Pictorial Condition Research Articles

Dynamic attentional bias for pictorial and textual food cues in the visual search paradigm

Previous studies have found that individuals have an attentional bias for food cues, which may be related to the energy level or the type of stimulus (e.g., pictorial or textual food cues) of the food cues. However, the available evidence is inconsistent, and there is no consensus about how the type of stimulus and food energy modulate food-related attentional bias. Searching for food is one of the most important daily behaviors. In this study, a modified visual search paradigm was used to explore the attentional bias for food cues, and eye movements were recorded. Food cues consisted of both food words and food pictures with different energy levels (i.e., high- and low-calorie foods). The results showed that there was an attentional avoidance in the early stage but a later-stage attentional approach for all food cues in the pictorial condition. This was especially true for high-calorie food pictures. Participants showed a later-stage conflicting attentional bias for foods with different energy levels in the textual condition. They showed an attentional approach to high-calorie food words but an attentional avoidance of low-calorie food words. These data show that food-related attentional bias varied along with different time courses, which was also modulated by the type of stimulus and food energy. These findings regarding dynamic attentional bias could be explained using the Goal Conflict Model of eating behavior.

Building a computational model of food webs: Impacts on middle school students' computational and systems thinking skills

AbstractIntegral to fostering computational thinking (CT) skills, which are increasingly essential in today's digital era, has been the shift of paper‐based pictorial modeling activities to computational modeling. Research has indicated that modeling activities can advance students' understanding of a system's mechanism (i.e., systems thinking), such as an ecosystem. The current study examines the impacts of paper‐based pictorial and computational modeling activities on students' systems thinking and CT skills. A total of 751 seventh‐grade students were involved in online modeling activities, spanning over 4 days, and were assigned purposefully to a paper‐based modeling condition (n = 374) or a computational modeling (n = 377) condition. They took systems‐thinking‐embedded food web and CT assessments before and after the four activities, in addition to a formative assessment after each activity. Multilevel modeling and repeated‐measures correlation tests were used to analyze the students' quantitative data. Epistemic network analysis (ENA) was utilized to map out students' perceptions of what they believed they learned from the activities. The results revealed significant increases in the systems thinking‐embedded food web constructs in both conditions. However, the increase of CT skills in the paper‐based pictorial condition was not as significant as the increase in the computational modeling condition. ENA results showed that students in the computational modeling condition had more co‐occurrences between science and computer science or CT concepts than those in the paper‐based pictorial condition. These findings illuminate the benefit of engaging students in computationally rich science activities to advance both systems thinking and CT skills.

Cross-codal integration of bridging-event information in narrative understanding

Visual narratives communicate event sequences by using different code systems such as pictures and texts. Thus, comprehenders must integrate information from different codalities. This study addressed such cross-codal integration processes by investigating how the codality of bridging-event information (i.e., pictures, text) affects the understanding of visual narrative events. In Experiment 1, bridging-event information was either present (as picture or text) or absent (i.e., not shown). The viewing times for the subsequent picture depicting the end state of the action were comparable within the absent and the text conditions. Further, the viewing times for the end-state picture were significantly longer in the text condition as compared to the pictorial condition. In Experiment 2, we tested whether replacing bridging-event information with a blank panel increases viewing times in a way similar to the text condition. Bridging event information was either present (as picture) or absent (not shown vs. blank panel). The results replicated Experiment 1. Additionally, the viewing times for the end-state pictures were longest in the blank condition. In Experiment 3, we investigated the costs related to integrating information from different codalities by directly comparing the text and picture conditions with the blank condition. The results showed that the distortion caused by the blank panel is larger than the distortion caused by cross-codal integration processes. Summarizing, we conclude that cross-codal information processing during narrative comprehension is possible but associated with additional mental effort. We discuss the results with regard to theories of narrative understanding.

The Effects of Physical Manipulatives on Children's Numerical Strategies

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on how the representational properties of manipulatives affect the strategies children employ in problem solving. Two studies examined the effect of physical materials on 4–7-year-old children's problem solving strategies in a numerical (i.e., additive composition) task. The first study showed how children not only identified more solutions using physical materials compared with no materials, but that using manipulatives fostered conceptually more developed strategies: relating consecutive solutions to each other systematically in exploring the space of permutations. The second study demonstrated the unique benefits of physical manipulation by comparing children's solutions and strategies using materials they could or could not spatially manipulate (i.e., physical versus pictorial). As with the first study, children using the physical materials had more solutions and showed more conceptually developed strategies compared with the children in the pictorial condition. There was no advantage in providing children with a record of all their solutions.

Manipulating the Display of Probability Rates on Web Health Searches

The Internet offers many benefits to people seeking health information, such as the convenience of accessing information at any time, and the protection of viewing information anonymously; however, such information is unregulated and can be misinterpreted (Raine et al., 2000; Starcevic & Berle, 2013). Escalation, the observed increase in medical severity of search terms within a single search session, could occur. For example, escalation occurs when an initial search for “headache” leads to a later search for “brain tumor”. Researchers have recommended including incidence rates to reduce escalation; however, this phenomenon has yet to be tested empirically. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the effects of adding probability rates to Internet health search results. One-hundred-and-fifty undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three presentation groups (control, pictorial, and numeric) where they evaluated four search results pages. Incidence rates were not displayed in the control whereas participants in the pictorial condition saw incidence rates displayed as bar graphs and those in the numeric condition saw incidence rates displayed as percentages. Escalation was evaluated using the severity and susceptibility measures from the Risk Behavior Diagnosis Scale. Severity was defined as the magnitude of harm expected from a threat or the significance or seriousness of a threat (Witte, Meyer, & Martell, 2001). The Risk Behavior Diagnosis Scale evaluated severity in three questions: (Symptom) is a serious threat; (Symptom) is harmful; and (Symptom) is a severe threat. Susceptibility is the likelihood that a specific person will experience a threat, the degree of vulnerability, or risk of experience a threat. In the current study, three questions were used to assess susceptibility: If I have (symptom), I am at risk for having (serious condition); It is likely that I have (serious condition) if I experience (symptom); (Symptom) is nothing to worry about. Four symptoms were evaluated and each symptom was paired with four conditions: two benign and two serious. Results indicated that participants believed symptoms were more severe after reviewing search result pages than before reviewing search result pages ( p<.001); however, there were no display group differences in perceived severity. Participants also believed that they were the most susceptible to benign conditions when incidence rates were shown numerically, followed by pictorially, and the least susceptible when there were no incidence rates present. The numeric group was significantly higher than the control group ( p=.002); however, there were no differences between the numeric and pictorial group, and between the control and pictorial group ( p<.10). Similarly in the serious condition, the highest ratings were in the numeric group, followed by pictorial, and the lowest perceived susceptibility was in the control. Numeric was significantly higher than the control ( p=.003) and pictorial (p=.028), but there was no difference between the pictorial group and the control ( p<.10). Although susceptibility was higher when incidence rates were present for both benign and serious conditions, rates were higher for benign conditions than the serious conditions (p<.001) suggesting that people are not escalating. These results also fall in line with the statistical results shown on the search result’s page. Previous escalation studies suggested this phenomenon (Aiken et al., 2012; Starcevic & Berle, 2013; White & Horvitz, 2009), but it has not been tested up until this point. It would be beneficial to replicate the study with a more diverse population to obtain more generalizable results; however, the findings from this study could be helpful in understanding how patients comprehend healthcare information and could conceivably provide direction for how health care professionals distribute information to their patients.

Impact of tobacco-related health warning labels across socioeconomic, race and ethnic groups: results from a randomized web-based experiment.

BackgroundThe U.S. Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 requires updating of the existing text-only health warning labels on tobacco packaging with nine new warning statements accompanied by pictorial images. Survey and experimental research in the U.S. and other countries supports the effectiveness of pictorial health warning labels compared with text-only warnings for informing smokers about the risks of smoking and encouraging cessation. Yet very little research has examined differences in reactions to warning labels by race/ethnicity, education or income despite evidence that population subgroups may differ in their ability to process health information. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the potential impact of pictorial warning labels compared with text-only labels among U.S. adult smokers from diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups.Methods/FindingsParticipants were adult smokers recruited from two online research panels (n = 3,371) into a web-based experimental study to view either the new pictorial warnings or text-only warnings. Participants viewed the labels and reported their reactions. Adjusted regression models demonstrated significantly stronger reactions for the pictorial condition for each outcome salience (b = 0.62, p<.001); perceived impact (b = 0.44, p<.001); credibility (OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.22−1.62), and intention to quit (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.10−1.53). No significant results were found for interactions between condition and race/ethnicity, education, or income. The only exception concerned the intention to quit outcome, where the condition-by-education interaction was nearly significant (p = 0.057).ConclusionsFindings suggest that the greater impact of the pictorial warning label compared to the text-only warning is consistent across diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic populations. Given their great reach, pictorial health warning labels may be one of the few tobacco control policies that have the potential to reduce communication inequalities across groups. Policies that establish strong pictorial warning labels on tobacco packaging may be instrumental in reducing the toll of the tobacco epidemic, particularly within vulnerable communities.

DO THE SPATIAL FEATURES OF AN ADJUNCT DISPLAY THAT READERS COMPLETE WHILE READING AFFECT THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF A COMPLEX SYSTEM?

We varied the spatial features of adjunct displays that depicted a complex scientific system (i.e. human circulatory system). University students (n = 47), who were assigned randomly to a display condition before reading, selected relevant information from the text and wrote it (a) next to a list of definitions (list condition), (b) inside boxes organized to coincide with the sequence of blood flow (chart condition), or (c) on a picture of the heart (pictorial condition). Students in the chart and pictorial conditions had higher scores on 2 learning tests. Results supported the nonequivalence hypothesis, which states that a spatial display can promote learning more effectively than a list because a display’s nonverbal (e.g. spatial) features explicitly depict relationships among a system’s components. The results have implications for science educators.

Pictorial rehearsal effects in younger and older adults

In three studies, we examined pictorial rehearsal effects in younger and older adults. Concrete and abstract line drawings that varied in the amount of pictorial detail were presented for study under different presentation conditions. In the pictorial rehearsal condition, each picture was followed by a blank rehearsal interval where the picture was no longer presented. In all three experiments, the poststimulus interval enhanced picture recognition for both age groups, relative to a control condition where no rehearsal interval occurred. These findings suggest that older adults, like younger adults, form and maintain visual images across a blank rehearsal interval. Implications of these findings for current views on imaginal processes in older adults are discussed.

Contextual influences on auditory comprehension of reversible passive sentences in aphasia

Abstract Stimuli reported by Hough et al. (1989) were employed to assess aphasic subjects' auditory comprehension of reversible passive sentences presented in isolation, and at the ends of narrative paragraphs that either strongly predicted or did not predict the specific subject—object relationships portrayed in the target sentences. Verbal stimuli were presented under two pictorial conditions, wherein pictured response choices were exposed either before or after presentation of the auditory stimuli. Results indicated no significant effect of pictorial condition; however, a significant advantage was observed for sentences following predictive paragraphs. Absence of a facilitative effect for non-predictive paragraphs disagreed with previous findings of Hough et al. (1989). Retrospective analysis of the combined data from the present and previous studies demonstrated that contextual facilitation for both types of paragraphs increased as a positive function of stage of recovery from aphasia. Subjects in the...

EMG and cardiovascular responses to emotionally provocative photographs and text.

Previous studies on the psychophysiology of human emotion have repeatedly shown general and occasionally specific facial EMG (mu v) and covert cardiovascular response relationships to emotionally provocative photographs. Less clear are the relationships between psychophysiological response indices measured during the silent reading of emotionally charged versus emotionally neutral text. In this study, 12 adult subjects were presented two emotionally loaded color and black-and-white photographs and two brief newspaper articles, one emotionally charged and the other emotionally neutral in content. Each independent stimulus was presented for 1 min., preceded by a rest according to a multiple baseline-reversal design. Subjects evaluated each pictorial and textual stimulus condition according to adjective dimensions on 7-point rating scales. Mean values for corrugator supercilii EMG (mu v), upper trapezius EMG (mu v), surface temperature (degrees F), and heart rate (bpm) measured by finger photoplethysmography were measured during each rest and test period. Significant increases in the subjects' mean corrugator supercilii EMG (mu v) measures were observed during all color and black-and-white photograph presentations for both emotional and neutral content. As predicted, the subjects' mean corrugator supercilii EMG (mu v) measures increased significantly while silently reading text with an obvious unpleasant emotional tone. A significant positive relationship was observed between the subjects' mean ratings and mean corrugator EMG (mu v) difference values for the emotionally loaded color photographs.

Comparison of Speech and Pictorial Displays in a Cockpit Environment

A current trend in cockpit design is to incorporate synthesized speech to present secondary information. Multiple-resource theories of information processing support this, but theories of stimulus/central-processing/response compatibility suggest that spatial information presented visually may have some advantages over speech if the response is manual. Two experiments compare response performance over single and dual tasks when information was presented pictorially and by speech. Pictorial subjects responded more quickly than did speech subjects. The addition of the visual tracking task in the dual-task condition had a differential effect on performance, depending on the modality of the primary task and the rate at which information was presented. The dual task impeded performance more in the fast and medium presentation rates for the speech condition but had little differential effect across rates for the pictorial condition. Analysis of the error data indicated that subjects in the pictorial condition were better able to maintain the context of the emergency than those in the speech condition. Results are discussed in terms of current theories of information processing.

The selective impact of question form and input mode on the symbolic distance effect in children

Five experiments are reported on the symbolic distance effect (SDE) and related phenomena with 6- and 9-year-old children. In the first of these, children were asked to judge the relative sizes of animals in verbal and pictorial tests featuring the comparatives “bigger” and “smaller”. A perceptual condition with actual objects was included by way of comparison. A Symbolic Distance Effect was obtained for both lexical and pictorial input. Mode differences were also observed. Pictures produced faster responses than words, and congruity effects occurred only in the pictorial condition. Although performance was similar in tests with either comparative, our subsequent experiments on both 6- and 9-year-olds reveal a significant asymmetry in the child's capacity to verify statements of relation as a function of the direction along the (size) continuum implied by the question. However, important differences between age groups also apparent in the data lead us to conclude that the older subjects develop strategies to overcome this asymmetry by translating certain statements of relation into a form more congruent with their natural modes of encoding.

Responses to Class-Inclusion Questions for Verbally and Pictorially Presented Items

A series of studies was conducted comparing children's responses to class, inclusion questions (e.g., given 6 dogs and 2 horses, are there more dogs or more animals?) when the items are presented in pictorial as opposed to purely verbal form. Over several replications of the same prototype experiment with children between the ages of 5 and 7 there was a consistent, highly significant superiority of the verbal condition over the pictorial one, which was attributed to the weakening of a subclass-comparison set engendered by the perception of majority and minority subclasses in the standard pictorial condition. The beneficial effects of prior practice in counting subclass and total class, and of adding elements extraneous to the class, were interpreted as supporting this perceptual-set interpretation. At the same time, evidence was adduced indicating that factors of a more intrinsic sort, relating to the level of cognitive development attained by the child, codetermine performance on this type of task. The studies to be reported in this paper deal with the problem of children's responses to questions of class inclusion--that is, to items of the kind, Given six dogs and two horses, are there more dogs or more animals? Inhelder and Piaget (1964), who carried out an extensive study of the development of this type of subclass-total-class comparison with a variety of kinds of stimuli, reported that children before the age of about 7 years, that is, those in the preoperational period, typically give a response based on