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Use This or You’ll Lose That: Investigating Appropriate Psychological Theories to Market the Bogallme Tracking System.
subject: Marketing/Advertising Qualitative (Thematic Analysis)
description: The Bogallme Tracking System is an anonymous ‘Lost and Found’ system which uses stickers with QR codes printed on them to facilitate the return of lost items. It is thought that the main motivations behind the purchasing of these stickers are fear appeal and loss aversion, as people fear losing their possessions and will do whatever they can to prevent this from occurring. This study aimed to investigate whether this is the case using focus groups consisting of primarily students - the target audience for this specific product. The research also explored Rogers’ (1962; 1976) Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DOI) in relation to this product as well as opinions regarding the product and brand. Findings suggested that all three of the above theories are relevant and useful in the development of this product and can be used to create an efficient marketing campaign whilst creating scope for further research which would benefit the development of the brand and product.
creator: Elizabeth Wardman
source: Methodology Participants. Sixteen participants took part in this study. Participants were recruited via opportunity sampling through various social media platforms and word of mouth. The age of participants ranged between 20 and 23. This age range was selected due to a market segmentation suggesting that over 50% of QR code users were aged between 18 and 34 and that 18 to 24 year olds were 36% more likely to scan them (14 Million Americans Scanned QR Codes on their Mobile Phones in June 2011., n.d.) Materials. The focus groups loosely followed a discussion guide (See Appendix D) which asked general questions corresponding to the product, brand and incentives as well as questions related to Fear, Loss Aversion and Diffusion of Innovations theory. The majority of questions within the Discussion Guide were open-ended as they encourage participants to express their views and opinions in full (Turner, 2010) and allow for any further elaboration. During the focus group participants were shown three potential names for the brand (Scannit, GlobalQR and the brand name Bogallme) and an example of the Diffusion of Innovations Model (Figure 1). Participants were each given prototypes of the product that they tested during the group and were allowed to keep these at the end of the study. Procedure. Focus Groups Focus groups were used as the method of data collection for this study. Although focus groups cannot provide data as rich as that of individual interviews, they can allow for group discussions. These group discussions and interactions allow for comparisons between participant experiences and opinions which could otherwise only be inferred after proceedings with individual interviews (Morgan, 1997). This study consisted of two focus groups which lasted approximately 60 minutes each. Within each focus group, eight participants sat facing one another around a circular table. After reading the information sheet and signing the consent forms, the focus group started with intro…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Frances Jackson
rights: There is no license suggested for this work as far as the research is aware.
relation: Leslie Hallam
format: Results There were several overarching themes present in both focus groups which relate to the three discussed theories (Fear, Loss Aversion and DOI Theory) and the proposed areas for exploration, along with new themes which were not previously considered. In response to the second objective relating to participant motivations to buy and use the product, the main theme of ‘motivations’ was created to investigate motivations to buy and use the product. Under this theme came the categories ‘fear’, ‘loss aversion’ and ‘adoption’. Following this, further sub-categories were created for each category which each included ‘effective’ and ‘ineffective’. The ‘adoption’ category under this main theme also included the further sub-categories ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’. The category ‘explicit’ was based on what participants said outright whereas the ‘implicit’ category was based on inferences and implications from the discussion. The next main theme was created in relation to the first objective which aimed to explore brand and product opinions and was named ‘brand ideas’ and contained the categories ‘name’, ‘product idea’, ‘incentives’ and ‘other opinions’. For the final and arguably most significant objective, the main theme of ‘development’ was created which contained the categories ‘audience’, ‘barriers’ and ‘ideas’ which aimed to assist in making informed suggestions as to how to proceed with product development. Brand Name The opinions relating to the brand name were very clear: participants did not like it. After being presented with three options of a possible brand name with no previous knowledge not one participant deemed ‘Bogallme’ appropriate for the product. Not one participant worked out that the word ‘Bogall’ was an anagram of the word ‘Global’ and the majority of participants chose the name ‘Scannit’ as the most appropriate for both the product and the brand. Many participants also had trouble in pronouncing the brand name correctly and it was pointed out in the …
language: English
type: Qualitative interview data
coverage: LA1 4YQ

Investigating the effects of dimensionality and referent variability on word learning in autism and typical development.
subject: Dimensionality, referent variability, word learning.
description: The ability to learn words from pictures could give children another forum to develop their lexical understanding and vocabulary. This is particularly important for children with developmental disorders such as Autism. This research investigated how word learning processes (referent selection, retention and generalisation) in autism and typical development are influenced by learning from pictures and objects, including single and multiple exemplars of symbols. The participants in this study were 16 typically developing children, M age=3.68, the TD group was composed of 7 males (43.75%) and 8 females (56.25%). And 16 children diagnosed with ASD, M age=9.37, 8 males (50%) and 8 females (50%). Participants looked at pictorial and object referents. This was to differentiate whether there was a preference in word acquisition and retention, depending on the structure of the stimuli. It was expected that word referent selection, retention and generalisation would be more accurate in the object condition compared to the picture condition, as participants would not be relying of picture-word-associations. Participants also examined words paired with either single or multiple exemplars of referents, to determine whether multiple exemplars of shaped matched referents would promote shape-based generalisation in the ASD group, which has been shown to be impaired (Hartley and Allen, 2014). It was expected that retention would be superior when learning directly from objects in both the ASD and TD groups, which was found in this research. We also anticipated that labelling from multiple exemplars, rather than single exemplars, may scaffold more consistent shape-based generalisation. We found that referent selection was more accurate in both groups in the multiple exemplar condition compared to the single exemplar condition. The implications of this research are that we can further understanding of how symbols or objects benefit word learning, retention and generalisation in ASD or …
creator: Fiona Smith
source: Participants The participants in this study were 16 minimally verbal children with ASD (M age = 10.42 years, SD = 3.29) and 16 typically developing children (M age = 3.64, SD = 1.64). Children with ASD were recruited from the specialist schools Dee Banks School in Chester, and Hinderton School in Ellesmere Port. Typically developing children were recruited via opportunity sampling, via the social media platform Facebook through advertisement. All the children with ASD received their diagnosis from a qualified clinical or educational psychologist. This was obtained using standardised instruments (i.e. Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale and Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised; (Lord, Rutter & Le Couteur, 1994, Lord, Rutter, DiLavore & Risi, 2002) and expert judgment. Clinical diagnosis was confirmed for children with autism using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS; Schopler, Van Bourgondien, Wellman & Love, 2010), which was completed by a class teacher (Raw Score M score = 37.26, Raw Score range = 27 – 53.5). The ASD were tested for non-verbal vocabulary using the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS; Dunn, Dunn, Whetton, & Burley, 1997), which was conducted by the experimenter. Mean receptive vocabulary of children with autism was years 2.84 (range = 6 years – 2 years 4 months). Some of the children diagnosed with ASD who participated in this study were current PECS-users with impaired expressive language skills. Most of the children with ASD who participated in this study were functionally non-verbal (no spoken words), although, some produced speech of 1–2 words in length (however, much of this was echolalia) and one child could speak some short phrases over three words in length. Therefore, the sample was linguistically representative of children with ASD who receive and may benefit from picture-based communication interventions. Participants had 1–6 years’ experience of using PECS. When recruiting the children diagnosed with ASD, the experimenter emailed s…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Assessing Inference Making in Listening Comprehension in Children in Special Education
subject: Developmental Disorders
description: Successful listening comprehension involves making accurate inferences to interpret the meaning of a story. We assessed inference making in listening comprehension of children in special education in years 4, 5, and 6 (n=12). Children listened to short stories and answered questions to assess local and global coherence inference after each story. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no significant main effects for children’s first responses for presentation type (whole, segmented) and inference type (local, global). However, after children had received prompts a significant main effect of inference type was shown with children performing better on global than local coherence inferences. Correlational analysis revealed no significant correlations between IQ and inference type but there was a stronger correlation between verbal IQ and inference type than non-verbal IQ and inference type. An independent t-test revealed no significant effect of diagnostic group on IQ or inference type but children in the Autism group performed better than children in the MLD group on both IQ measures and the MLD group scored better on both inference types. We conclude that inference type is important to consider when setting and asking comprehension questions along with the use of prompts to portray and assess children’s full comprehension ability.
creator: Rebecca Hindle
source: Participants The participants were 12 children from years 4, 5 and 6 aged between 8 and 11 (N=12, 3 girls and 9 boys, M=9.67, SD=0.99) from a special needs school in the North West of England. All children had a statement of special educational needs including; Autism, Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, Moderate Learning Disability, Nonans Syndrome, Fetal Vulprate Syndrome and Speech and Language Impairment. All children were verbal with English as their first language. Consent was provided by parents/ carers, the Head of School and each class Teacher. Measures IQ Task The WISC IV was used to determine children’s IQ levels. Children completed one verbal and one non-verbal measure of IQ. The verbal measure was a vocabulary task, children were first shown pictures of items and asked what this is, progressing onto words asking, what does this mean? Children could score either 0, 1 or 2 points depending on the accuracy of their definitions according to the WISC IV manual. There were 36 items, increasing in difficulty, and testing stopped when children answered 5 questions incorrectly in a row. The non-verbal measure was a block design task, this comprised of 14 items starting with simple designs progressing to more difficult designs. Children had to copy patterns either demonstrated by the experimenter for the first 3 patterns or presented in picture format for the following items. There were time constraints for each pattern starting with 30s progressing in length for the more difficult items to 120s. Once children had failed to complete 3 patterns in a row, testing ended. Listening comprehension task The listening comprehension task was taken from Freed and Cain (2016) devised by the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC) (2015). The full set of materials comprised 6 short stories however, for the current study only 4 stories were used: Grandma’s Birthday, The Game, New Pet and A Family Day Out. The stories were all topics appropriate to this age group. There were 8 q…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: La1 4YF

Neural response to infant-directed speech: gamma band oscillatory activity in 4-month-old infants
subject: Infant-directed speech; neural response; EEG; gamma oscillation
description: Infant-directed speech is an ostensive signal preferred by infants over adult-directed speech. We studied infants’ neural response to auditory stimuli by measuring gamma band oscillatory activity over the frontal area of the brain in response to ostensive infant-directed speech and non-ostensive adult-directed speech. Two groups of 4-month-old infants were presented with the same auditory stimuli, but the two groups differed in terms of visual stimuli (inverted vs. upright faces), being our study a part of a broader research project. We investigated only the auditory portion of the trial. We found that, in the inverted face group, the activation to the ostensive infant-directed speech was significantly enhanced while, in the upright group, this outcome was not found. These findings support the use of gamma band oscillations in assessing the basis of social communication and establish infants’ early specialization in understanding communicative signals directed to them.
creator: Marina Ciampolini
source: Experimental Design We used data that had already been collected for a broader study, designed for the observation of the influence of auditory stimuli on face processing. In the main experiment, a total of 36 four-months-old infants was divided into two groups that differed on the visual stimulus presented at the end of each trial. Immediately after an auditory stimulus in IDS or ADS, the first group was presented with inverted faces, while the second group was exposed to upright faces. Participants in both groups were thus exposed to the same auditory stimuli, just before being presented to the visual stimuli, that were different depending on the group. In this research we focused only on the auditory portion of the trial, where participants were exposed to IDS or ADS (Fig. 1). Figure 1. Representation of the complete trial presented to infants. In every trial, 18 infants were presented with upright faces, while the other 18 were presented with inverted faces. However, each infant was exposed to auditory stimuli in ADS or IDS, regardless of the visual stimulus. The green rectangle shows the portion of the trial analysed in this dissertation. Participants Infants were recruited from the Lancaster Babylab database. All were free of any known neurological, ocular or auditory abnormality and met the screening criteria of normal birth, born full term (gestational age >37 weeks), in the normal weight range (>2500g) and with an Apgar score of at least 8 at five minutes after the birth. In our study we focused on infants’ neural response to the auditory stimuli (Fig. 1). However, the distinction between the two groups was preserved in order to observe possible differences between them. The group exposed to inverted faces included 18 infants (5 females, age range 117 to 161 days, M= 135.61 days). Thirteen additional infants were excluded owing to an insufficient number of artifact free segments (n=10), sleep (n=1), and technical issues during the experiment (n=2). The grou…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2019
contributor: John Towse
format: Excel files; Matlab files; SPSS files.
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

How does metaphorical language affect individuals’ aesthetic perception in modern poetry: In the life span view
subject: Beauty perception Metaphoricity Familiarity Imageability
description: This study examined the relationship between the degree of metaphoricity and beauty perception as well as between cognitive load and beauty perception, by controlling for other possibly confounding variables such as familiarity and imageability. While previous research has shown that the variables of metaphoricity, familiarity and imageability influence beauty perception, no study investigate how the degree of metaphoricity and cognitive load influence beauty perception in poetic sentences reading. Therefore, this study aimed to bridge this gap. Beauty rating scale and keypress experiment were conducted, involving 22 young adults and 18 elderly adults. Because of the collinearity among metaphoricity, familiarity and iamgeability, a new variable called interpretation of metaphors was used to explain the hypotheses in the present study. Rather than cognitive load, interpretability was the predictor of beauty perception in poetry sentences reading. Young adults’ beauty perception achieved to the highest point at novel metaphors, while elderly adults considered dead metaphors as the most beautiful stimuli. This study suggests that poetic sentences are generally perceived as more beautiful when its degree of interpretability is lower in young adults rather than elderly adults. These findings provide an initial implication for future longitudinal or neuroaesthetic studies to further the understanding between metaphorical language and beauty perception.
creator: Qishan Liao
source: This study has been approved by the Psychology ethics committee at Lancaster University on 24/04/2018. Besides, this study were preregistered in ‘AsPredicted’ website, and the number was 11034. Participants. The participants were 22 young adults between the ages of 18 and 30, and 20 elderly adults between the ages of 55-75. They were recruited from SONA systems, social media (e.g., Facebook advert). All young participants have not suffered from any learning disability (i.e., dyslexia) and they were native English speakers. However, two elderly participants confirmed that they had a history of dyslexia, so they were excluded. Finally, there were 22 young adults with a mean age of 21.64 years (SD=3.05) and 18 elderly adults with a mean age of 63.22 years (SD=6.07) have participated. Participants were required to give informed consent via an online consent form before completing the online survey, and they would fill in a paper version consent form before the keypress experiment. All participant would receive four pounds after finishing all experiments. Materials. Stimuli. A bank of 92 stimuli, was generated by a previous student who was previously supervised by Dr Francesca Citron. Partially sentences are excerpted from modern poetry. The remaining sentences were created by this student, inspired by other poetic works. Creating novel sentences was to decrease the deviation caused by participants being familiar with some stimuli. All stimuli were divided into five categories, and the degree of metaphoricity of these categories was increasing. The first one is the literal expression which has concrete and pragmatic meaning and it usually equal to its literal meaning. It is not part of the metaphorical language. The following category is dead metaphors – a kind of metaphor that lose its imaginative space because of frequent use (Punter, 2007). The third one is the conventional metaphor that is commonly used in everyday life, and it is highly related to the specific cultu…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Lauren McCann
rights: Open
relation: None
format: data/excel.xlsx
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Visual engagement with different animals
subject: Animals, dichotomization, eye-tracking, empathic gaze, guilt
description: People treat animals differently depending on how they are dichotomized.The present study tested the consequences of dichotomization on our visual engagement with still images of different animals. Fifty-seven participants took part in two identical image visualization tasks, the first preceded a short empathy inducing video,and the second followed. We used eye-tracking to study dwell time percentage oriented towards the eyes of companion, farmed and endangered animals. Eye-directed visual engagement was greatest for companion animals in the first image visualization task. This bias in visual engagement towards companion animals was attenuated in the second image visualization task.We hypothesised that the empathy inducing video would change gaze towards farmed animals, evidencing either increased attentional avoidance or increased engagement. Although mean averages suggest a slight increase in visual engagement following the video, this difference was not significant. Participants reported highest levels of negative emotion regarding the farmed animal’s videos. Empathic gaze with farmed animals correlated positively with participants’ level of meat consumption restriction. The findings support several pre-registered hypotheses but disconfirm others, and are discussed in terms of the extension of empathic gaze to animals.
creator: Rebecca Gregson
source: Participants Our pre-registered recruitment strategy was to collect fifty participants with complete data. Fifty participants were recruited through (1) Lancaster University’s research participation system, SONA or(2) poster advertisementand were paid £3for their involvement. Each participant saw 9 images, presented twice, each for 10 seconds, totaling 180 seconds of eye-tracking data. On first inspection of the data we were forced to exclude seven participants whose eyes had not been tracked for 50% of the experiment. To reach our pre-registered participant pool of 50 we recruited seven more participants, one of whom had to be excluded on the same grounds as previous. Our final data set was comprised of 49 participants, 36 females and 13 males. Age ranged between 18 and 30 (M= 21.10, SD= 2.13). Participants reported a range of nationalities, including: American (n=1), British (n=28), Bulgarian (n=3), Chinese (n=3), Croatian (n=2), German (n=2), Hungarian (n=2) Indian (n=3), Indonesian (n= 1), Latvian (n=1), Nigerian (n=1), Malaysian (n=1) and Slovakian (n =1). Participants dietary classifications were as follows:Meat lover(n =1), Omnivore (n =23), Semi-vegetarian (n =16), Pescatarian(n =3),Lacto-or Ovo-vegetarian(n =5), Strict vegetarian(n =0), Dietary vegan(n =0),andLifestyle vegan(n =1).Design The experiment employed a 3x2 fully within-subjects design. The independent variables were animal category and time. The variable animal category hadthree levels: farmed animals (sheep, cow, pig), companion animals (dog, cat), and endangered wild animals (chimpanzee, tiger, koala) and was operationalized using still images. Our main research interest was the distinction between farmed and companion animals, given the marginalized status of farmed animals in society and the privileged status of companion animals. Endangered animals are vulnerable to human interference and confer some value VISUAL ENGAGMENT WITH ANIMALS.4due to their endangered status, but they are not active…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Rebecca James
format: SPSS data
language: English
type: SPSS.sav
coverage: LA1 4YF

Contrast polarity of a stimulus does not affect the cueing effect
subject: Gaze cueing Contrast polarity Gaze perception
description: According to the contrast polarity effect, people’s attention is sensitive to dark objects within light backgrounds. According to the gaze-cueing effect, a human gaze shift attracts people’s attention towards the direction of the darker region of the observed eyes, thus the gaze-cueing effect depends on the contrast polarity of the observed eyes. Therefore, a human gaze is perceived as a darker spot within a lighter background. In the present study, combining the contrast polarity effect and the gaze-cueing effect we examined whether the colour contrast between a black and a white square that suddenly flip on a computer screen can have a similar effect to that of gaze-cueing. The prediction was that participants would perceive the side where the black square moved after the flipping as attentional cue, therefore when an object appeared on the side that the black square moved, reaction times would be shorter compared to when the object appeared on the opposite side. The results showed that reaction times in the two conditions did not differ significantly. Thus, the contrast polarity of a stimulus does not affect the cueing effect.
creator: Eleni Sevastopoulou
source: The experiment was conducted using a single within-subject design. The independent variable was the cue congruency, which consisted of two conditions: the object appeared either congruently or incongruently with the attentional cue. The dependent variable was the reaction times of the participants which were measured in millisecond (ms). Procedure. Each participant was tested individually in a quiet room at the library of Lancaster University. Participants were tested at different days and times, including morning and evening hours. The only people present in the room during the conduct of the experiment were the participant and the experimenter. In the beginning, participants were asked to read the experiment instructions from the computer screen and they were also given clarifications, if needed, by the researcher. Afterwards, the experiment started and two squares, one black and one white, sharing one side were presented on the screen for half a second. The side that the squares shared was located at the centre of the screen, therefore one square appeared on the left side of the screen and the other one on the right side of the screen. Then the squares flipped and changed position and the apparent motion of the two squares was the cue. One second after flipping, the squares disappeared and a picture of an object randomly appeared either on the left or on the right side of the screen for one more second. Afterwards, the object disappeared and the screen remained blank. The task of the participants was to press the appropriate keyboard button as fast and as accurately as possible, depending on the side of the screen where the object appeared. So, they had to press the «Q» button on the keyboard when the object appeared on the left side of the screen or the «P» button when the object appeared on the right side of the screen. They were given one second to respond to the object appearance. The sequence of the trials was the same for every participant. Each one of the …
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: data/Excel.csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

The effects of ambient temperature on aggressive cognitions
subject: Ambient, temperature, aggression Linear mixed effects modelling, regression, correlation
description: The world is getting warmer and it is of interest to researchers to explore how changes in temperature experience affect human behaviour. The heat hypothesis suggests that an increase in heat is associated with an increase in antisocial behaviour (e.g. violence, aggression). However social embodiment studies have also demonstrated hotter temperatures to be associated with less antisocial behaviour (e.g. greater gift giving). This study investigated whether higher ambient temperatures are associated with more or less antisocial responding using a controlled laboratory approach. Participants were placed into either a cold room or a hot room whilst they completed two tasks that implicitly measured the accessibility of aggressive cognitions. Using a combination of linear mixed effects analyses and regression analyses, the results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the two temperature conditions concerning the accessibility of aggressive cognitions in a lexical decision go/no-go task and a word fragment completion task. Consequently the heat hypothesis and theories based upon a social embodiment framework were not supported in this case. Possible alternative explanations and limitations of the study are discussed regarding the inconsistent results to that proposed by particular theoretical frameworks and illustrated in previous research. Directions for future research are suggested in light of the present findings.
creator: Melissa Barclay
source: Participants In total, 65 participants took part in this study. Unfortunately the preregistered sample size figure of 120 participants was unable to be reached due to recruitment limitations. Participants were recruited via Lancaster University’s SONA system, via adverts, were friends of the researcher or were recruited on an opportunistic basis around the Lancaster University campus. As a reward for participating, participants were entered into a prize draw to win one of 12 £10 Amazon vouchers. Participants were excluded if they met any of several a priori agreed upon rules for exclusion: (a) non-native English speaker, or (b) made a connection in the debrief section between the room temperature and aggression measurements. Three participants were excluded from the analyses on this basis. Therefore 62 participants data remained in the analyses. Demographic information was obtained using questions on the Qualtrics survey (Qualtrics, Provo, UT). The mean age of participants was 25.29 years (SD = 8.83; 43 female, 19 male). It was preregistered that participants must be between 18 and 55 years of age however due to the prospect of increasing the sample size, the age range was increased to 18 to 60 years of age. Participants were randomly assigned to the cold condition (n = 31) or the hot condition (n = 31). Materials Lexical decision go/no-go task. A lexical decision go/no-go task was used to gauge the accessibility of aggressive cognitions. The standard lexical decision task (LDT) is an indirect measure of semantic activation of specific constructs (e.g. aggression) and is an excellent method to assess the activation of such semantic networks (Marsh & Landau, 1995; see Parrott, Zeichner & Evces, 2005). Advantageously, as the task does not require conscious expression, it is not easily affected by demand characteristics (see Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2011). The LDT task was used in conjunction with a go/no-go response whereby participants are instructed to respond as quic…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/Excel.csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

The Effect of Systematic Variance in Action Capabilities on Grasp Ability Perception.
subject: Embodied perception Grasp ability Affordance perception Virtual Reality
description: The ecological approach to visual perception asserts that individuals perceive environments relative to the possibility of action within their environment. Hence, to successfully interact with one’s environment, individuals must be able to accurately perceive the extent over which actions can be performed, widely referred to as action boundaries. Furthermore, as the world in which we inhabit is continually changing and subsequently placing various constraints upon ones action boundaries, it is necessary for individuals to be able to update their perceived action boundaries to accommodate for such variance. While research has displayed that individuals can update their perceptions to accommodate for variance, what is unclear in these circumstances is which action boundary does the perceptual system calibrate to. This study investigated this by analysing the effect of systematic variance on perceived grasp ability in virtual reality. Participants provided estimates of grasp ability following motor experience grasping with either a small, normal, large or a varied size hand. In the variance condition, participants experienced the small hand 25% of the time, the normal hand 25% of the time, and the large hand 50% of the time. The results indicated that participants’ perception of grasp ability reflected the artificial manipulation such that grasp ability was largest in the large hand condition. In addition, regarding the variable condition participants took all visual information into consideration however erred on the side of caution. However, it may be that factors such as age and personality influenced the results.
creator: Megan Rose Readman
source: Open Science Framework (OSF) This study has been pre-registered with the OSF; See https://osf.io/zkjdt/ for the main OSF project page. The following study deviated from the pre-registration in that data collection occurred for 12 days longer than initially intended as participant uptake was not as high as initially assumed it would be. Participants 30 Lancaster University Students (5 males and 25 females) aged between 18-26 (Mage = 21.07, SDage = 1.17), naïve to the purpose of this study, participated. All participants were recruited via opportunity sampling, utilising the Lancaster University Sona research participation system, advertisements and the researcher’s social network, and were paid £5 for their participation. Of these participants 29 were right-handed, and one was mixed-handed. The one mixed-handed participant elected to complete the study with their right hand, therefore, the following conclusions and data should be treated as all right-handed participants. In addition, all participants had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and had no known medical history of visual atypicalties, beyond being long or short-sighted, motoric or rheumatologic difficulties. All participants provided informed consent. Lancaster University Research Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for this study. Stimuli and apparatus A virtual environment was developed in Unity 3D© Gaming Engine with the Leap Motion plugin. The 3D VR colour display comprised a 3D model of a room in which a table was located in the centre. Upon this table were either two grey dots (in the calibration trials; See Panel A of Figure 2) or a grey block (block size manipulation trials; See Panel B Figure 2). The participant’s viewed the VR from a first-person perspective reflecting their natural eye-height. The environment was presented to participants through an Oculus Rift CV1 HMD, which displayed the stereoscopic reality at 2160×1200 at 90Hz split over both displays (Binstock, 2015). The movement of…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF