The Construction of Female Sexual Agency in Contemporary Advertising: Empowerment or Objectification?
subject: media, advertising, psychology, sociology, psycho-social, sexualisation, objectification, empowerment, sexual empowerment gender, me too, feminism, post feminism, neoliberalism
description: Building on the work of Gill (2008) on postfeminist female gender representation in advertising, more specifically the shift from representing women as sexual objects to representing women as active sexual subjects, this work presents an exploration of young adults’ constructions and depictions of contemporary sexualised representations of women; of whether the new construction of female sexual agency is seen as empowering as opposed to objectifying. Furthermore, this analysis is concerned with the susceptibility of young audiences to advertising’s attempts to integrate neoliberal/postfeminist ideas in their communication strategies. A tangent question to this research is an exploration of contemporary audiences’ awareness of recent movements against sexual harassment (MeToo); of potential implications these may have in the construction of the new femininity. The study consisted of both same-sex (male, female) focus groups and mixed-gender focus groups in order to ensure complementarity of insights. Findings suggest thatthere is no simple negotiation between empowerment and objectification. Female sexual agency cannot be denied, nor can women be understood as completely free agents, living independent of any external influence or constraint. Female empowerment in advertising must not limit female gender representation/empowerment to women’s sexuality and should distance itself from its constant rapport with the male as female empowerment, also femininity, must be understood and represented much more broadly.
creator: Irina Teodora Marculescu
source: advertising must not limit female gender representation/empowerment to women’s sexuality and should distance itself from its constant rapport with the male as female empowerment, also femininity, must be understood and represented much more broadly. Methods Section:This study investigates the construction of female sexual agency in advertising. More specifically, it contributes to existing feminist post-structuralist literature, critique and debates around representations of gender in media culture as it explores young adults’ perceptions of female gender representations in advertisements that depict women sexually. Research DesignA phenomenological approach was adopted in this research as participants were invited to express their views on specific advertising stimuli, to discover and ascribe meaning to cultural depictions of female sexuality. Focus groups were conducted with five (male), six (mixed) and seven (female) participants who engaged in a semi-structured discussion. Participants expressed their thoughts in relation to the topic of research as consisting of various pre-established themes. SamplingThe sample consisted of 18 participants of which nine were females and nine were males. All participants identify as undergraduate or postgraduate students at Lancaster University, aged 20-27 years old. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling. Despite being current residents of Lancaster, they originate from different countries (England, Bulgaria, Lithuania, U.S., China, France, Andorra, and Greece). Research ProceduresMaterialsParticipants were provided with an information sheet and consent form before the focus group. The information sheet provided participants with information about the study, the scope of research, their confidentiality and anonymity, and also the opportunityto further enquire about the study. Focus groups discussion were recorded via Iphone Voice Memo recorder. The recordings were removed from the researcher’s Iphone and stor…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: No data provided
language: English
type: No data provided
coverage: LA1 4YF

The Paradox of Choice in fictitious COVID-19 vaccination scenario: the role of the number of options and the amount of information in decision-making.
description: Previous research evidence showed that when people face abundance of choices or too much information, they tend to experience the paradox of choice. This study investigates the role of the number of options and amount of information in decision-making, respectively, the paradox of choice in the fictitious COVID-19 vaccination scenario. Participants (N = 128) were randomly allocated to one of four experimental conditions. The conditions differed in the number of options (high – six options; low – two options) and the information (high – six pieces of information per option; low – two pieces of information per option). As a result, the four experimental conditions were: low options, low information; low options, high information; high options, low information; high options, high information. Participants were asked to choose one of the vaccines from a list presented separately from the experimental stimuli. The reaction time of choosing a vaccine was measured. Participants were asked to evaluate how satisfied they were with their choice, how confident they were about their choice and their anticipated regret. Participants were also asked to write the reason why they chose a particular option. The study did not find a significant effect of the number of options and the amount of information on the decision-making. Participants identified five main themes why they chose a particular option: features of the vaccine, scientific evidence, information, lawfulness, and personal preference. The study revealed positive relationships between choice satisfaction, confidence, and anticipated regret.
creator: Iveta Volna
source: Participants The participants’ pool was collected from the general public. In total, 191 participants took part in the study. However, 62 participants were excluded due to missing values. Another participant was further excluded because of stating being 0 years of age. Thus, the data of 128 participants (36 males, 90 females, 1 non-binary/third gender, and 1 prefer not to say) were used for the analysis. The participants were in the age group between 18 and 51 years of age (M = 23.1, SD = 6.02). Based on power analysis when effect size f = .25 (medium effect), p = .05, power (1 – β error probability) = .80, and the number of groups = 4, it was indicated that the sample size of 128 participants is necessary to ensure the study results have high statistical power. In terms of age, one participant was stated to be 22,5 years old. For the analysis, this was taken as 22 years of age. The participants were invited to the research via Facebook post, Instagram story, and direct messaging friends and family circles. From the overall sample, 103 participants (29 males, 72 females, 1 non-binary/third gender, 1 prefer not to say) also filled an additional qualitative question investigating the reasoning behind the participants’ choice. As drawn from the overall sample, the age of participants responding to the qualitative question ranged from 18 to 47 years of age (M = 22, SD = 5.76). Design Participants were presented with information about fictitious COVID-19 vaccines. The current study applied a 2x2 between-subject design. Participants were randomly split according to the number of options (high – six options; low – two options) and the amount of information they received (high – six pieces of information per option; low – two pieces of information per option). Consequently, the four experimental conditions were: a) Low options, low information b) Low options, high information c) High options, low information d) High options, high information The six vaccines in the high opt…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2021
contributor: Faye Summers Connie Jordan-Turner
rights: Open (unless stated otherwise)
relation: None (unless stated otherwise)
format: data/r.csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

A review of the PEACE interview model training and implementation in real-life interviews
subject: PEACE model, Interviewing, Investigation, Interrogation, Training, Evaluation, Interviewing techniques, PEACE model training
description: Police officers in England and Wales are trained to conduct interviews in line with the PEACE model of interviewing, however, the level of implementation of the PEACE procedures can vary between organisations and over time. The present study aimed to review the quality of current PEACE model interviewing training and its implementation into interviewing practice. Initially, in Study One, 62 training feedback forms from the Cumbria police force were analysed using thematic analysis to gain an overview of the training’s strengths and weaknesses. In Study Two, 30 interviews from 10 officers trained on these courses were analysed, to see if reported intention to implement the PEACE model and techniques learnt during training were transferred into real-life interviewing practice. Data from Study One indicated that the course was satisfactorily structured and presented, with data from Study Two showing improvement for most Tier-2 interviewers interviewing abilities after training, though some interviewers failed to implement concepts and techniques covered on the training course. Potential explanations for these findings and ways to improve the transference of skills from interviewing training are discussed.
creator: Jack Hardaker
source: Study One Method Participants All 62 participants undertook either a Tier-2 or Tier-3 interviewing course with the Cumbria police force. Participants were currently serving officers of constable rank or higher, of which, 34 were female and 28 were male. There was considerable variance in years of service between Tier-2 interviewers and Tier-3 interviewers, though no exact measure of years of service or age was included with the data provided. Materials Data The 62 training evaluation forms were provided to the researcher by the Cumbria police force, and were from either the Tier-2 investigative interviewing or the Tier-3 investigative interviewing course. The forms contained two scales indicating levels of confidence in conducting interviews before and after receiving the training, with a further four scales indicating levels of agreement with questions relevant to the study, and a single “Yes or No” question indicating if the participant was satisfied with the training received overall (see Appendix A for the full list of questions and exact wording). For all six scales, participants rated their strength of agreement with the statement using a scale of one to five (Likert, 1932). Three open questions were included on the form that stated: “If you have any other comments about this training please record them here”, “Are there any elements of the course did you not find useful or feel require further explanation?”, “If you have any other comments to make about this course please record them below.” Ethics Ethical approval was granted by a member of the Lancaster University Psychology department before data collection and analysis began. Data was collected by the Cumbria police force with all participants consenting to complete the feedback forms with the knowledge that their comments would be evaluated to improve the training courses. All course evaluation forms were reviewed by the researcher in a secure location at Cumbria police force headquarters, with findings …
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 07/09/2022
contributor: Donavan Cheung
contributor: Mert Kaplanoglu
rights: Open
relation: N/A
format: Data/Excel.csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Comparison of Ethical Decision-Making in Emergency Service Workers and Laypeople
subject: Trolley Problem, ethical dilemmas, time pressure, emergency service workers, decision-making.
description: The Trolley Problem is a theoretical ethical dilemma in which it is asked whether it is morally acceptable to actively kill one person to save five (Thomson, 1976). Emergency service workers (ESW) are often presented with ethical dilemmas, such as whether to resuscitate someone who does not want to be resuscitated (Guru et al., 1999). The present study investigated the differences in decisions made when faced with variations of the Trolley Problem between laypeople (non-ESW) and ESW. The effect of time pressure on making these decisions was also investigated, measured through response time. 99 participants were tested, 47 laypeople and 52 ESW. Participants were presented with five different Trolley Problem dilemmas wherein they could passively allow five people to die, or to make an active decision to sacrifice one person to save the others. These dilemmas had distinct variations, such as the one person being a co-worker, or where participants had to physically push and kill a large man. Half the participants were placed into a time pressure condition, and were told that they had a time limit in which to respond, when no time limit existed. Results showed that neither occupation nor time pressure significantly affected response time or participant choice. Further analysis suggested some interaction effects between occupation, time pressure, and specific dilemma types. Implications such as suggested training practices for ESW will be discussed. Criticisms of the methodology and recommendations for future research will also be discussed.
creator: James Wright
source: Method Sample This project aimed to use a total of 112 participants, with 56 of these being ESW, and 56 being laypeople. This number was calculated using the G*Power software, using an alpha of .05, power of .8, and a medium expected effect size of .35, using five levels of measurement. In total, 99 participants were gathered for the present study. 47 of the sample were laypeople, whilst the other 52 were ESW. Of these, 22 were police officers, and 30 were ambulance crewmembers. Overall, ESW had an average of 7.7 years of experience (SD = 8.29), with ambulance staff having an average of 10.14 years (SD = 9.89), and police having an average of 4.52 years (SD = 4.17). Unfortunately, no other emergency service branches such as coast guard or firefighters completed the study. A gender split of 47 males to 48 females was gathered, along with an average age of 35.65 years old (SD = 12.98). Three participants declined to disclose their gender, and one participant identified as agender. Ethical Approval and Pre-Registration This study gained ethical approval on 13/04/2021, from members of the Psychology department at Lancaster University. This study was also pre-registered on the Open Science Frameworks website on 17/05/2021. This can be found at the following link: https://osf.io/4ecjg/?view_only=95615bd16f2c4a9db88dd77543780ec2 Materials Survey The present study was delivered through a Qualtrics survey file, created fully by the researcher. The survey contains standard psychological research documents, such as an information page, consent form, demographic information page, and debriefing. The survey also contains two sets of five vignettes describing ethical dilemmas for each condition of the experiment. Demographics Participants are asked to provide some demographic information: age, gender, and occupation. Participants are given options for occupation, including police, fire, or ambulance, as well as an option for ‘other’ emergency services, where a free typing box is …
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 08/09/2021
contributor: Paige Givin & Chloe Crawshaw
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Main Data_35645845/Excel.csv , 35645845 Occupation Response Time Sum Scores/Excel.csv , 35645845 Time Pressure Response Time Sum Scores/Excel.csv, 35645845_RStudio Code/RStudio.R
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YW

Competence and Warmth: How Gender Impacts Perceptions of Male and Female Speakers.
subject: gender stereotypes competence, warmth stereotype content model
description: Using the stereotype content model as a theoretical background, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between gender stereotypes and judgements of warmth and competence. Visual appearance has long been used to research these judgements while auditory cues have often been overlooked. This study therefore focused on judgements made about voice and subsequently did not influence participants with predetermined gender labels. 61 participants – aged 19 to 60 – listened to either 2 male or 2 female speakers talk about domestic violence and cancer research. Domestic violence is here defined as a women-centric topic, while cancer research is considered gender neutral. Participants completed person perception inventories of each speaker, rating them on 7-point Likert scales in terms of 10 competence and 10 warmth items. They also completed a sexism inventory to determine whether sexism predicted a more favourable attitude toward male speakers. A 2 between gender (male vs female) by 2 within topic (domestic violence vs cancer research) ANOVA was conducted, and female speakers were judged as more competent than males when speaking on domestic violence but not cancer research. They were considered warmer than men in both cases. This indicates that women are seen as competent when speaking on issues that directly affect them, suggesting that they should be taken more seriously when speaking out about their own rights. However, traditional warmth stereotypes regarding women were upheld. This, along with further implications, are discussed.
creator: Jayne Summers
source: Items. 10 competence items and 10 warmth items were selected to compile a 20-item list of characteristics for participants to judge speakers on. Of these items, 11 were taken from Rudman & Glick (1999) and the remaining 9 were considered in the original SCM. Items used in the competence and warmth scales were found to be reliable across speech topics, namely cancer research (CR) and domestic violence (DV) (competenceCR α = .893, competenceDV α = .931). This indicates that the scales used were highly reliable. Similarly, for the warmth dimensions, Cronbach's Alpha was suitably high (WarmthCR α = .918, WarmthDV α = .944). The reliability for the sexism inventory was also acceptable, with an α value of .826. An example of several competence and warmth dimensions can be seen below, while a full list can be found in Appendix A. Competence: confident, ambitious, intelligent.. Warmth: trustworthy, likeable, supportive. Speeches. Two speeches were recorded for the purpose of the experiment, one focused on domestic violence and the other on cancer research. The speeches were written to closely match each other in terms of wording and the information being presented. For instance, the opening and closing sentences of each speech were similarly structured, as seen below. Table 1. Examples of speech text. Domestic Violence Cancer Research Opening sentence Domestic Violence. A topic that is often glossed over as something that effects other people - not me; not you. Cancer. A topic we don't often like to think about – something that effects other people, but not me: not you. Closing sentence By going to our website www.dvrefuges.co.uk you can find out more information about the great work women's refuges around the country do, and help them continue to change women's lives by donating to our cause. By going to our website www.ukcancer.co.uk you can find out more information about the great work that we do, and by donating to our cause, help us continue to help people diagnosed w…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2017
contributor: John Towse
rights: Open
format: data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Recalling Memories of Childhood Bullying: Links Between Early Victimisation and Anxiety in Adulthood
description: Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between retrospective reports of bullying (primary school, secondary school and general experiences of bullying) with social anxiety (SAD), generalised anxiety (GAD) and grit (perseverance). Method: Demographic information was obtained from participants (n=147) as well as measures from primary school bullying, secondary school bullying and general bullying experiences utilising the Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire (RBQ; Schafer et al., 2004). The Social Phobia Inventory (Connor et al., 2000) measured social anxiety in participants, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (Meyer et al., 1990) assessed general anxiety and the Grit Test (Duckwoth et al., 2007) evaluated participant’s determination. Results: There was evidence that primary school bullying was associated with higher levels of GAD whilst higher levels of SAD were associated with general bullying experiences. There was no evidence to suggest that the individual difference measure of grit impacted upon anxiety for participants. The results support previous studies which have linked anxiety disorders in adulthood to earlier experiences of bullying
creator: Jenna Rayner
source: In the Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire (RBQ) (Schafer et al., 2004), there are a number of sections, three of which were used in this study. The first looks at bullying in primary school, the second at bullying in secondary school and the third section at general bullying behaviour. The general bullying behaviour section concentrated on the long-term effects of any bullying the participants had experiences of in primary or secondary school. This section asked such questions as “Do you ever have dreams or nightmares about the bullying events?” and “Do you ever feel distressed in situations which remind you of the bullying event(s)?” (appendix A). This questionnaire was subject to intensive pilot studies by Schafer et al. (2004) and insight was gained from the success of Rivers (2001) study which also utilised a retrospective measure. Reliability of the RBQ was assessed in the Schafer et al. study, which found a good level of test-retest reliability (Spearman correlation coefficients, primary school r=.88, secondary school r=.87). The Social Phobia Inventory is a 17-item self-report questionnaire (Connor et al., 2000) that screens for social anxiety disorder and assesses the acuteness of such a disorder. The measure has three subsections which evaluate key symptoms of SAD: fear of social situations, avoidance of social situations and physiological discomfort within social situation. Each item is rated on a scale from zero to four. Scores ranged from 0 to 68, and a cut off score of 19 or above distinguishes between healthy controls and SAD sufferers. The SPIN has previously demonstrated good internal consistency as well as suitable test-retest reliability. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (Meyer, Miller, Metzger & Borkovec, 1990) is a 16-item questionnaire which has been considerably utilised in existing studies to measure generalised anxiety disorder in participants. This questionnaire has been shown to differentiate between different anxiety disorders, e.g. Ge…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2014
contributor: Anamarija Veic
language: English
type: Data and a form

Could eye movements provide a window into early signs of dementia? Investigating the relationship between eye movements and cognitive decline.
subject: saccades Alzheimers
description: Past research has indicated a relationship between eye movement abilities and cognitive decline. Specifically, performances on the anti-saccade task and pro-saccade task have demonstrated a correlation with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) severity, suggesting that impairments in visual ability may be a potential biomarker for dementia. However, little research has investigated whether the same deficiency is present in more ecologically valid tasks. The current study therefore aimed to extend the dementia literature by examining eye movement abilities in individuals with AD when completing a task that required the visual exploration of videos. In order to investigate a disease effect, patients with AD were compared to healthy older controls. To explore age effects, the older controls were additionally compared to healthy younger controls. To attempt to replicate previous findings, all groups first completed both the pro-saccade and anti-saccade task, before subsequently completing a video task designed to require similar abilities as those necessitated by the anti-saccade task. The findings revealed clear qualitative differences between the age effect and the disease effect on the anti-saccade task, suggesting that AD is not purely an accelerated form of ageing. Furthermore, the results supported the contemporary literature, in that, patients with AD made more errors, and less corrected errors, on the anti-saccade task. In turn, these results advocate for the utilisation of the task as a biomarker of AD. However, this impairment did not translate to the videos task. These results suggest that certain conditions may be conducive to normal viewing behaviour in patients with AD, and thus may potentially indicate that the natural exploration of videos is not a reliable biomarker for AD.
creator: Jennifer Grayling
source: For all saccade tasks, a repeated measures design was used, with group as the independent variable (AD, OC, and YC). For the PST there were 2 dependent variables: latency and amplitude (see appendix A for definitions). For the AST there were 5 dependent variables latency, amplitude, number of errors, corrected errors percentage, and corrected errors start time (see appendix B for definitions). For the videos a 3(Group: AD, OC, YC) x 2(Instructions: free view, instructed view) mixed design was used, with group as a between-subjects factor and instructions as a within-subjects factor. For each of the videos, dwell time was calculated as the dependent variable. A total of 25 AD, 17 OC and 37 YC completed the video task. Materials Eye tracking apparatus. An EyeLink Desktop 1000 eye-tracker was used at 1000Hz to record eye movements. Participants sat approximately 55cm away from the screen with their head on a chin rest to minimise movement. A 3x3 grid of sequentially appearing dots was used to calibrate participant’s dominant eye with the machine. Pro-saccade task. The PST provides a measure of involuntary responses to visual stimulus. The methods utilised in this study followed previously established procedures (Crawford et al., 2005). In order to centre the participant’s gaze, the trial commenced displaying a central fixation target for 1000 milliseconds. This target then disappeared for 200 milliseconds, before a peripheral target appeared for 2000 milliseconds either to the left or right of the initial central fixation target (at ± 4°). The direction was randomised in order to avoid predictive saccades. The inter-trial interval then took place for 1200 milliseconds. The next trial began when the central fixation point reappeared. The participant’s task was to look at the peripheral target as quickly and accurately as possible (see appendix C). There were 36 trials in total. Anti-saccade task. The AST provides a measure of inhibition. The task format was identical to…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2017
contributor: John Towse
rights: Open
relation: This is part of an on-going EPSRC funded MoDEM study approved by the NHS to Dr Crawford
format: data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

The Effect of Repetitive Headers on Acute Vestibular, Neural, Cognitive and Auditory Function in Football Players
subject: Repetitive Sub-concussion, Football Heading, Neurocognitive Performance
description: The potential long-term consequences of repetitive sub-concussive head impacts, particularly from heading in football, have raised concerns about their association with neurodegenerative diseases in ex-professional football players. Recent research suggests that the accumulative nature of heading in football may lead to subtle brain changes, ultimately contributing to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This study aimed to investigate the immediate short-term effects of repeated headers in football on brain function. Seventeen football players completed a total of five high-force linear headers, one header every 2-minutes, imitating corner clearance headers, positioned 32 meters away from a ball launching machine. Four neurophysiological assessments were reported pre- and post-heading exercise: 1) vestibular evaluation for balance and sway changes, 2) neural assessment for resting brain activity changes, 3) cognitive tests measuring memory, attention and reaction time, 4) auditory assessment to assess any auditory processing changes. Paired-samples t-tests and Wilcoxon’s signed rank tests found no significant changes in pre-to-post heading exercise scores in any measurements. These findings warrant further investigation to determine whether the measures used were sensitive enough to detect subtle sub-concussive changes. Or, whether findings indicate a safe maximum number, specific to this type of header, has been established and this frequency does not pose any additional risks to footballers’ brain function. This study contributes to the ongoing research surrounding player safety in football and the immediate short-term effects of repetitive sub-concussive head impacts.
creator: Jessica Andrew
source: Method Participants A power analysis for Analysis of Variance was conducted to determine the sample size needed for this study with an 80% power level, which identified a minimum of 40 participants to achieve a medium effect size of f=0.25, α=.001. This study did not collect a full sample and therefore is underpowered, as there are only a total of 17 participants (mean age=20.35). Participants were either academy players from Burnley Football Club or Lancaster University’s football team and were required to be male aged between 18 and 30- years with no history of concussion within the last month. This ensured variability between participants was minimal and excluding individuals with a recent history of concussion will mitigate potential confounding effects and isolate acute sub-concussive effects of heading, meaning this study will better attribute any observed effects to the specific act of heading rather than to prior injuries. Prior to volunteering, participants gave full consent and completed a modified version of the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q), which is designed to measure participants readiness to participate in exercise or physical activity. See Appendix A for questionnaire. The purpose of the PAR-Q was to identify any potential underlying health concerns that may become an issue when participating. Additionally, participants completed a demographic questionnaire which was used to collect information about characteristics of the sample and highlighted whether participants had recently been concussed. See Appendix B for questionnaire. If any health concerns emerged during the completion of either questionnaire, participants were unable to continue with participation. Materials Participants were tested using a test battery comprised from four elements detailed below. PROTXX. Vestibular sway was measured using a wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU), called PROTXX. IMU is an electronic device designed to measures and report an individu…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: September 5th,2023
contributor: Niko Liu ,Anusha Sandeep, David Racovita
rights: 'Open'
relation: N/A
format: Excel.csv("Linear Heading Study Data.xlsx") r_file.R("Dissertation_Masters.R")
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA20PF

Age-related Changes to the Attentional Modulation of Temporal Binding
subject: Ageing, attention, TBW, multisensory integration, stream-bounce illusion
description: In multisensory integration, the time range within which visual and auditory information can be perceived as synchronous and bound together is known as the temporal binding window (TBW). With increasing age, the TBW becomes wider, such that older adults erroneously, and often dangerously, integrate sensory inputs that are asynchronous. Recent research suggests that attentional cues can narrow the width of the TBW in younger adults, sharpening temporal perception and increasing the accuracy of integration. However, due to their age-related declines in attentional control, it is not yet known whether older adults can deploy attentional resources to narrow the TBW in the same way as younger adults. This study investigated the age-related changes to the attentional modulation of the TBW. 30 younger and 30 older adults completed a cued-spatial-attention version of the stream-bounce illusion, assessing the extent to which the visual and auditory stimuli were integrated when presented at three different stimulus onset asynchronies, and when attending to a validly-cued or invalidly-cued location. A 2x2x3 mixed ANOVA revealed that when participants attended to the validly-cued location (i.e. when attention was present), susceptibility to the stream-bounce illusion decreased. However, crucially, this attentional manipulation affected audiovisual integration in younger adults but not in older adults. Whilst no definitive conclusions could be drawn about the width of the TBW, the findings suggest that older adults have multisensory integration-related attentional deficits. Directions for future research and practical applications surrounding treatments to improve the safety of older adults’ perception and navigation through the environment are discussed.
creator: Jessica Pepper
source: Pre-screening tools Participants were asked to complete two pre-screening questionnaires using Qualtrics survey software (www.qualtrics.com), to assess their eligibility for the study. Speech, Spatial and Quality of Hearing Questionnaire (SSQ; Appendix A; Gatehouse & Noble, 2004). Participants rated their hearing ability in different acoustic scenarios using a sliding scale from 0-10 (0=“Not at all”, 10=“Perfectly”). Whilst, at present, no defined cut-off score on the SSQ is available as a parameter to inform decision-making, previous studies have indicated that a mean score of 5.5 is indicative of moderate hearing loss (Gatehouse & Noble, 2004). As a result, people whose average score on the SSQ was lower than 5.5 were not eligible to participate in the experiment. Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQ-CODE; Appendix B; Jorm, 2004). Participants rated how their performance in certain tasks now has changed compared to 10 years ago, answering on a 5-point Likert scale (1=“Much Improved”, 5=“Much worse”). An average score of approximately 3.3 is the usual cut-off point when evaluating cognitive impairment and dementia (Jorm, 2004), therefore people whose average score was higher than 3.3 were not eligible to participate in the experiment. The mean scores of each pre-screening questionnaire are displayed in Table 1. An independent t-test revealed that there was no significant difference between age groups on the SSQ questionnaire [t(58) = -1.15, p=.253]; however, there was a significant difference between age groups on the IQ-CODE questionnaire [t(58) = -13.29, p<.001]. Experimental Design This research implemented a 2(Age: Younger vs Older) x 2(Cue: Valid vs Invalid) x 4(Stimulus Onset Asynchrony [SOA]: Visual Only [VO] vs 0 milliseconds vs 150 milliseconds vs 300 milliseconds) mixed design, with Age as a between-subjects factor and Cue and SOA as within-subjects factors. The experiment consisted of 16 different trial conditions (Table 2), ra…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 08.09.2021
contributor: Hamish Bromley
rights: Open
relation: Open
format: xlsx file
language: English
type: Data
identifier: Pepper 2021
coverage: Lancaster University, LA1 4YW.

Age-Related Changes in the Attentional Modulation of Temporal Binding
subject: Ageing, attention, TBW, multisensory integration, stream-bounce illusion
description: In multisensory integration, the time range within which visual and auditory information can be perceived as synchronous and bound together is known as the temporal binding window (TBW). With increasing age, the TBW becomes wider, such that older adults erroneously, and often dangerously, integrate sensory inputs that are asynchronous. Recent research suggests that attentional cues can narrow the width of the TBW in younger adults, sharpening temporal perception and increasing the accuracy of integration. However, due to their age-related declines in attentional control, it is not yet known whether older adults can deploy attentional resources to narrow the TBW in the same way as younger adults. This study investigated the age-related changes to the attentional modulation of the TBW. 30 younger and 30 older adults completed a cued-spatial-attention version of the stream-bounce illusion, assessing the extent to which the visual and auditory stimuli were integrated when presented at three different stimulus onset asynchronies, and when attending to a validly-cued or invalidly-cued location. A 2x2x3 mixed ANOVA revealed that when participants attended to the validly-cued location (i.e. when attention was present), susceptibility to the stream-bounce illusion decreased. However, crucially, this attentional manipulation affected audiovisual integration in younger adults but not in older adults. Whilst no definitive conclusions could be drawn about the width of the TBW, the findings suggest that older adults have multisensory integration-related attentional deficits. Directions for future research and practical applications surrounding treatments to improve the safety of older adults’ perception and navigation through the environment are discussed.
creator: Jessica Pepper
source: Participants This study used a total of 60 participants; 30 younger adults (15 males, 15 females) between 18-35 years old (M = 21.37, SD = 1.30) and 30 older adults (11 males, 19 females) between 60-80 years old (M = 67.91, SD = 4.71). This sample size was determined via an a-priori power analysis using the data of Donohue et al. (2015) and Chen et al. (2021), who conducted similar experiments (see pre-registration on www.aspredicted.com, project ID #65513). All participants were fluent English speakers. Participants were required to have normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Participants were ineligible to proceed with the experiment if they had a history or current diagnosis of neurological conditions (e.g. epilepsy, mild cognitive impairment, dementia, Parkinson’s Disease) or learning impairments (e.g. dyslexia), or had severe hearing loss resulting in the wearing of hearing aids. Participants were recruited via opportunity sampling; the majority of younger participants were students at Lancaster University and were known to the researcher, whilst the majority of older participants were members of the Centre for Ageing Research at Lancaster University. All participants were able to provide informed consent. Pre-screening tools Participants were asked to complete two pre-screening questionnaires using Qualtrics survey software (www.qualtrics.com), to assess their eligibility for the study. Speech, Spatial and Quality of Hearing Questionnaire (SSQ; Appendix A; Gatehouse & Noble, 2004). Participants rated their hearing ability in different acoustic scenarios using a sliding scale from 0-10 (0=“Not at all”, 10=“Perfectly”). Whilst, at present, no defined cut-off score on the SSQ is available as a parameter to inform decision-making, previous studies have indicated that a mean score of 5.5 is indicative of moderate hearing loss (Gatehouse & Noble, 2004). As a result, people whose average score on the SSQ was lower than 5.5 were not eligible to participate in the exper…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 8th September 2021
contributor: Robert Taylor
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav; Data/Excel.xlsx
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF