Advertising needs to capture consumers' attention in likable ways, and the visual complexity of advertising plays a central role in this regard. Yet ideas about visual complexity effects conflict, ...and objective measures of complexity are rare. The authors distinguish two types of visual complexity, differentiate them from the difficulty of comprehending advertising, and propose objective measures for each. Advertisements are visually complex when they contain dense perceptual features ("feature complexity") and/or when they have an elaborate creative design ("design complexity"). An analysis of 249 advertisements that were tested with eye-tracking shows that, as the authors hypothesize, feature complexity hurts attention to the brand and attitude toward the ad, whereas design complexity helps attention to both the pictorial and the advertisement as a whole, its comprehensibility, and attitude toward the ad. This is important because design complexity is under direct control of the advertiser. The proposed measures can be readily adopted to assess the visual complexity of advertising, and the findings can be used to improve the stopping power of advertisements. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Sensory perception in autism Robertson, Caroline E; Baron-Cohen, Simon
Nature reviews. Neuroscience,
11/2017, Letnik:
18, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition, and little is known about its neurobiology. Much of autism research has focused on the social, communication and cognitive difficulties associated ...with the condition. However, the recent revision of the diagnostic criteria for autism has brought another key domain of autistic experience into focus: sensory processing. Here, we review the properties of sensory processing in autism and discuss recent computational and neurobiological insights arising from attention to these behaviours. We argue that sensory traits have important implications for the development of animal and computational models of the condition. Finally, we consider how difficulties in sensory processing may relate to the other domains of behaviour that characterize autism.
A skin-inspired organic digital mechanoreceptor Tee, Benjamin C.-K.; Chortos, Alex; Berndt, Andre ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
10/2015, Letnik:
350, Številka:
6258
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Human skin relies on cutaneous receptors that output digital signals for tactile sensing in which the intensity of stimulation is converted to a series of voltage pulses. We present a power-efficient ...skin-inspired mechanoreceptor with a flexible organic transistor circuit that transduces pressure into digital frequency signals directly. The output frequency ranges between 0 and 200 hertz, with a sublinear response to increasing force stimuli that mimics slow-adapting skin mechanoreceptors. The output of the sensors was further used to stimulate optogenetically engineered mouse somatosensory neurons of mouse cortex in vitro, achieving stimulated pulses in accordance with pressure levels. This work represents a step toward the design and use of large-area organic electronic skins with neural-integrated touch feedback for replacement limbs.
Toward a science of computational ethology Anderson, David J; Perona, Pietro
Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.),
2014-Oct-01, 2014-10-00, 20141001, Letnik:
84, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The new field of “Computational Ethology” is made possible by advances in technology, mathematics, and engineering that allow scientists to automate the measurement and the analysis of animal ...behavior. We explore the opportunities and long-term directions of research in this area.
Sensory processing deficits, first investigated by Kraepelin and Bleuler as possible pathophysiological mechanisms in schizophrenia, are now being recharacterized in the context of our current ...understanding of the molecular and neurobiological brain mechanisms involved. The National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria position these deficits as intermediaries between molecular and cellular mechanisms and clinical symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations. The prepulse inhibition of startle responses by a weaker preceding tone, the inhibitory gating of response to paired sensory stimuli characterized using the auditory P50 evoked response, and the detection of slight deviations in patterns of sensory stimulation eliciting the cortical mismatch negativity potential demonstrate deficits in early sensory processing mechanisms, whose molecular and neurobiological bases are increasingly well understood. Deficits in sensory processing underlie more complex cognitive dysfunction and are in turn affected by higher-level cognitive difficulties. These deficits are now being used to identify genes involved in familial transmission of schizophrenia and to monitor potentially therapeutic drug effects for both treatment and prevention. This research also provides a clinical reminder that patients' sensory perception of the surrounding world, even during treatment sessions, may differ considerably from others' perceptions. A person's ability to understand and interact effectively with the surrounding world ultimately depends on an underlying sensory experience of it.
Video evidence is proliferating in the courtroom, outpacing the incremental advances in policies governing its use. Psychological research on attention and perception indicates that people are ...vulnerable to numerous biases in how they interpret video. The dynamic format of such evidence directs attention in distinct ways, and the visual system selectively captures some pieces of information at the expense of others. Thus, perceivers who must make decisions about video evidence are vulnerable to overweighting the information they see, underweighting the information they do not see, and being overconfident about their interpretation of what they see. We marshal emerging research on attention and cognition to consider perceivers’ vulnerabilities to video evidence. Further, we ask whether instruction interventions may disrupt biases in decision-making about video evidence. We present pilot data suggesting that instructions to consider information missing from a scene might bridge the gap between disparate perceptions of body camera and dashcam footage of the same scene.
Human speech perception results from neural computations that transform external acoustic speech signals into internal representations of words. The superior temporal gyrus (STG) contains the ...nonprimary auditory cortex and is a critical locus for phonological processing. Here, we describe how speech sound representation in the STG relies on fundamentally nonlinear and dynamical processes, such as categorization, normalization, contextual restoration, and the extraction of temporal structure. A spatial mosaic of local cortical sites on the STG exhibits complex auditory encoding for distinct acoustic-phonetic and prosodic features. We propose that as a population ensemble, these distributed patterns of neural activity give rise to abstract, higher-order phonemic and syllabic representations that support speech perception. This review presents a multi-scale, recurrent model of phonological processing in the STG, highlighting the critical interface between auditory and language systems.
The intention to send a crewed mission to Mars involves a huge amount of planning to ensure a safe and successful mission. Providing adequate amounts of food for the crew is a major task, but 20 ...years of feeding astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have resulted in a good knowledge base. A crucial observation from the ISS is that astronauts typically consume only 80% of their daily calorie requirements when in space. This is despite daily exercise regimes that keep energy usage at very similar levels to those found on Earth. This calorie deficit seems to have little effect on astronauts who spend up to 12 months on the ISS, but given that a mission to Mars would take 30 to 36 months to complete, there is concern that a calorie deficit over this period may lead to adverse effects in crew members. The key question is why astronauts undereat when they have a supply of food designed to fully deliver their nutritional needs. This review focuses on evidence from astronauts that foods taste different in space, compared to on Earth. The underlying hypothesis is that conditions in space may change the perceived flavor of the food, and this flavor change may, in turn, lead to underconsumption by astronauts. The key areas investigated in this review for their potential impact on food intake are the effects of food shelf life, physiological changes, noise, air and water quality on the perception of food flavor, as well as the link between food flavor and food intake.
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