<p> Accurate face recognition plays a critical role in developing and maintaining social relationships. Typically developing adults show expertise when processing faces, demonstrated by their ability to recognize new faces even after a single exposure. Furthermore, face recognition is superior for highly familiar faces associated with rich semantic information. Although semantic processes mediate familiar face recognition, it is unclear what processes mediate unfamiliar face recognition. The main objective of my thesis was to identify unique neural mechanisms underlying familiar versus unfamiliar face recognition and to detail how these mechanisms change as a result of learning. I used event-related potentials (ERPs) to assess the stages of face processing affected by familiarity.</p> <p> In Chapter 1, I reviewed the literature contrasting familiar and unfamiliar face recognition processes from cognitive and neural perspectives.</p> <p> In Chapter 2, I identified processes involved in unfamiliar face recognition by recording ERPs to repeated presentations of unfamiliar faces in upright and inverted orientations. Inverted faces portray the same structural information as upright faces but with novel orientation that disrupts identity processing. Repeated exposure to an upright face (and not an inverted face) produced repetition priming at an early perceptual stage reflected by the N170 component, suggesting that unfamiliar face recognition is mediated by early perceptual representation.</p> <p> In Chapter 3, I directly tested whether semantic information modifies early perceptual face processing. I recorded ERPs to new faces that were learned over a five-day session with either person-specific or irrelevant information. N170 repetition priming was observed for all faces except those learned with person-specific information, suggesting that relevant semantic information, and not merely perceptual experience, changes early perceptual face processing.</p> <p> In Chapter 4, I assessed the relationship between N170 and N400 recognition processes. Specifically, I examined whether top-down semantic processes reflected by the N400 modulate early identity processes reflected by the N170. I constructed composite faces by combining facial features from different famous individuals; the facial features conveyed incongruous identity information so that when the face was processed as a whole it was perceived to be novel. Both familiar faces and composite faces failed to elicit N170 repetition priming but did elicit a similar N400 response, suggesting that familiar face recognition can be achieved with very little facial information. Moreover, these results suggest that the retrieval of semantically relevant information during familiar face recognition occurs even in the presence of incongruous perceptual information and that such processing modulates early perceptual processes.</p> <p> Together, these results demonstrate the interplay between memory and perception (which I summarize and discuss in Chapter 5), revealing different mechanisms of face recognition as a function of person-specific information. Unfamiliar face recognition takes place at the perceptual stage reflected by the N170 and is revealed through repetition priming. As an unfamiliar face becomes well known, its recognition processes shift to a later semantic stage reflected by the N400 and such semantic processes seem to modulate early perceptual processes. This knowledge has advanced our understanding of face processing at cognitive and neural levels.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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This thesis is set in the context of the automotive industry where launches of new products with high levels of technical innovations are becoming increasingly complex for consumers to comprehend. Car manufacturers need to understand consumer perceptions of new models so they can categorise their products form the consumer perspective, to obtain a more accurate indication as to where their products fit within the increasingly defined consumer segments. Situational and personal variables now play the most important roles in marketing. In the area of nested segmentation consumer variables are only concerned with their needs, attitudes, motivations and perceptions and overlook any previous experience, exposure or familiarity that a consumer may or may not have had with the product. It is argued here that consumers have differing perceptions of newness and that asking how new and new to whom would be valid questions for marketers when introducing new products. If car manufacturers can categorise their products in terms of newness for specific consumers based on their levels of Expertise, Involvement and Familiarity with the product, manufacturers will be able to target appropriate markets more effectively. To explore this area a mixed methods research approach was applied. This research found that the level of Involvement with the product, from a motivational aspect, gave rise to different levels of interest and enthusiasm between consumers and has a direct impact on how different types of consumers view new products. In addition the differing levels of consumer knowledge highlights the need to improve targeting of marketing communications so that manufacturers provide a better understanding of complex new products to consumers. Current mass marketing methods based on consumer demographics are no longer sufficient. This research found that a consumer s level of Expertise, Involvement and Familiarity (EIF) with a specific product can be captured using a multi-dimensional scale to measure consumer product knowledge and provide an accurate consumer segmentation tool. By offering different explanations of product innovations to these consumer segments, according to a customer's EIF, marketers will achieve more effective targeting, reduce marketing costs and increase marketing campaign response.

We examined the neural and cognitive processes engaged during auditory verbal recognition performance under full attention (FA) and divided attention (DA) conditions in younger and older adults. Recognition was disrupted by a word (DA-word), but not digit-based (DA-digit) distracting task, performed concurrently with retrieval. In Study 1, a multivariate functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis technique, Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to identify distributed patterns of brain activity most related to the different conditions and behaviours. We found that similar retrieval networks were recruited during the FA and DA-digit, but not DA-word, condition in both age groups, mirroring behavioural performance. There was, however, an age-related change in the brain regions that predicted successful memory performance. In addition, we found that a neural network relating to hippocampal activity predicted memory success during the FA and DA-digit, but not DA-word, condition in younger, but not older, adults. In study 2, we used a Remember-Know paradigm to examine how manipulations of DA affect recollective and familiarity-based retrieval processes. Younger and older adults showed an increase in false Remember responses during both DA conditions and decreased accuracy in Know responses only during the word-based DA condition. In addition, aging was associated with decreased accuracy in Remember, but not Know, responses, in both DA conditions. In a follow-up experiment, we showed that these results cannot be accounted for by differences in difficulty level of the chosen distracting tasks. Results suggest that recollective processes rely on attentional resources during retrieval. Together these studies show that declines in available attentional resources, common with advancing age, affect both the neural networks used during retrieval, and the qualitative nature of the memories that are retrieved. Results also suggest that familiarity processes rely on the reactivation of content-specific representations, mediated by a neural network relating to hippocampal activity in younger, but not older, adults.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 201 / This dissertation examined the role of brands in consumer decision making in online environments versus offline environments. The effects of the information type and quality available in a given purchase environment influences consumer choice. The premise on which this study was based is the accessibility-diagnociticity model which states that the weight given to any piece of information which would be used for consumer decision making depends on the accessibility of that piece of information, the accessibility of alternative inputs and diagnositicity or perceived relevance of the inputs (Feldman & Lynch 1988). Information available to consumers plays a significant role in their decision making and there has been limited studies investigating this in the online versus offline shopping environments. The challenge of online shopping for some product categories is that there is limited capacity to provide touch, smell and taste information. The dissertation reports three experiments which were conducted to test the hypotheses. Participants were randomly assigned to different shopping environments with varying levels of information. The findings extend the theory of the diagnosticity of information (Alba, Hutchinson, & Lynch, 1991; Feldman & Lynch 1988; Herr, Karde, & Kim, 1991; Lynch, Marmorstein & Weigold, 1988; Lynch 2006) indicating that, when consumers observe that they do not have enough information to make a purchase decision, they do not make a decision unless the brand is familiar. vii The findings from the research offer fresh insights that familiar brands have greater advantage in online shopping than unfamiliar brands, particularly for experiential products. The results suggest that in purchase situations where there is limited sensory information, consumers rely on brand familiarity to make decisions or they do not make a decision if the brands are unfamiliar. The results of the dissertation showed that when there is limited information in consumer decision making processes, consumers use their knowledge about brands to make or not make a decision. The results contradict the long tail theory (Anderson, 2006) which proposes that the businesses would make more profits from niche offerings of unfamiliar brands. The results of the study were not conclusive on the effects of shopping environments on price sensitivity for familiar and unfamiliar brands. The results suggested the predicted pattern, though the interaction was not statistically significant and there is need for future research on online price elasticity. Future research should also explore the effects of these new sources of information like blogs, consumer and expert reviews, Facebook, etc. on consumer decision making in the offline and online environments

La familiarité correspond au sentiment d’avoir déjà rencontré une personne, un lieu, un objet, indépendamment de la capacité à restituer le contexte initiale de cette rencontre. Le sentiment de familiarité peut ainsi être perçu même si le stimulus dont il s’agit n’est pas clairement identifié. Les travaux menés sur la familiarité s’intègrent dans des domaines de recherche assez variables, les principales recherches ayant été réalisées dans le cadre plus général de l’étude de la mémoire de reconnaissance, et dans le cadre de l’étude de la reconnaissance des visages.Des troubles du sentiment de familiarité peuvent avoir des conséquences importantes sur les interactions sociales. De tels troubles ont notamment été rapportés chez des patients présentant des troubles neurologiques (comme la maladie d’Alzheimer) ou psychiatriques (comme la schizophrénie). En fonction de leur sévérité, ces troubles peuvent être à l’origine de troubles graves du comportement, jusqu’à la réalisation de gestes de violence sévères, comme décrits par exemple dans certains troubles délirants de familiarité associés à la schizophrénie.Les objectifs de ce travail de thèse sont donc de clarifier les méthodes d’évaluation de la familiarité afin d’en préciser les corrélats neuronaux, puis chez les patients souffrant de schizophrénie, d’étudier le sentiment de familiarité, et d’évaluer les conséquences des altérations de ce sentiment, principalement en termes de risque de violence.Plusieurs études ont été menées afin de répondre à ces objectifs. Nous avons tout d’abord réalisé différentes méta-analyses des données d’imagerie de la littérature, selon les méthodes d’évaluation employées, pour déterminer avec précision les réseaux cérébraux impliqués dans le traitement de stimuli familiers. Nous avons ensuite développé une méthode d’étude du sentiment de familiarité permettant de quantifier le sentiment de familiarité, et adaptée aux patients présentant des troubles cognitifs, comme les patients souffrants de schizophrénie. L’évaluation de l’association entre les troubles de la familiarité et le risque de violence a été réalisée à partir d’une revue de littérature des descriptions de cas de gestes violents réalisés dans des contextes de troubles de familiarité pour mettre en évidence les facteurs de risque de violence communs à ces situations cliniques. Afin d’objectiver ces données, nous avons également effectué une évaluation clinique systématique des troubles du sentiment de familiarité des patients souffrant de schizophrénie. Cette étude a été réalisée en population carcérale pour permettre une évaluation au sein d’une population particulièrement à risque de violence.A travers les travaux présentés dans cette thèse, nous avons abordé l’étude de la familiarité, du sujet sain au patient de psychiatrie, de l’étude des mécanismes cérébraux à celle des conséquences comportementales. Les résultats de ces travaux confirment l’importance à accorder à l’étude du sentiment de familiarité, et à celle de ses troubles, en particulier dans les populations de patients psychiatriques. / Familiarity is the feeling that provides the experience that a person, an object, a place, has been previously encountered independent of any recollection of the associated details. Thus, the feeling of familiarity may be reached even when the stimulus is not clearly recognized. Familiarity has been studied using various approaches. Major research has been conducted in the context of recognition memory and faces recognition.Familiarity disorders have been described as a failure of affective judgment capable of strongly impacting social interactions. They are notably present in some neurological disorders (such as in Alzheimer’s disease) and psychiatric disorders (such as in schizophrenia). Depending on the symptoms severity, these disorders may lead to serious violent behaviors, as reported in some delusional misidentification disorders related to schizophrenia.The objectives of this work were to clarify the experimental procedures used for familiarity assessment, in order to identify the brain regions that sustain the processing of familiarity. Then, we focused on patients with schizophrenia. Our purpose was to assess the feeling of familiarity in schizophrenia patients, and the consequences of familiarity disorders in these patients on the risk of violence.Several studies have been conducted to meet these objectives. First, we performed separate brain meta-analyses of published neuroimaging data, following the approach employed, in order to determine the brain networks that are involved in the processing of familiarity. Second, we developed an original paradigm for studying the feeling of familiarity that was particularly suited to patients with cognitive disorders, such as patients with schizophrenia. Then, we assessed the association between familiarity disorders and risk of violence by realizing a literature review of published cases of patients having committed violent acts associated to familiarity disorders. Finally, we tried to confirm this association with a systematic evaluation of familiarity disorders of patients with schizophrenia. This last study was conducted in a specific population that was at high-risk of presenting violent behavior, i.e. inmates hospitalized in a psychiatric unit of prison setting.The research presented in this thesis has enabled us to explore familiarity from healthy individuals to psychiatric patients and from the study of neural bases to that of behavioral consequences. The results from these studies confirm the importance to further study familiarity and familiarity disorders, in particular in patients with psychiatric disorders.

Skeuomorphism är ett relativt nytt begrepp inom interaktionsdesign.Skeuomorphism är en designstil vars mål är att efterlikna realistiska objekt för attframkalla och skapa vissa effekter och upplevelser, som till exempel attunderförstått kommunicera en förståelse till användaren. Litteraturstudien visadepå att ingen har undersökt hur användare upplever inslagen och effekter somutlovas är spekulationer. Denna uppsats undersöker hur användare upplever inslagav skeuomorphism i digitala gränssnitt. Studien utfördes med hjälp av metodernathink-aloud och intervjuer för att besvara frågan, ”Hur upplever användare inslag avskeuomorphism i digitala grafiska gränssnitt?”. Studien resulterade i sex punktersom presenterar hur användare upplever inslag av skeuomorphism. / Skeuomorphism is a relatively new concept in interaction design. Skeuomorphism isa design style that aims to mimic realistic objects to develop and create certaineffects and experiences, such as implicitly communicate an understanding to theuser. The literature review showed that no one has studied how users experiencethese elements and the effects that are promised are only speculations. This essayexamines how users experience the elements of skeuomorphism in digitalinterfaces. The study was conducted using the methods think-aloud and interviewsto answer the question, “How do users experience elements of skeuomorphism indigital graphical interfaces?” . The study resulted in six aspects which presents howusers experience the elements of skeuomorphism.

Recent research has revealed many similarities between episodic memory, scene construction, and imagination of the future. It has been suggested that scene construction is the common process underlying memory and imagination, but no study to date has directly compared all three abilities. The present study compared retrieval time, ratings of detail and vividness for episodic memories, remembered scenes and imagined future events cued by landmarks of high and low familiarity. Memories, scenes, and imagined episodes based on a more familiar landmark as a cue were more quickly retrieved, more detailed, and more vivid. This study was the first to demonstrate the effects of frequent encounters with a cue on memory, scene construction and imagination of the future. Additionally, consistent results across conditions, as well as stronger effects in the scene construction condition, provide further evidence of a possible interdependence of episodic memory, imagination of the future, and scene construction.