Cognition and Perception Commons^™

Aesthetically Designed Maps: Development And Perception, Catherine Wang

Graphic Communication

This research explored the creative element of subway map creation in light of its effectiveness. Printed subway maps, used often for metropolitan cities and areas, are limited in physical dimension and scale, carrying minimal information. The New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo, Paris, London and Moscow subway maps highlight similar design and abstraction that fulfill the basic necessary elements for subway patrons. Over the years since the first metro map for each city was created, maps have become more simplified by removing physical land features and reference points to make way for expanding and new subway lines, stations, and …

Aligning Inside And Outside Perspectives Of The Self: A Cross-Cultural Difference In Self-Perception, Young-Hoon Kim, Chi-Yue Chiu, Sinhae Cho, Evelyn W. M. Au, Sunyoung Nicole Kwak

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Past research shows that European Americans tend to take a first-person perspective to understand the self and are unlikely to align the inside look with the outside gaze, whereas Asians tend to take a third-person perspective and are likely to shift their inside look in the direction of the outsize gaze. In three experiments, we compared Asians and European Americans' self-perceptions when the presence of their parents in the background of self-perception was primed or otherwise. Without the priming, both European Americans and Asians viewed themselves more positively from their own perspective than from their parents' perspective. With the priming, …

Stranger Danger: Parenthood And Child Presence Increase The Envisioned Bodily Formidability Of Menacing Men, Daniel M.T. Fessler, Colin Holbrook, Jeremy S. Pollack, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Due to altriciality and the importance of embodied capital, children’s fitness is contingent on parental investment. Injury suffered by a parent therefore degrades the parent’s fitness both by constraining reproduction and by diminishing the fitness of existing offspring. Due to the latter added cost, compared to non-parents, parents should be more cautious in hazardous situations, including potentially agonistic interactions. Prior research indicates that relative formidability is conceptualized in terms of size and strength. As erroneous under-estimation of a foe’s formidability heightens the risk of injury, parents should therefore conceptualize a potential antagonist as larger, stronger, and of more sinister intent …

Direct Control Of Visual Perception With Phase-Specific Modulation Of Posterior Parietal Cortex, Andrew Jaegle, Tony Ro

Publications and Research

We examined the causal relationship between the phase of alpha oscillations (9–12 Hz) and conscious visual perception using rhythmic TMS (rTMS) while simultaneously recording EEG activity. rTMS of posterior parietal cortex at an alpha frequency (10 Hz), but not occipital or sham rTMS, both entrained the phase of subsequent alpha oscillatory activity and produced a phase-dependent change on subsequent visual perception, with lower discrimination accuracy for targets presented at one phase of the alpha oscillatory waveform than for targets presented at the opposite phase. By extrinsically manipulating the phase of alpha before stimulus presentation, we provide direct evidence that the …

Quality-Space Theory In Olfaction, Benjamin D. Young, Andreas Keller, David Rosenthal

Publications and Research

Quality-space theory (QST) explains the nature of the mental qualities distinctive of perceptual states by appeal to their role in perceiving. QST is typically described in terms of the mental qualities that pertain to color. Here we apply QST to the olfactory modalities. Olfaction is in various respects more complex than vision, and so provides a useful test case for QST. To determine whether QST can deal with the challenges olfaction presents, we show how a quality space (QS) could be constructed relying on olfactory perceptible properties and the olfactory mental qualities then defined by appeal to that QS of …

Development Of Moral Didacticism In Children: A Cross-Cultural Study, Sixtus Obinna Iwuji

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The use of folktales and fables in explaining the physical and spiritual worlds to children is cross-cultural, and precedes recorded history. Prior studies indicate a developmental process in children’s understanding of fables and folktales (Jose, D’Anna, & Krieg, 2005; Narvaez, Gleason, Mitchell, & Bentley, 1999). However, no known study has examined whether this developmental process is cross-cultural or culture specific. No known study also, has examined whether children as young as 6 years of age are aware that fables and folktales are non-historical. The present study fills these observed gaps by examining moral didacticism in children aged 6-11 years. The …

Perceived Depth In Non-Transitive Stereo Displays, Bart Farell, Cherlyn J. Ng

Biomedical and Chemical Engineering - All Scholarship

The separation between the eyes shapes the distribution of binocular disparities and gives a special role to horizontal disparities. However, for one-dimensional stimuli, disparity direction, like motion direction, is linked to stimulus orientation. This makes the perceived depth of one-dimensional stimuli orientation dependent and generally non-veridical. It also allows perceived depth to violate transitivity. Three stimuli, A, B, and C, can be arranged such that A > B (stimulus A is seen as farther than stimulus B when they are presented together) and B > C, yet A 6 C. This study examines how the visual system handles the depth of A, …

"Nudging" Better Lawyer Behavior: Using Default Rules And Incentives To Change Behavior In Law Firms, Nancy B. Rapoport

Scholarly Works

This article examines how incentives in law firms can affect lawyer behavior and suggests some possible changes to incentive structures and default rules that might improve the ethical behavior of lawyers.

In the changing landscape of law practice — where law firm profits are threatened by such changes as increased pressure from clients to economize and the concomitant opportunities for clients to shop around for the most efficient lawyers — are there ways to change how things are done in law firms so that firms can provide more efficient and ethical service? This article suggests that an understanding of cognitive …

The Effects Of Alternate-Line Shading On Visual Search In Grid-Based Graphic Designs, Michael P. Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Objective: The goal of this research was to determine whether alternate-line shading (zebra-striping) of grid-based displays affects the strategy (i.e., “visual flow”) and efficiency of serial search. Background: Grids, matrices, and tables are commonly used to organize information. A number of design techniques and psychological principles are relevant to how viewers’ eyes can be guided through such visual works. One common technique for grids, “zebra-striping,” is intended to guide eyes through the design, or “create visual flow” by alternating shaded and unshaded rows or columns. Method: 13 participants completed a visual serial search task. The target was embedded in a …

Are Individuals Fickle-Minded?, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Mark Turner

Faculty Scholarship

Game theory has been used to model large-scale social events — such as constitutional law, democratic stability, standard setting, gender roles, social movements, communication, markets, the selection of officials by means of elections, coalition formation, resource allocation, distribution of goods, and war — as the aggregate result of individual choices in interdependent decision-making. Game theory in this way assumes methodological individualism. The widespread observation that game theory predictions do not in general match observation has led to many attempts to repair game theory by creating behavioral game theory, which adds corrective terms to the game theoretic predictions in the hope …

Human System Engineering Applications From Distracted Driving Simulations, Holly A.H. Handley, Cansu Kandemir, S. Long (Ed.), E.-H. Ng (Ed.), C. Downing (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Most of the studies to explore the impact of distracted driving have been descriptive in nature; i.e. the research is conducted in naturalistic settings to evaluate the performance of the driver with and without distracters. However simulation models can also be used that predict the workload for driving tasks. Using concepts from process modeling, baseline models of driving tasks can be created for different driving sequences that include the associated fine motor, visual and cognitive human resources. These models can then be used to evaluate incidents of workload overload caused by different distracters, from both the internal and external vehicle …

Examining The Intersection Of The Cognitive Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Bilingual Brain, Irina Rabkina

Scripps Senior Theses

Two conflicting findings characterize cognitive processing accompanying bilingualism. The “bilingual advantage” refers to improved cognitive performance for bilingual compared to monolingual participants. Most bilingual advantages fall under the umbrella of cognitive control mechanisms, most frequently demonstrated using the Stroop task and the Simon task (e.g., Bialystok, 2008; Coderre, Van Heuven, & Conklin, 2013). The “bilingual disadvantage,” on the other hand, refers to bilinguals’ diminished performance on tasks that require word retrieval or switching between languages. This study examined the intersection of the bilingual advantage and the bilingual disadvantage to investigate whether they stem from a single cognitive control process. The …

Using Noninvasive Brain Measurement To Explore The Psychological Effects Of Computer Malfunctions On Users During Human-Computer Interactions, Leanne M. Hirshfield, Philip Bobko, Alex Barelka, Stuart H. Hirshfield, Mathew T. Farrington, Spencer Gulbronson, Diane Paverman

Management Faculty Publications

In today’s technologically driven world, there is a need to better understand the ways that common computer malfunctions affect computer users. These malfunctions may have measurable influences on computer user’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. An experiment was conducted where participants conducted a series of web search tasks while wearing functional nearinfrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and galvanic skin response sensors. Two computer malfunctions were introduced during the sessions which had the potential to influence correlates of user trust and suspicion. Surveys were given after each session to measure user’s perceived emotional state, cognitive load, and perceived trust. Results suggest that fNIRS …

Natural Phenomena As Potential Influence On Social And Political Behavior: The Earth’S Magnetic Field, Jackie R. East

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Researchers use natural phenomena in a number of disciplines to help explain human behavioral outcomes. Research regarding the potential effects of magnetic fields on animal and human behavior indicates that fields could influence outcomes of interest to social scientists. Tests so far have been limited in scope. This work is a preliminary evaluation of whether the earth’s magnetic field influences human behavior it examines the baseline relationship exhibited between geomagnetic readings and a host of social and political outcomes. The emphasis on breadth of topical coverage in these statistical trials, rather than on depth of development for any one model, …

Letter Reversal Assessments: A Systematic Review Of Measurement Properties, Administration Guidelines And Reversal Content And Richmond Reversal Rating: Construct Validity In Relation To Visual-Spatial Abilities, Lucinda Venter

Theses : Honours

Background: With several assessments available that purport to measure the letter reversal rates of young school-aged children, the question was raised how reliable and comparable these assessments are and to what extent each assessment addresses the concept of letter reversals? A systematic review of these assessments was performed to evaluate the measurement properties and administration guidelines, and to compare the reversal content of these assessments.

Method: Relevant assessments and studies were identified through literature searches. For each of the assessments the measurement properties, quality of the studies that report the measurement properties, and administration guidelines were evaluated, and the content …

Polysemy In Design Review Conversations, Georgi V. Georgiev, Toshiharu Taura

Design Thinking Research Symposium

This paper examines the role of polysemy, defined as the quality of having multiple meanings, in design review conversations. It examines the polysemy, particularly of nouns, involved in a dataset of design review conversations with reference to design ideas. The purpose is to determine whether polysemy is related to successful development of design ideas and more creative design outcomes. The results show that the polysemy of nouns involved in the conversations of the finally developed, successful, design ideas exceeds in the most cases the average polysemy involved in the conversations pertaining to the unsuccessful design ideas. Furthermore, the polysemy of …

Brief Of Public Law Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Ernest A. Young, Nita Farahany, Gail Heriot, Ilya Somin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Examining The Relationship Between Familiarity And Reliability Of Automation In The Cockpit, Rian Mehta, Steven Rice, Scott Winter

Publications

This study sought to determine the correlation between familiarity and perceptions of reliability, as associated to specific aviation-related automated devices. Participants’ experience levels ranged from non-pilots to novice pilots to certified flight instructors. It was hypothesized that familiarity has a direct correlation with ratings of reliability for various aviation-related automated devices and that the correlation across devices for each participant would be positive. The researchers expected to find a difference in the familiarity-reliability relationship as a function of experience. Findings showed that there was a significant positive correlation between familiarity and reliability for every single automated device. A positive correlation …

Assessing Visual Perception Using Letters And Numbers, Janet Richmond

ECU Posters

To create a new visual perceptual test using letters and numbers in isolation and in context. Producing a linear scale to measure the ability of primary school children to visually discriminate upper and lower case letters in readiness for learning to read and perform mathematical calculations.

Children-Robot Interaction: Eye Gaze Analysis Of Children With Autism During Social Interactions, Seyedmohammad Mavadati, Huanghao Feng, S. Silver, Anibal Gutierrez, Mohammad H. Mahoor

Electrical and Computer Engineering: Graduate Student Scholarship

Background:

Typical developing individuals utilize the direction of eye gaze and eye fixation/shifting as crucial elements to transmit socially relevant information (e.g. like, dislike) to others. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), deviant pattern of mutual eye gaze is a noticeable feature that may be one of the earliest (detectable) demonstrations of impaired social skills that would lead to other deficits in ASD Individuals (e.g. delaying development of social cognition and affective construal processes). This can significantly affect the quality of human’s social interactions. Recent studies reveal that children with ASD have superior engagement to the robot-based interaction, and it …