In-out Effect Research Articles

Articulation dynamics and evaluative conditioning: investigating the boundary conditions, mental representation, and origin of the in-out effect

ABSTRACT People prefer linguistic stimuli with an inward (e.g. BODIKA) over those with an outward articulation dynamic (e.g. KODIBA), a phenomenon known as the articulatory in-out effect. Despite its robustness across languages and contexts, the phenomenon is still poorly understood. To learn more about the effect’s boundary conditions, mental representation, and origin, we crossed the in-out effect with evaluative conditioning research. In five experiments (N = 713, three experiments pre-registered), we systematically paired words containing inward versus outward dynamics with pictures of negative versus positive valence. Although this evaluative conditioning procedure reversed the preference for inward over outward words, this was the case only for words with the same consonant sequences as the conditioned words. For words with inward/outward dynamics but different consonant sequences than the conditioned ones, a regular in-out effect emerged. Also, no preference reversal at all emerged for the conditioned consonant sequences when the contingency between single consonants at specific positions and positive/negative valence was zero. Implications of these findings for the in-out effect and evaluative conditioning are discussed.

Articulatory in-out effect in Japanese Onomatopoeia.

Articulatory in-out effect in Japanese Onomatopoeia.

The In-Out Effect in the Perception and Production of Real Words.

The in‐out effect refers to the tendency that novel words whose consonants follow an inward‐wandering pattern (e.g., P‐T‐K) are rated more positively than stimuli whose consonants follow an outward‐wandering pattern (e.g., K‐T‐P). While this effect appears to be reliable, it is not yet clear to what extent it generalizes to existing words in a language. In two large‐scale studies, we sought to extend the in‐out effect from pseudowords to real words and from perception to production. In Study 1, we investigated whether previously collected affective ratings for English and Dutch words were more positive for inward‐wandering words and more negative for outward‐wandering words. No systematic relationship between wandering direction and affective valence was found. In Study 2, we investigated whether inward‐wandering words are more likely to occur in positive online consumer restaurant reviews written in English and Dutch, compared to negative reviews, and whether this association was stronger for food ratings than for decor ratings. Again, no systematic relationship between wandering direction and review rating emerged. We suggest that the affective states triggered by different consonantal wandering directions might be used as a cue for forming judgments in the absence of other information, but that wandering direction is too low in salience to drive the shape of words in the lexicon.

Articulatory global branding: Generalizability, modulators, and mechanisms of the in-out effect in non-WEIRD consumers

As brands expand globally into linguistically diverse cultures, choosing effective brand names is becoming more important than ever. In brand naming, the in-out effect refers to the phenomenon where the articulation pattern (i.e., inward vs. outward movement of muscles when pronouncing the brand names) influences preferences. Here, we explore the generalizability, modulators, and mechanisms of the in-out effect among non-WEIRD consumers. Our findings reveal that 1) the use of inward (vs. outward) names increase consumer preferences regardless of product types 2) the consonant–vowel alignment modulates the effect and brand names that are completely inwardly aligned (e.g., BIKO, in which consonants and vowels both follow the outwards to inward pattern) are preferred over brand names that are partially inwardly aligned (e.g., BOKI) 3) the fluency of the name appears to be the underlying mechanism. The results are discussed in terms of implications for global branding.

The articulatory in-out effect: Driven by consonant preferences?

The articulatory in-out effect describes the preference for stimuli with an inward-wandering consonant order (e.g., BODIKA) as opposed to an outward-wandering consonant order (e.g., KODIBA). Originally, the in-out effect has been explained in terms of articulation trajectories, with inward trajectories being preferred over outward trajectories. However, recent research by Maschmann et al. (2020) raised doubts on this explanation of articulation trajectory preferences and offered a parsimonious alternative explanation for the in-out effect based on consonant preferences instead. As we show in the present article, stimulus materials in Maschmann et al. (2020) diverged from materials used in previous research and might have prevented the experience of articulation trajectories. Here, we present a conceptual replication of Maschmann et al. (2020), using stimulus materials more likely to elicit articulation trajectory preferences. In a preregistered, high-powered experiment (N = 349), we find strong support for the original idea of trajectory preferences but no evidence for the consonant preference account. Our research shows that preferences for articulation trajectories are robust and cannot be explained by mere consonant preferences. We discuss further implications of these findings for future research on the processes involved in the empirical in-out effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The articulatory in-out effect: replicable, but inexplicable.

People prefer inward over outward articulation dynamics, a phenomenon referred to as the articulatory in-out effect. It is empirically robust and generalizes across languages, settings, and stimuli. However, the theoretical explanation of the effect is still a matter of lively debate and in need of novel research directions.

Choosing a brand name that's “in” – disgust sensitivity, preference for intuition, and the articulatory in-out effect

Words with an inward-wandering consonant sequence (e.g., MADIKO) are preferred to words with an outward-wandering consonant sequence (e.g., KADIMO), commonly referred to as articulatory in-out effect. Despite its robustness in consumer behavior across languages and settings, there has been no research on interindividual differences in this effect so far. Based on current theories on the phenomenon, we expect that the in-out effect should be moderated by interindividual differences in disgust sensitivity and preference for intuition. In a preregistered, high-powered study (N = 298), we replicate the in-out effect in the domain of brand names. However, neither disgust sensitivity nor preference for intuition has a moderating influence. Our findings suggest that the in-out effect is likely to be observed across levels of these personality traits. We discuss further implications of these findings for the processes underlying the effect.

Supplemental Material for The Articulatory In-Out Effect: Driven by Consonant Preferences?

Supplemental Material for The Articulatory In-Out Effect: Driven by Consonant Preferences?

Front in the mouth, front in the word: The driving mechanisms of the in-out effect.

Words for which the consonantal articulation spots wander from the front to the back of the mouth (inward) elicit more positive attitudes than words with the reversed order (outward). The present article questions the common theoretical explanation of this effect, namely an association between articulation movements and oral movements during ingestion and expectoration (inward resembles eating which is positive; outward resembles spitting which is negative). In 4 experiments (total N = 468), we consistently replicated the basic in-out effect; but no evidence was found supporting an eating-related underlying mechanism. The in-out effect was not modulated by disgust inductions (Experiments 1, 2, 4, and 10) or food deprivation (Experiment 3). In 6 further experiments (total N = 1,067), we explored a novel alternative explanation, namely that the in-out effect is simply a position-specific preference for front consonants over back consonants. In these experiments, we found in-out-like preference effects for fragments that lacked an actual front-to-back movement but featured only starting (e.g., B _ _ _ _) or ending (e.g., _ _ _ K) consonants (Experiments 6-8). Consonants that are articulated in the front of the mouth were generally preferred over those articulated in the back of the mouth, and this basic preference was stronger at the beginning of a word-like stimulus (Experiments 6-10), thus explaining the preference pattern of the in-out effect. The present evidence speaks against an eating-related (embodied) explanation and suggests a simple word-morphologic explanation of the in-out effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Comprehensive Evaluation Method for Network Node Importance based on Constructed Tree

The importance measurement of nodes in directed weighted networks is of great significance for theoretical research and practical application of networks. Aiming at the directed weighted network model in actual networks, based on the special transformation of graphs and tree roots, this paper proposes a comprehensive quantitative assessment method for the importance index of nodes based on the directed weighted network’s global properties, local attributes, network location and bidirectionally propagation. This method transforms the nodes to be analyzed in the graph to root, constructs a bidirectional depth-affected XD tree and a breadth-affected XB tree with the node to be evaluated as the root of the tree. Then comprehensively consider the two-way influence of the node level, node neighbors and the closeness between neighbors in the two trees constructed, and the in-out effects, build a deep impact evaluation model at the two-way level, two-way neighbor information and comprehensive evaluation index of clustering coefficient. By calculating the comprehensive importance value of each node in the network, the comprehensive ranking of the importance of the nodes in the network can finally be obtained. The robustness experiment of ARPA network shows that the G value of the important node quantified by this method has absolute advantages, this method can effectively analyze key nodes in the network.

Training articulation sequences: A first systematic modulation of the articulatory in-out effect.

People prefer words with consonant articulation locations moving inward, from the front to the back of the mouth (e.g., menika), over words with consonant articulation locations moving outward, from the back to the front of the mouth (e.g., kemina). Here, we modulated this in-out effect by increasing the fluency of one consonant direction. Participants (total N = 735) memorized either inward or outward moving words. Afterward they evaluated different inward and outward words. In Experiment 1, training 60 outward (compared to inward) words led to a marginally significant attenuation of the in-out effect. In Experiment 2 and a preregistered replication (Experiment 3), training 120 inward words increased the size of the in-out effect, while training 120 outward words reversed the in-out effect. Experiment 4 confirms that consonant direction training affects fluency and rules out alternative explanations. Together, these experiments further supports a fluency explanation of the in-out effect and shows that abstract oral motor sequences can be learned implicitly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Oral Approach Avoidance.

Words whose articulation resembles ingestion movements are preferred to words mimicking expectoration movements. This so-called in-out effect, suggesting that the oral movements caused by consonantal articulation automatically activate concordant motivational states, was already replicated in languages belonging to Germanic (e.g., German and English) and Italic (e.g., Portuguese) branches of the Indo-European family. However, it remains unknown whether such preference extends to the Indo-European branches whose writing system is based on the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet (e.g., Ukrainian), or whether it occurs in languages not belonging to the Indo-European family (e.g., Turkish). We replicated the in-out effect in two high-powered experiments (N=274), with Ukrainian and Turkish native speakers, further supporting an embodied explanation for this intriguing preference.

The in–out effect: examining the role of perceptual fluency in the preference for words with inward-wandering consonantal articulation

Words whose consonantal articulation spots wander inward, simulating ingestion movements, are preferred to words featuring the opposite consonantal articulation direction, that is, resembling expectoration movements. The underlying mechanism of this so-called in-out effect is far from settled. Contrary to the original explanation proposing an oral approach-avoidance mechanism, recent evidence has been used to support an oral motor-fluency mechanism, suggesting that inward words are preferred because they may be more common and/or easier to pronounce. Across six experiments (n = 1123), we examined the impact of different fluency sources in the emergence of the in-out effect. The preference for inward-wandering words persisted both with classical font type and figure-ground contrast fluency manipulations, and no systematic additive effects were observed. The in-out effect was also replicated for the first time with a between-participant design. These results suggest that the in-out effect may be permeable to fluency manipulations, but it is not dependent upon a plain fluency mechanism.

Exploring the temporal boundary conditions of the articulatory in-out preference effect.

Earlier research has documented a preference for words with consonantal articulation patterns that move from the front to the back of the mouth (e.g., MENIKA) over words with reversely wandering consonantal articulation spots (e.g., KENIMA). The present experiments explored the temporal dynamics of the reading process in this in-out preference effect. In three experiments (total N = 344), we gradually reduced the presentation durations of inward and outward wandering words from 1000ms down to 25ms to approximate the minimum length of visual stimulus presentation required to trigger the effect. The in-out effect was reliably observed for exposure timings down to 50ms, but vanished for 25ms timings, which is line with previous evidence on phonological encoding. Thus, impressively, 50ms of word presentation is sufficient to evoke the in-out effect. These findings suggest phonological activation to be a prerequisite and thus a driving mechanism of the in-out effect.

The articulatory in-out effect resists oral motor interference.

People prefer words with inward directed consonantal patterns (e.g., MENIKA) compared to outward patterns (KENIMA), because inward (outward) articulation movements resemble positive (negative) mouth actions such as swallowing (spitting). This effect might rely on covert articulation simulations, or subvocalizations, since it occurs also under silent reading. We tested to what degree these underlying articulation simulations are disturbed by oral motor interference. In 3 experiments (total N = 465) we interfered with these articulation simulations by employing concurrent oral exercises that induce oral motor noise while judging inward and outward words (chewing gum, Experiment 1; executing meaningless tongue movements, Experiment 2; concurrent verbalizations, Experiment 3). Across several word stimulus types, the articulatory in-out effect was not modulated by these tasks. This finding introduces a theoretically interesting case, because in contrast to many previous demonstrations regarding other motor-preference effects, the covert simulations in this effect are not susceptible to selective motor interference. (PsycINFO Database Record

Minimal conditions of motor inductions of approach-avoidance states: The case of oral movements.

The minimal conditions to elicit affective responses via approach-avoidance movements were explored by using oral movements (total N = 1,363). To induce oral movements, words were construed whose consonants (and vowels) wandered either from front to back of the mouth (e.g., PEKA, inward, like swallowing, approach) or from back to front (e.g., KEPA, outward, like spitting, avoidance). Participants preferred inward over outward consonant wanderings when reading only 2 phonemes (e.g., PEKA vs. KEPA), single letters (e.g., PK vs. KP), and even when only listening to a speaker uttering such stimuli (Experiments 1-4). Vowel wanderings had no systematic effect. The larger the consonantal inward and outward jumps, irrespective from where they started in the mouth, the stronger was their affective impact (Experiments 6-7). Visual presentation of words generally evoked stronger in-out effects than listening to a speaker uttering the words, which speaks against a sound symbolism explanation. Informing theorizing also on the much more common manual approach-avoidance inductions, these findings show that approach-avoidance movements can elicit affect by activating only the starting and ending point of a spatial movement gradient, even involving differing muscles for these spots, respectively. Also, the present findings imply that the magnitude of the distance of the spatial approach-avoidance gradient matters (the larger the distance, the larger the affective response), and that such effects can be induced by mere observation (by only listening to a speaker). (PsycINFO Database Record

The role of fluency in preferences for inward over outward words

The present studies examined a novel explanation for the in-out effect, the phenomenon that words with inward wanderings of consonantal articulation spots are preferred over words with outward wanderings. We hypothesized that processing fluency might account for the in-out effect instead of, or in addition to, the originally proposed mechanism of motor-associated motivational states. Inward words could be more fluently processed than outward words, which could lead to the preference effect. Corpus analyses (Studies 1a and 1b) revealed more inward than outward words in English and German, which could account for their differing fluency. Additionally, inward compared to outward words were pronounced faster (Study 2) and were rated as being easier to pronounce (Studies 3a and 3b), indicating greater fluency. Crucially, a mediation analysis (Study 4) suggests that the influence of consonantal direction on preference was partially mediated by fluency. However, accounting for the influence of fluency still left a significant residual in-out effect, not accounted for by our fluency measure. This evidence supports a partial causal contribution of articulation fluency to the in-out effect.

In-out asymmetry of surface excitations in reflection-electron-energy-loss spectra of polycrystalline Al

We present experimental evidence for differences in surface energy losses between (a) electrons entering a solid from vacuum and (b) electrons leaving the solid into vacuum. Although these so-called in-out asymmetries have been long assumed to exist on theoretical grounds, the present work constitutes a clear experimental observation of the phenomenon. The effect has been exposed by comparing reflection-electron-energy-loss spectra of polycrystalline Al for pairs of conjugate scattering geometries where the directions of the source and the detector were interchanged. Differences of up to 30% in the peak height of surface energy-loss features are observed. The experimentally observed in-out asymmetry has been examined within the semiclassical dielectric formalism using state-of-the-art models for surface scattering of charged projectiles. The theoretical analysis suggests that in-out asymmetry effects are most accentuated for surface-crossing directions close to the surface normal and for high kinetic energies, in good agreement with the observed behavior. The effect is assumed to be present not only for electrons, but in principle for any charged particle.

Note on the Exchange Polarization and In-Out Effect

To investigate the correlation of electrons in the same shell due to the exchange correlation with the other unpaired electron, and so-called in-out effect, several approximate methods (Hartree-Fock, unrestricted Hartree-Fock, projected unrestricted Hartree-Fock, split shell and spin degenerate state configuration interaction) are developed. As the simplest example, the ground state 2 S and first excited state 2 P of the Li atom are considered. Slater type 1s, 2s, and 2p orbitals are adopted and the wave functions and total energies are determined by the variational method. The electron spin density at the nucleus (ψ 2 (0)) is given for the respective cases. Discussions on the results are given.