size by approximately 2% per bowling task attempt until they completed their 20 attempts in which their hand/ non-corporeal hand would have increased in size by 38%. Also, it is worth mentioning that each time the bowling ball attempt was completed, and the alley was reset the bowling ball would randomly change from bigger to smaller sizes (10 different sizes per experiment between 50% increase in size and 50% decrease in size, twice per size). The changes in the ball size were required so that participants did not use the bowling ball as a reference of scale to compare to their change of size in hands or cube hands (non-corporeal hands). When the participant completed the 20 attempts of the bowling task, the virtual bowling programme would automatically exit, and the participant was asked to take off the HMD and escorted back to their first seat which was the table they completed their consent form. The experimenter also made note on a separate sheet of the participants total bowling pins knocked down out of 200. When the participant was sat down at the table the experimenter would then hand the participant a sheet with 2 questions on it. Question 1: “Did you detect any changes whilst in the virtual environment?” this is a yes or no response. After the participant answered question 1 they were then asked question 2 “If hand size was manipulated would you estimate your hand changed in size or not?”. The response for question 2 would also be a yes or no response, it is worth noting that if the participant did respond with “yes” to question 2, then the researcher asked them if they estimated if hand size increased or decreased in which the experimenter would ask the participant to note this response underneath question 2. After they answered the 2 questions regarding the virtual bowling alley the participant would then be handed 2 more documents both being questionnaires. The participant would be asked to firstly fill out the virtual presence questionnaire and then the virtual embodiment questionnaires, they were also told if they had any questions regarding the questionnaires they could ask at any time. After the participant confirmed that they were happy with their responses to the questions and completed all the questions then the experimenter passed the participant a debrief sheet which gave more context to the experiment and was very explicit about the participants hand changing in size over time. The participant was asked if they had any questions regarding the experiment, if they did the researcher happily answered them, if not, then the researcher would thank the participant for their time. When all the results were collected from the 30 participants, the data was stored on a locked private computer in which only the experimenters had access to. All documents regarding the experiment were also locked in a storage cabinet which was under lock and key. The independent variable in this study was hand type (hands vs non-corporal hands) and the dependent variable in this study was the response to the questions regarding the virtual bowling scenario (question 1 and 2). Due to the nature of the dependent variables data a Chi-Square was used as nominal data was collected on 2 independent groups. Other data regarding age, gender, handedness, virtual presence scores and virtual embodiment scores were also analysed using independent t-tests.
Typeface and taste: The bittersweet effect of typeface on the perception of taste
This article aims to explore how the visual features of typeface on a product’s packaging, are capable of altering one’s taste experience with the product within through cross-sensory correspondences. A total of ninety-two participants from a selection of university graduates were selected to take part in one of three studies rating yogurts, typefaces and the interaction between the two. While visual features of the typeface like thickness and heaviness did not directly affect the rating of a products perceived thickness and weight, the typefaces were able to trigger different experiences of bitterness. When presented on the yogurt container, the more angular, thin typeface Palatino Italic caused the yogurt to be rated as significantly more bitter than the rounder, thicker font Cooper Black. Secondary tests found that the two typefaces rated alone, without the yogurt, did not possess the same significant differences in bitterness. However, they were rated as significantly different on the other scales measured, thus raising the question of exactly how the fonts were capable of manipulating participant’s taste experience. The study addresses this question and looks further into how typefaces perceptual qualities change once the letters presenting it are capitalised.
Rating Chart A rating chart (found in Appendix 4) was designed to allow participants to select the most neutral yogurt by ordering them in terms of the adjectives rated in the main study. These were thick to thin, heavy to light, dull to sharp, sweet to bitter and slow to quick. The chart contained a three point scale with related variables anchored at each end. Participants were then able to fill in which yogurt (A, B or C) they believed possessed the extremities of each variable pair (i.e. the thickest and the thinnest) leaving the most neutral yogurt being rated as somewhere between the two. Products As natural yogurt appeared to be the plainest yogurt in terms of flavour, colour and texture, three natural yogurts were selected for the pre-test. The first yogurt ‘A’ was the cheapest home-brand yogurt from Morrisons. Yogurt B was slightly more expensive (Yeo Natural), and the third (yogurt C) was the most expensive plain natural yogurt available (Onken). All yogurts were purchased from Morrisons Supermarket and cost between £1.00 and £2.00. Packaging Because all three products contained packaging with commercial labels which used a combination of various typefaces, colours and shapes, the yogurt had to be removed from the containers. The yogurts were then placed in three identical bowls and set on a table. A piece of paper in front of each informed the participant which was yogurt A, B and C. Procedure In turn participants were brought into an empty room and asked to sit at a desk in front of the three yogurts. They were presented with an information sheet, consent form and the rating sheet (Appendix 1, 2 and 4) and asked to sample each yogurt as many times as they felt necessary to rate which of the three was the least extreme in regards to the variables rated. They were each given a plastic spoon to test the yogurt and asked not to touch the bowl in case its weight affected their perception of the product. They then used the pen provided to rate which yogurt (A,B or C) possessed the least extreme qualities. Once the twenty participants had completed the test they were given the opportunity to ask any questions and presented with the debrief sheet in Appendix 3. Their results were then correlated and ‘Yogurt A’ was clearly found to be the most neutral yogurt of the three in terms of the variables rated. Main Study Participants Between June 2014 and July 2014 forty-eight students and recent graduates (Male= 36, Female= 12) aged between eighteen and fifty-four years old (M= 23.25, SD=4.86) from Lancaster University were recruited as part of a volunteer sample to take part in this study. They were informed of the study through a monthly newsletter emailed to their University email address by a University Administrator. The students came from a variety of academic years and subject areas. All participants confirmed that they had no deficits regarding their ability to smell or taste, nor any allergy to dairy. Materials Rating Chart The rating chart was designed to allow participants to quantify their perception of the product. Each quality was presented on a scale with one extreme anchored horizontally to the other (See Appendix 5). So for the adjective pair thick-thin participants would state if the product was ‘Very Thick, Quite Thick, Slightly Thick, Neither Thick nor Thin, Slightly Thin, Quite Thin or Very Thin’. This produced a seven-point scale for each variable rated. Several qualities that had previously been identified as sharing cross-modular correspondences linked to shape, and influencing aspects of flavour were implanted within the rating chart. In addition to being held by one or several modalities, they were a sample of adjectives both able and unable to be conveyed directly by visual qualities of the typeface to the yogurt (for example a thick font may lead to the yogurt being rated as thick but a typeface is unable to directly convey bitterness through its visual features). The adjectives rated were thick-thin, heavy-light, sharp-dull, bitter-sweet, quick-slow. The order by which these variables were rated was swapped between participants in order to reduce order effects. It was predicted that the adjectives thick, heavy, dull, sweet and slow would be aligned, while thin, light, sharp, bitter and fast would share conative meaning. Products Following the preliminary test yogurt A (Morrison’s own Natural Yogurt) was selected as the most neutral yogurt in terms of the variables rated and yogurt tested. In effect the yogurt was most frequently rated as neither the thickest, nor thinnest yogurt of the three tested, as so on across the variables rated. As a result yogurt A was chosen for the study. Regardless of the label on the pot, the contents within were always yogurt A, leading to participants rating the same yogurt twice without their knowledge. Packaging There were four parts to the packaging: the typeface used; the brand name in which the typeface was printed; the label displaying the brand name; and the pot containing the yogurt. Each element of the packaging aimed to trigger as few cross-sensory perceptions as possible, with the exception of the typeface being tested. After a great deal of consideration, the two typefaces chosen were Cooper Black and Palatino Italic. Walker et al had noted that these typefaces possessed a variety of qualities capable of triggering cross-modular correspondences strong enough to induce a congruency effect between word meaning and typeface characteristic (Lewis and Walker, 1989). As a result they seemed the most likely typefaces to induce cross-modular correspondences relating to taste. Additionally they were particularly representative of typefaces as a whole possessing characteristics such as italics, roman and bold. Visually Cooper Black is much thicker and rounder than Palatino Italic. Palatino Italic also appears to convey speed and sharpness, pointing forward at an angle. Existing brand names and real words could not be used to display the typeface due to the potential confounding connotations they may carry. Additionally if both typefaces were presented in the same brand name participants would be more likely to realise that both yogurts were indeed the same. Therefore two non-words had to be selected as product brand names. Sound symbolism is known to have an effect on the perceptions activated by a word, in particular Klink noted that brand names containing front vowels were associated with more angular brand marks than back vowels (Klink, 2003). To avoid this effect confounding the ratings, a combination of front and back vowels were present in each brand name. Moreover, because the positioning of back and front vowels has been highlighted as a factor influencing perception, the order of the front and back vowels were changed between the two non-words. This process was inspired by a similar method by Klink and Wu, where brand names were built using vowels and letters conveying different meanings (Klink and Wu, 2013). The two non-words generated from this procedure were ‘Bemdom’ (front/closed vowel ‘bem’, back/open vowel ‘dom’) and ‘Nordin’ (back/open vowel ‘nor’, front/closed vowel ‘din’). As seen in Figure 1, these names were printed in black on white rectangular sticker paper creating the label. Printed in font size 14, their first letters were capitalised to appear more like a product name. Four versions of the label were created: one with the curved typeface (Cooper Black) stating Bemdom; one with the curved typeface stating Nordin; one with the angular typeface (Palatino Italic) stating Bemdom and one with the angular typeface presenting Nordin. Figure 1: Examples of the four yogurt pots presented to participants. Presented first is Bemdom in Palatino Italic, followed by Nordin the same type, Nordin in Cooper Black and Bemdom in Cooper Black. The labels were attached to the circular lids of ninety-six clear 60ml plastic sample pots displayed in Figure 2. In an attempt to counter-balance the effect of a circular shaped lid on the rating of the yogurt, the sticker containing the brand name was cut into the more angular shape of a rectangle. The pot was also clear allowing visibility of the white yogurt contained within it, rather than being coloured packaging that may have its own connotations. Figure 2: The pots used to present participants with the yogurt and the typeface. With the type of spoon used to consume yogurt being found to affect one’s perception of yogurt, all participants consumed the yogurt with the same type of white plastic spoon displayed in Figure 3 (Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence, 2011). As the testing pot was already plastic and the yogurt white, a plastic white spoon seemed the best option for reducing the number of new extraneous variables introduced into the study. Figure 3: The plastic spoon used for sampling the yogurt. Research Design The study involved a 2 (type of typeface) x 2 (non-word used) x2 (order in which the font was presented) design. It was conducted using a repeated measures design with each participant rating each typeface and non-word although in different combinations. The order of both the typeface and non-word used was counterbalanced throughout the study leading to the creation of four participant groups. Procedure Participants were randomly split into four conditions; two of whom rated ‘Bemdom’ in Cooper Black and ‘Nordin’ in Palatino Italic but in contrasting orders, and two of whom rated ‘Bemdom’ in Palatino Italic and ‘Nordin’ in Cooper Black, again in contrasting orders. All groups received exactly the same experimental procedure and exactly the same yogurt in each pot. The only differences were the order each typeface and non-word were presented, and which non-word was allocated which type. Participants were not informed that the samples of yogurts were identical, and were encouraged to believe they were two different yogurts through use of different brand names. Once the participant was seated they were randomly assigned to a research group, then asked to read the participant information sheet (Appendix 1) and complete the consent form shown in Appendix 2. Once they had had the opportunity to ask any questions that came to mind, two boxes were placed on the table in front of the participant. Each had ‘Nordin’ or ‘Bemdom’ printed on it in either Cooper Black or Palatino Italic depending on the group they were assigned to. In order to provide a contrast effect highlighting the package’s typeface, the two pots of yogurt were taken from larger boxes sharing their name and label, which were present on the table throughout the study. This again aimed to reduce participant’s likelihood of identifying the yogurts as the same. The participant was then presented with a yogurt pot from one of the boxes and asked to write the product’s name on the rating sheet (Appendix 5) ensuring that they had paid some attention to the name and in doing so, the typeface. To ensure that the weight of the yogurt didn’t confound participant’s perception of the product, the pot of yogurt was placed in a tube securing it in place on the table while the participant sampled it. Participants were given a plastic spoon to consume it with and still water was provided for the participants to cleanse their mouth with between tastings. The participant was welcome to eat as much or as little of the produce as required to rate it on the several variables. Once they had finished rating the first yogurt it was removed from the tube and replaced by the second. The original pot was left on the table in order to allow contrast between the names and more importantly typeface. When the rating was complete participants were given the debrief sheet (Appendix 3) and the opportunity to ask any questions before being thanked for their time. Ethics An ethics review rated the study as low risk to participants. As the main risk was that of an allergy to the yogurt, all participants were asked twice if they were allergic to dairy products- once through the consent form and once verbally. Informed consent was collected from all participants. Participants were also asked if they were happy to participate in the experiment and told they had the right to withdraw at any point without facing any negative consequences. The participants were debriefed after, being informed of the reasoning behind the study. All interviews followed the BPA code of conduct. While a small amount of deception was used to imply that the two pots of yogurt were different, participants were never explicitly lied to. During debriefing, not one participant stated that they had had a problem with the small lack of full disclosure.
The Decoy Effect on Choosing Branded and Non-Branded Alcohol-related Products
The decoy effect describes a phenomenon that the introduction of a third choice, usually an asymmetrically dominated one, would change the distribution of people’s preferences for the original two options. Monk et al. (2016) found a basic decoy effect on alcohol purchasing decisions. Extending this, the current study examined the impact of the decoy effect on alcohol-related purchasing decisions and whether the addition of brand names would further impact this. A total of 106 participants were asked to make decisions amongst four types of branded and unbranded drinks by completing an online questionnaire. They also completed the AUDIT, assessing problem drinking patterns, and a measure of trait effortful control. Results showed that the decoy appeared to affect alcoholic relative to non-alcoholic drinks, and affected branded products more than non-branded products. The results suggest that the decoy effect might affect alcohol-related purchasing decisions differently to non-alcoholic purchasing decisions, which might have managerial implications for marketers and health implications for hazardous alcohol consumptions.
All the stimuli were pictures of bottles presented with text descriptions including the number of bottles and the total prices. Participants viewed a total of 80 deals, with 40 alcoholic products and 40 non-alcoholic products. Half of the products were branded and half unbranded. With regards to branded stimuli, pictures of bottles similar to those presented in supermarkets were shown (see Figure 2), whilst unbranded ones used similar unbranded bottles in terms of colour and shape. This allowed the products to correspond with both the diversity of goods in real supermarket but also to avoid unnecessary brand association (e.g. red glass bottles always remind consumers of Coca-Cola; Underwood, 2003). In the control condition, participants were shown products with two options, one with less bottles but cheaper, and the other with a greater quantity of bottles but more expensive. As such, option 1 represented the competitor option, which was cost-effective, and option 2 represented the target option, which was moderately cost- effective. The order of cost-effective and moderate-cost effective products was randomised throughout the experiment. In comparison, the experimental conditions also included a decoy option, which presented a product that was the least cost-effective. Although the decoy option itself was unlikely to be selected, it was expected to result in a different distribution of selections from the output of the control group. The sequences of the choice A (cost-effective), B (moderate cost-effective), and the C (decoy) were set randomly. Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). This questionnaire was made up of 10-items concerning personal drinking habits, drinking frequency and amount (Saunders et al., 1993). On a scale of one to over 30, articipants responsed to the questions such as “How many units of alcohol do you drink on a typical day when you are drinking?” and a total AUDIT score was computed. The scores of each question were accumulated and coded. The output of the AUDIT test showed great reliability of this study, M = 15.09, SD = 4.60, Cronbach’s α = .79. It should be noted that although the figure for the AUDIT test was way above eight which was the hazardous cut-off, indicating a possible harmful alcohol use (Babor et al., 2001), this was in line with student’s drinking cultures in UK. Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ). This questionnaire assessed self-reported effortful control (c.f., Evans & Rothbart, 2007) and comprised of 34-items, such as “When interrupted or distracted, I usually can easily shift my attention back to whatever I was doing before”. Participants were asked to answer the questions by selecting a 7-point Likert Scale (1 = extremely untrue, 7 = extremely true). Their responses were recorded and coded. A small amount of missing data (caused by unexpected errors on the web) was replaced by the mean of the sample on that specific item. The result of the ATQ test revealed internal consistency as well, M = 146.34, SD = 22.82, Cronbach’s α = .85. Design and Procedure This study conducted a 4 Stimuli (Beer, Cider, Orange Juice and Water) x 2 Brading (Branded vs unbranded) x 2 Selection (Cost-effectiveness vs. Moderate Cost-effectiveness) within-subjects research design, to examine the possible shifts of selections with the addition of the decoy. Participants were instructed to look at online supermarket choice sets and asked to make a choice out of two (control condition) of three product options (the experimental condition, with the decoy product added). At the beginning, they were asked to imagine that they were in a real supermarket, and they were told that their selections would be dependent on their own preferences. No other information was provided either in oral or on the screen in order to prevent demand characteristics. The main questionnaire had 80 questions, consisting of 80 trials of stimuli (i.e., 20 trials for beer, water, orange juice, and cider). Also 40 groups of bottles were branded and the other 40 were non-branded. The main questionnaire comprised four web pages, with 20 questions in each page and took approximately 30 minutes to complete. Participants were allowed to take short breaks when they finished one page of questions. There was no time limit for each of the questions as the pressure caused by time constraints has been found to affect one’s decision-making process (Dhar & Nowlis, 1999). Subsequently, participants completed a self-report measure of hazardous drinking behaviour (AUDIT) and the effortful control scale (ATQ). These questionnaires were completed at the end of the experiment to make sure the alcohol-related behaviours were not primed (Monk et al., 2016). At the end of the experiment, participants completed a manipulation check to ensure that they were able to accurately distinguish the cost-effectiveness and the quantity of the products set and that they fully understood the requirements of this study. They were then asked to report if they had consumed alcohol on the day of testing, as alcohol consumption has been shown to affect decision-making and may therefore affect the findings of the experiment (Steele & Josephs, 1990). Therefore, participants who had consumed alcohol before participating in the test were excluded when analysing the decoy effect (n = 8). Finally, participants were fully debriefed after they had finished the whole experiment, and were informed about the true aims and hypotheses of the study.
Cortical Hyper Excitability correlating with Visual Distortions and Hallucinations
visual distortions cortical hyper excitability Pattern Glare Task
Background: The primary focus of our study is how the abnormalities in the visual experiences such as the visual distortions or hallucinations result in the increase in the cortical hyper excitability. The aberrant neural activity causes visual distortions. Susceptibility to such visual distortions reflects elevated levels of cortical hyper excitability. Methods: Forty-eight individuals completed the "Pattern Glare Task" (where they viewed certain striped grating patterns with different spatial frequencies). Participants also completed the Cortical Hyperexcitability Index (Chi) and the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale (CDS). Results: Pattern glare task showed that individuals experienced more visual distortions in the Medium Frequency (3 cpd). A very small sample of the population showed effects of depersonalisation disorder. Based on our results, we can say that individuals did show an elevated level of cortical hyperexcitability. Conclusion: The study suggests that non-clinical population also experiences a certain level of increase in cortical hyper excitability. It only establishes the utility of pattern glare with regards to CHi and CDS to add to our existing knowledge.
Pattern Glare Test The pattern glare task includes stripy patterns on three separate cards each with different spatial frequencies; low spatial frequency baseline grating (approx. 0.5 cycles per degree), high spatial frequency baseline grating (approx. 12 cpd), and the crucial medium spatial frequency grating (approx. 3 cpd). The computerised version of the pattern glare task was modified for this experiment, as we were using a paper-based version (Wilkins, 1995; Wilkins et al., 1984) for the same. The stimuli used in the experiment are given in FIGURE 1. The individuals are asked to stare at the white dot in the center of each pattern for approximately 10-15 seconds, while holding each pattern at arm's length. Following, a series of questions are asked to the participant i.e. if they experienced any blurring of lines, bending of lines, fading, shimmering, flickering or shadowy shapes. The participants on the basis of their experience on viewing each pattern, rate the above questions from a score of 0-7 where, 0-minimum and 7-maximum (Wilkins et al., 1984; Conlon et al., 1999). The score is obtained for each pattern and the difference between Pattern 2 and Pattern 3 is recorded, which is called as the '3-12 difference'; in other words, the difference between high frequency and the medium frequency (3cpd – 12cpd). Cambridge Depersonalisation Scale The CDS is a self-reporting questionnaire and is used to measure the duration and frequency of any depersonalisation symptoms that individual experiences in the time frame of the past six months. (Sierra and Berrios, 1999). The CDS is an instrument containing 29 items. Each of the items in the scale are rated on the basis of Likert-scale both for frequency (0-4; where, 0=never, 1=rarely, 2=often, 3=very often, and 4=all the time) and duration based on its average on how much the experiences last (1-6; where 1=few seconds, 2=few minutes, 3=few hours, 4=about a day, 5=more than a day, and 6=more than a week). Its global score is the sum of all items (0-290). Sierra et al., (2005) established four well determined factors to dictate the different symptoms of depersonalisation as single or underlying dimensions they were, ‘Anomalous Body Experience’, ‘Emotional Numbing’, ‘Anomalous Subjective Recall’, and ‘Alienation from Surroundings.’ This questionnaire addresses the complexity of depersonalisation and uncovers its symptoms, which can be directed towards distinct psychopathological domains. Cortical Hyperexcitability Index The CHi was designed to provide an index that discovers the visual irritability, discomfort and the associated visual distortions that individual’s experience (Braithwaite, Merchant, Dewe and Takahashi, 2015). The above-mentioned experiences are well linked to the increase of cortical hyperexcitability. A major advantage of the CHi’s design is that it unveils three broad factors which are (1) heightened visual sensitivity and discomfort, (2) negative aura-type visual aberrations, and (3) positive aura-type visual aberrations. The items present in the questionnaire picture a vast selection of visual experiences that have been previously reported through hallucinations based experimental studies on patients, control groups, non-clinical populations; aura and its underlying dimensions. The CHi uses a fine-grained 7-point Likert response scales, where in the test each question has two response scales i.e. frequency (1-7; where 1=not at all frequent and 7=very frequent) and intensity (1-7; where 1=not at all intense and 7=extremely intense). In terms of scoring, both the scales are summed to provide an overall CHi index for each question. However, a value of 1 is subtracted from each response on frequency and intensity, as the scale was transformed from 1-7 to a 0-6 Likert-scale. This was done for individuals who responded with 1 in every question would still have a score of 54. Design and Procedure All the participants were forwarded a brief explanation about the purpose of the study and how they can contribute to it. If the participants agree, later schedule a time for the voluntary study. The experiment was conducted in the Social Hub of the Graduate College, Lancaster University. The participants were seated comfortably on the right side of the researcher. The individuals were asked to read the Participant Information sheet carefully, later if they agree; they may sign their respective consent form. It was made clear to the participants that the confidentiality of their personal information will be ensured and that they could at any point (1) can ask questions during the experiment, (2) stop the experiment, if they are uncomfortable at any point during the conduction (3) participants have the right to withdraw themselves from the study with no further adverse consequences however, they need to inform the researcher about this via email. Participants were again asked if they suffered from any neurological disorder specially migraine, migraine (aura), or photo sensory epilepsy and if they had any severe incidences of alcohol and drug abuse. The first phase of the experiment included the pattern glare task. Individuals were handed over with the first pattern with low frequency (LF) and were asked to stare at the white dot in the centre of the pattern for 10-15 seconds. After this, they were asked to rate the questions based on their experience on a scale of 0-7 (0-minimun, 7-maximum). The questions included if they experienced any blurring of lines, bending of lines, shimmering or flickering, fading or if they could see any shadowy shapes. Before handing over the second pattern, it was made sure that the participant is comfortable with proceeding further with the experiment and is not experiencing any kind of visual stress. The same steps were repeated for both the other two patterns with medium frequency (MF) and high frequency (HF). The order in which the participants viewed the patterns was randomised for each one of them. Individuals who are prone to pattern glare can be quantified for such a criterion based on their sum of distortions in 3cpd (MF) or as the difference between 3 and 12 cpd, also called the '3-12 cpd difference'. After a two-minute break, the second phase of the experiment included participants to answer 29 questions on the Cambridge Depersonalisation Scale, which are based on the frequency and duration of any 'strange or funny experiences' that they felt in the past six months. Lastly, the third phase, the second questionnaire was introduced to the participants. The Cortical Hyper Excitability Index. Similar to the patterns, the questionnaires presented to the participants were also randomised in order to obtain a variety in the responses of the participants. The total time taken to conduct the experiment was about 20 minutes or less. Post conduction the individuals were thanked for their time and effort.