Perceptual Mapping Research Articles

Exploring the coherence and divergence between the objective and subjective measurement of streetscape perceptions at the neighborhood level: A case study in Shanghai

Understanding micro-level perceptions of street scenes is highly concerned with residents’ behaviors and socioeconomic outcomes. While many studies rely on objective measures, such as physical features extracted from Street View Imagery (SVI) to proxy perceptions using derived formulas, others employ subjective measures from visual surveys to capture more subtle human perceptions. We argue that the two measurements can diverge significantly over the same perception concept, which might lead to opposite spatial implications in policy if not properly understood. Moreover, as perceptions are often examined individually, few studies have investigated their joint distribution patterns to reflect perceptions’ multi-dimensional nature. To fill the gaps, we collected five pairwise perceptions from SVIs (i.e., complexity, enclosure, greenness, imageability, and walkability) at the neighborhood level in Shanghai. Each perception consists of pairwise values subjectively measured using a GeoAI-based approach and objectively quantified using formulas. We statistically and spatially compared the coherence and divergence of the two measures, further examining the perceptual differences. Advanced techniques including cluster analysis and factor analysis were employed to jointly evaluate their spatial distribution discrepancy. Our results revealed more differences than similarities between the two measures statistically and spatially, confirming any spatial implications concluded from one approach can vary significantly from the other. The joint spatial pattern further corroborated our conclusions. Our study enriches the literature on micro-level street perception measures, uncovers their critical differences to guide future comparative studies, and offers new approaches for urban perception mapping.

An action-oriented participatory research methodology involving residents, elected representatives and researchers: a case study in Rezé, France

The management of sound environments is a major challenge for the quality of life of residents (a definition here including city users). Local authorities have regulatory tools at their disposal to manage urban noise pollution, but these are sometimes far removed from the residents' perceptions. The aim of the SonoRezé project is to build on a citizen science approach, based on a triptych of "Local authorities - Residents - Researchers", working together on the diagnosis and management of urban sound environments in the city of Rezé, in Nantes metropolitan area. The approach consists in participatory noise measurements using the NoiseCapture mobile application, and the definition and implementation of actions jointly developed by residents, elected representatives and researchers, with the aim of improving the city's sound environments. The article will present the interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder methodology involved. Then, two initiated actions will be outlined and discussed: (i) a scientific mediation initiative in schools focusing on the development of perceptual sound maps, (ii) an action on aircraft noise, precising the methodology involving the three parties used to construct the action, as well as some of the results produced, namely a sensitive map, analyses of measurement data and the production of alternative indicators.

Tourists’ Perceptual Positioning of Brand Equity and Competitive Relationships in Organic Agricultural Tourism

In the face of a highly competitive tourism market, when tourists hold positive brand equity towards a destination, it enhances the destination’s ability to differentiate itself from competitors. This study focuses on the brand equity of organic agricultural tourism, using multidimensional scaling (MDS) to explore the factor structure of brand equity and the perceptual positioning of various tourism destination brands. The research targets tourists engaging in organic agricultural tourism in the Hualien and Taitung regions, with 220 valid questionnaires collected. The research findings indicate the following: 1. Among the 22 brand equity items, “loyalty to organic agricultural tourism”, “awareness of organic agricultural products”, “quality of organic agricultural products”, “environmental sustainability”, “image of healthy tourism”, and “recognition of organic agricultural development” scored the highest. 2. The analysis revealed that the brand equity factors are ranked in the following order: BIHS, BACI, BPQ, BLO, and BAW. 3. Through MDS analysis, the five organic agricultural tourism destinations were categorized into high, medium, and low brand equity groups, illustrating the differentiated competitive relationships among these destinations. The top three factors influencing the brand perceptual maps were BAW, BIHS, and BPQ. The results of this study can serve as a reference for future research on brand equity in organic agricultural tourism and provide a scientific basis for the practical application of shaping brand equity and formulating competitive strategies.

Semantics-enriched spatiotemporal mapping of public risk perceptions for cultural heritage during radical events

Cultural heritage, especially those inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is meant to be valued by mankind and protected for future generations. Triggered by radical and sometimes disastrous Heritage-Related Events (HREs), communities around the world are actively involved on social media to share their opinions and emotional attachments. This paper presents exploratory data analyses on a dataset collected from Twitter concerning HREs in World Heritage that triggered global concerns, with cases of the Notre Dame Paris fire and the Venice flood, both in 2019. The spatiotemporal patterns of tweeting behaviours of online communities before, during, and after the event demonstrate a clear distinction of activation levels caused by the HREs. The dominant emotions and topics of people during the online debate are detected and visualized with pre-trained deep-learning models and unsupervised clustering algorithms. Clear spatiotemporal dynamics can be observed from the data collected in both case studies, while each case also demonstrated its specific characteristics due to the different severity. The methodological framework proposed and the analytical outcomes obtained in this paper could be used both in urban studies to mine the public opinions about HREs and other urban events for reducing risks, and by the Geo-AI community to test spatiotemporal clustering algorithms.

Overview of High-Dynamic-Range Image Quality Assessment.

In recent years, the High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) image has gained widespread popularity across various domains, such as the security, multimedia, and biomedical fields, owing to its ability to deliver an authentic visual experience. However, the extensive dynamic range and rich detail in HDR images present challenges in assessing their quality. Therefore, current efforts involve constructing subjective databases and proposing objective quality assessment metrics to achieve an efficient HDR Image Quality Assessment (IQA). Recognizing the absence of a systematic overview of these approaches, this paper provides a comprehensive survey of both subjective and objective HDR IQA methods. Specifically, we review 7 subjective HDR IQA databases and 12 objective HDR IQA metrics. In addition, we conduct a statistical analysis of 9 IQA algorithms, incorporating 3 perceptual mapping functions. Our findings highlight two main areas for improvement. Firstly, the size and diversity of HDR IQA subjective databases should be significantly increased, encompassing a broader range of distortion types. Secondly, objective quality assessment algorithms need to identify more generalizable perceptual mapping approaches and feature extraction methods to enhance their robustness and applicability. Furthermore, this paper aims to serve as a valuable resource for researchers by discussing the limitations of current methodologies and potential research directions in the future.

OBH X Positioning Strategy Based on Perceptual Mapping and SWOT Analysis

OBH X Positioning Strategy Based on Perceptual Mapping and SWOT Analysis

University Population and Wildfire Risk: An Analysis of Perception-Based Variables and Geospatial Differences

This research presents a novel perspective on university students, staff, and faculty and their perception of risk concerning wildfires in the fire-prone US State of Idaho. Past studies have conducted resident surveys in high-risk communities to investigate what factors make homeowners more likely to engage in mitigation activities, increasing communities’ resiliency. Research on a population without property ownership and using the wildland-urban interface (WUI) as activity and recreation spaces is limited. The main hypothesis is that a university population will have different perception and awareness levels in perception-based variables when comparing students to staff/faculty in a traditional survey and geospatial analysis. This study investigates Boise State University’s population’s risk perception using an online survey and interactive spatial assessment to examine differences between associated and geographically allocated risk spaces. Findings from perception mapping, binomial regression, and geostatistical analysis contrast current literature with traditional residents’ surveys. The explorative geostatistical analysis reveals distinct allocation patterns of perceived risk not captured in survey questions. Overall, findings promote a better understanding of where risk and awareness are apparent and suggest that wildfire communication efforts should reach out to all users of the WUI.

Factors influencing vowel adaptation in English loanwords in Korean

Abstract This study explores the extent to which perceptual and other factors (i.e., orthography and standardization) affect vowel adaptation in English loanwords in Korean. It also examines whether perceptual variability gives rise to adaptation variability, and it further addresses whether the degree of perceptual influence in vowel adaptation is different from that in consonant adaptation. Data on Korean listeners’ perceptual mapping patterns for English vowels were collected in an English-to-Korean vowel category mapping experiment and compared to the patterns in a loanword database. The results indicate that perceptual factors have a great impact on the adaptation of English vowels into Korean, in line with de Jong and Cho’s (de Jong, Kenneth & Mi-Hui Cho. 2012. Loanword phonology and perceptual mapping: Comparing two corpora of Korean contact with English. Language 88. 341–368) findings for the adaptation of English consonants into Korean. Consequently, factors such as orthography and standardization are viewed as deviations from these perceptual influences. The impact of perceptual adaptation is, however, rather limited because the correlation between perceptual mappings and loanword mappings is less robust for English vowel adaptation than for English consonant adaptation possibly due to the less categorical nature of vowels relative to consonants. Additionally, the results show that increased strength of modal perceptual mappings is related to less loanword variability in vowel adaptation.

Perceptual Mapping Marketplace Tiktok Shop, Tokopedia, Shopee, Lazada, Blibli: Positioning Marketplace Based on Indonesia Online Shopper Preferences

Technology is always developing, every technological development will affect human activity, every technology needs to be adapted to society, besides that the world of business competition is also very tied to technological developments, companies that are able to collaborate with technology will be able to provide the totality of their services with excellence, based on people's preferences for The use of the marketplace examined in this perceptual mapping paper shows that the relationship between technology and humans is very high, and the business competition that is created is very clear. This paper uses multidimensional scaling analysis by collecting 153 respondents' perceptions from questionnaires distributed in Indonesia. In the results of the MDS test, the competition between the marketplace Tiktok and Tokopedia is very close or the similarity of the attributes studied is very high. This paper is intended for several companies that want to innovate in order to remain competitive with the changes that are happening.Positioning

Perceptual illumination-structure patch decomposition for enhancing complex lighted underwater images

Due to the influence of natural and artificial lighting, complicated illuminated underwater images suffer from uneven exposure, accompanied by color cast, low contrast, and blurred details. Existing methods often struggle to brighten dark areas and suppress overexposed areas. To this end, a perceptual illumination-structure patch decomposition (PISPD) model is proposed to enhance complex lighted underwater images. The PISPD method is firstly based on two complementary inputs, including a contrast-enhanced image and a detail-sharpened image. To combine the complementary information of two inputs and balance brightness, the PISPD model decomposes the inputs into four elements: perceptual illumination map, contrast, structure, and average intensity. The perceptual illumination map is used to balance brightness, while the contrast, structure, and average intensity are used to integrate the features of the inputs. Moreover, a weighted edge-preserving factor is introduced in the decomposition-fusion process of contrast, structure, and mean intensity to avoid artifacts. This study also provides a benchmark dataset, namely, CLUID, containing 990 complex lighted underwater images. Experiments with qualitative and quantitative analyses show that our PISPD outperforms eight state-of-the-art approaches.

Assessment of panel performance in CATA and RATA experiment

AbstractCATATIS is a recently developed method for the analysis of multiple binary datasets such as Check‐All‐That‐Apply (CATA) data. CATATIS yields a homogeneity index reflecting the overall agreement among the panelists and weights associated with the panelists that highlight the extent to which they agree with the general point of view. These weights are used to compute an average group configuration, which is submitted to Correspondence Analysis to derive a perceptual product map. Here, CATATIS is extended to situations where the data are not binary. In particular, we focus on the case of data from a CATA experiment with repetitions and data from a Rate‐All‐That‐Apply (RATA) experiment. Furthermore, a hypothesis‐testing framework based on permutations is set up to assess the significance of the weights associated with the panelists. Finally, the general strategy of analysis is illustrated using data from real case studies pertaining to CATA and RATA experiments.Practical ApplicationsEvaluating panel performance is often important in sensory studies, especially in industrial contexts. While many professionals are familiar with evaluating the outputs of conventional descriptive analysis, the increasing adoption of rapid sensory methods calls for methods and tools tailored to different sensory tasks. Our paper introduces an approach (CATATIS) to enhance the interpretation of the outputs of CATA and RATA tasks, focusing on attribute consistency, overall panel agreement, and individual weights associated with panelists. The approach is demonstrated through concrete case studies. CATATIS, together with its extensions, are available in XLSTAT software and in the R package ClustBlock.

A transthalamic pathway crucial for perception

Perception is largely supported by cortical processing that involves communication among multiple areas, typically starting with primary sensory cortex and then involving higher order cortices. This communication is served in part by transthalamic (cortico-thalamo-cortical) pathways, which ubiquitously parallel direct corticocortical pathways, but their role in sensory processing has largely remained unexplored. Here, we suggest that transthalamic processing propagates task-relevant information required for correct sensory decisions. Using optogenetics, we specifically inhibited the pathway at its synapse in higher order somatosensory thalamus of mice performing a texture-based discrimination task. We concurrently monitored the cellular effects of inhibition in primary or secondary cortex using two-photon calcium imaging. Inhibition severely impaired performance despite intact direct corticocortical projections, thus challenging the purely corticocentric map of perception. Interestingly, the inhibition did not reduce overall cell responsiveness to texture stimulation in somatosensory cortex, but rather disrupted the texture selectivity of cells, a discriminability that develops over task learning. This discriminability was more disrupted in the secondary than primary somatosensory cortex, emphasizing the feedforward influence of the transthalamic route. Transthalamic pathways may therefore act to deliver performance-relevant information to higher order cortex and are underappreciated hierarchical pathways in perceptual decision-making.

Waste management systems in the context of sustainability

The present paper deals with waste management systems in the context of sustainability in selected municipalities. The author's team aimed to find the key waste groups according to the classification groups that have a major impact on the volume of waste and the cost of the system, thus facilitating management decision-making. In order to optimise the management of the entire waste management system from the perspective of the statutory municipality, it was first necessary to reduce the original list of 53 waste items to a significantly smaller number. With the help of waste management experts, criteria for reducing the number of waste input items were defined, resulting in a reduced statistical sample of 27 items. Each item is quantified by the amount of waste per year and the cost of the system per year. The mathematical apparatus consisted primarily of calculating average values as well as marginal slopes of waste quantity and cost. The interrelationships between waste groups were graphically recorded in perceptual maps. The individual analyses were carried out primarily for a statutory city, with secondary comparisons of the results with smaller towns and small villages. The analytical procedures verified that the catalogue of basic components of mixed municipal waste can be significantly reduced for decision-making in secondary resource management. The amount of waste selected in each group significantly impacts the cost of the whole waste management system. Of the original 15 waste groups, only three groups appear to be the main ones. The municipal waste group even has a decisive influence on both the quantity of waste and the cost of the whole system. Thanks to these findings, from the point of view of both the manager and the management of the statutory city, it is possible to focus on this core group, which contains the 13 original catalogue items.

UCP2-ACGAN: An adaptive condition GAN guided by U-shaped context perceptual processor for PET/CT images fusion

In order to better highlight the lesion area information and edge detailed information of the fused images, an adaptive condition Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) guided by U-shaped context perceptual processor (UCP2-ACGAN) for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computed Tomography (CT) images fusion is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the network architecture of single generator and dual relative discriminators with weights sharing is used in UCP2-ACGAN. Secondly, a multi-granularity adaptive feature extraction module from coarse to fine (MGAFE) is proposed in generator, it is used to extract the valid information contained in the source images. Thirdly, a dual branch feature interactive fusion module guided by U-shaped context perceptual processor (UCP2-DBFIF) is proposed in generator. The context perceptual feature maps are obtained by U-shaped context perceptual processor (UCP2) and multiply them with the feature extraction results as the guiding conditions in the fusion process. In addition, in order to supplement the effective information lost during the feature fusion process, this paper converges the feature information of different granularity during the feature extraction stage. Finally, compared to the best of the 6 comparison methods, the results of comparison experiments show that UCP2-ACGAN is effective on several evaluation metrics values. For example, on the evaluation metrics of Average Gradient (AG), Edge Intensity (EI), Spatial Frequency (SF), Visual Information Fidelity (VIF) and Mutual Information (MI), the metrics values of CT mediastinal window images and PET fused images average increased by 30.74%, 29.35%, 40.24%, 35.47% and 26.18%.

Distributional Learning and Overnight Consolidation of Nonnative Tonal Contrasts by Tonal Language Speakers.

Previous studies have reported the success of distributional learning for adult speakers across segmental and suprasegmental categories immediately after training. On the other hand, second language (L2) perception models posit that the ease with which learners perceive a nonnative speech contrast depends on the perceptual mapping between the contrast and learners' first language (L1) categories. This study examined whether a difference in perceptual mapping patterns for different L2-Mandarin tonal contrasts might result in a difference in distributional learning effectiveness for tonal speakers and whether an interval of sleep enhanced the knowledge through consolidation. Following a pretest-training-posttest design, 66 L1-Cantonese participants with fewer than 9 years of Mandarin training were assigned to either the bimodal or unimodal distribution conditions. The participants of each group were asked to discriminate Mandarin level-falling (T1-T4) and level-rising (T1-T2) tone pairs on novel syllables in a within-subject design. All participants were trained in the evening, tested after training, and returned after 12 hr for overnight consolidation assessment. A significant distributional learning effect was observed for Mandarin T1-T4, but only after sleep. No significant distributional learning effect was observed for Mandarin T1-T2, either after training or after sleep. The findings may imply that distributional learning is contingent on perceptual mapping patterns of the target contrasts and that sleep may play a role in the consolidation of knowledge in an implicit statistical learning paradigm. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25970008.

A Suspended, 3D Morphing Sensory System for Robots to Feel and Protect.

Artificial sensory systems with synergistic touch and pain perception hold substantial promise for environment interaction and human-robot communication. However, the realization of biological skin-like functional integration of sensors with sensitive touch and pain perception still remains a challenge. Here, a concept is proposed of suspended electronic skins enabling 3D deformation-mechanical contact interactions for achieving synergetic ultrasensitive touch and adjustable pain perception. The suspended sensory system can sensitively capture tiny touch stimuli as low as 0.02Pa and actively perceive pain response with reliable 5200 cycles via 3D deformation and mechanical contact mechanism, respectively. Based on the touch-pain effect, a visualized feedback demo with miniaturized sensor arrays on artificial fingers is rationally designed to give a pain perception mapping on sharp surfaces. Furthermore, the capability is shown of the suspended electronic skin serving as a safe human-robot communication interface from active and passive view through a feedback control system, demonstrating potential in bionic electronics and intelligent robotics.

Urban perception by using eye movement data on street view images

AbstractUnderstanding the spatial distribution patterns of urban perception and analyzing the correlation between human emotional perception and street composition elements are important for accurately understanding how people interact with the urban environment, urban planning, and urban management. Previous studies on urban perception using street view data have not fully considered the actual level of attention to different visual elements when browsing street view images. In this article, we use eye tracking technology to collect eye movement data and subjective perception evaluation data when people browse street view images, and analyze the correlation between the time to first fixation, duration of first fixation, and fixation frequency of different visual elements and the six perceptual outcomes of wealthy, safe, lively, beautiful, boring, and depressing. Furthermore, this article integrates eye movement data with street view semantic data and introduces a novel method for predicting urban perception using a machine learning algorithm. The proposed method outperforms a comparative model that solely relies on semantic data, exhibiting higher accuracy in perception prediction. Additionally, the study presents a perceptual mapping of the prediction results, providing a visual representation of the predicted urban perception outcomes. As vision is the primary perceptual channel, this study achieves a more objective and scientifically reliable urban perception, which is of reference value for the study of physical and mental health due to the urban physical environment.

Pemetaan Persepsi Konsumen untuk Meningkatkan Daya Saing Produk: Studi Kasus T-shirt Libre Everyday

In competing, it is important to understand consumer perceptions of products. Even though consumers are satisfied with the company's brand image, the company can still lose its customers. Companies need to identify consumer characteristics in their marketing strategy, because this can help formulate the right position for the product. Understanding the concept of product or brand positioning is very important to maintain the company's continuity in competition. This research aims to determine product positioning based on consumer perceptions of product attributes. Consumer perception mapping was carried out on the Libre Everyday t-shirt product using a purposive sampling method involving 70 respondents who had been t-shirt users for more than two years and were familiar with at least three specified t-shirt brands. The data obtained was processed using IBM SPSS 23 software to produce perceptual mapping. The calculation results show that this perception map model is feasible and acceptable, as proven by the goodness of fit test with an R-square value of 0.15312 and a stress value of 0.97814. This perception map depicts brand positioning, product attributes, and closest competitors. To increase product competitiveness, it is necessary to improve product positioning by utilizing superior product attributes, improving marketing communications, and adding marketing channels.

“Other Customer” Perception as Strategic Insight into Gen Z Consumer–Brand Identification and Purchase Behavior: A Mixed-Methods Approach

This study addresses the knowledge and research gaps regarding the “other customer” concept within the consumer–brand identification paradigm, drawing on branding and consumer behavior theories. We consider the “other customer” as the other customers of a brand from the perspective of an individual (focal customer) using or simply assessing the brand. We take into account both how the focal customer is influenced by other customers and how the focal customer perceives those other customers. While the concept is traditionally associated with the service industries, we expand its relevance to product brands. We use Social Identity Theory, Social Comparison Theory, and Other Customer Perception to identify how Gen Z focal consumers construct the image of other consumers of international brands at national level. A mixed-method approach was developed, bringing together MMCA (multimodal content analysis), perceptual mapping regarding brand image, and other customer perceived attributes, as well as a survey addressing (a) focal customer–other customer–brand identification perceived similarity and (b) perceived influence of sustainability on purchase behavior. MMCA was performed on a corpus of 236 other customer profiles of Nike and Adidas, consisting of a visual component and a textual description. The profiles were developed by a convenience sample of 147 Romanian Gen Z young adults. The results show that: (a) The national specificity and history of the brand can lead to diverging, local other customer profiles that might be accepted or rejected based on the desirability and similarity perceived by the focal customer; (b) The other customer is used as a form of self-evaluation carried out by the focal customer (Gen Z consistently evaluates downward some of the other customers as a way to curate self-esteem and avoid identification with profiles they consider undesirable or unsuitable for their own self-image); and (3) The connection perceivable at international level between brand sustainability as a purchase pre-condition and Gen Z customers is not universal and should be re-evaluated based on local realities. At theoretical level, this study contributes to the advancement of the “other customer” concept; at a practical level, it advocates for the inclusion of an “other customer communication strategy” into the marketing communication mix.

A vowel research retrospective

One of the earliest attempts at describing/characterizing vowel quality was Daniel Jones’ Cardinal Vowel system (1918) representing the total range of vowel quality in languages. It was based on auditory quality (evaluated by a trained phonetician). Much later, Ladefoged (1967) demonstrated that despite auditory equivalence, vowels were acoustically different—a function of physiological and production among speakers. The acoustic nature of vowel quality was elaborated through the introduction of easy spectral analysis (using the sonograph) exemplified by the seminal work by Peterson and Barney (1952). In the past five decades we have seen how vowels differ as a function of speaker sex, speaker size, age, speech disorder and dialect group and development of vowel spaces in second-language acquisition (much of the research through contributions of speakers in this session). In concert with these acoustic studies, we have better understanding of the nature of the perception of vowels through multidimensional scaling studies, adaptation/perceptual magnet/categorical perception studies, cross-linguistic studies, and developmental studies. Most recently, we have seen work done with regard to brain mapping and neural models of vowel perception. This talk will provide a review of past vowel research (voluminous as it is) and possible future trends.