Utilizing the information garnered from research on information processing in the two elaboration types (i.e., item-specific and relational processing) this research examines the influence of gender and advertising narrative effectiveness. Advertising effectiveness is determined by recall and perception from exposure to relational and item-specific developed narratives. Included are literature reviews, supporting data and analysis, results, discussion, and speculations of differing outcomes based on the study conducted. / text

A long-held belief is that human attention can be deployed voluntarily according to observers’ goals (top-down) or shifted automatically to the most salience object in the environment (bottom-up). Recent studies suggest a third category of attentional control: selection history. By this view, an observer’s experience in performing a task that requires the control of attention could automatically affect subsequent attention deployment in the task. This thesis examined selection history mechanisms of attentional control in two visual search phenomena. The first phenomenon is known as the Contextual Cueing Effect (CCE), and refers to an increased search efficiency when a specific distractor configuration is repeatedly associated with a specific target location (Chun and Jiang, 1998). In one study, we found a CCE when one repeated configuration was associated with up to four different target locations, suggesting that the CCE may involve mechanisms other than attentional guidance by one-to-one context-target associations. In another study, we found that the CCE was not affected by concurrent working memory load, and that there was little correlation between the magnitude of the CCE and working memory task performance when measured separately in the same participants. These results suggest that working memory may not be involved in such contextual learning. The second phenomenon is known as the the Item-Specific Proportion Congruent (ISPC) Effect, and refers to item-specific learning that controls the extent to which salient distractors capture attention. Through manual response and eye movement measures, we demonstrate that the ISPC effect reflects the search process itself, rather than processes that precede or follow search. We propose does item-specific learning produces transient changes in the activation of goal-related processes that mediate attention capture. / Thesis / Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) / Where we attend in visual space can be affected involuntarily by memories of how we have attended to visual space in the past. In other words, automatically retrieved memories can control our visual attention independent of volition. This thesis examines two visual search phenomena that display this type of memory-based control over attention. The first phenomenon reveals that search performance improves with experience searching through the same set of visual distractors on multiple occasions. We demonstrate that this form of learning is remarkably flexible; it can occur for multiple targets associated with the same set of distractors. We also demonstrate that this form of learning probably involves long-term rather than short-term memory mechanisms. The second phenomenon reveals how memory-based processes can prevent attention from being captured by a salient distractor. Eye movement data reveal that this form of learning impacts search itself, rather the processes that precede or follow search.

<p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1993, härtill 4 uppsatser.</p> / digitalisering@umu

Both active response execution and passive listening to verbal codes (a form of instruction) in single prime trials lead tovitem-specific repetition priming effects when stimuli re-occur in single probe trials. This holds for task-specific classification (stimulus–classification, SC priming, e.g., apple–small) and action (stimulus–action, SA priming, e.g., apple–right key press). To address the influence of expectation on item-specific SC and SA associations, we tested if item-specific SC and SA priming effects were modulated by the instructed probability of re-encountering individual SC or SA mappings (25% vs. 75% instructed switch probability). Importantly, the experienced item-specific switch probability was always 50%. In Experiment 1 (N = 78), item-specific SA/SC switch expectations affected SA, but not SC priming effects exclusively following active response execution. Experiment 2 (N = 40) was designed to emphasize SA priming by only including item-specific SC repetitions. This yielded stronger SA priming for 25% vs. 75% expected switch probability, both following response execution as in Experiment 1 and also following verbally coded SA associations. Together, these results suggest that SA priming effects, that is, the encoding and retrieval of SA associations, is modulated by item-specific switch expectation. Importantly, this expectation effect cannot be explained by item-specific associative learning mechanisms, as stimuli were primed and probed only once and participants experienced item-specific repetitions/switches equally often across stimuli independent of instructed switch probabilities. This corroborates and extends previous results by showing that SA priming effects are modulated by expectation not only based on experienced item-specific switch probabilities, but also on mere instruction.

It has previously been determined that using 3 or 4 points on a categorized response scale will fail to produce a continuous distribution of scores. However, there is no evidence, thus far, revealing the number of scale points that may indeed possess an approximate or sufficiently continuous distribution. This study provides the evidence to suggest the level of categorization in discrete scales that makes them directly comparable to continuous scales in terms of their measurement properties. To do this, we first introduced a novel procedure for simulating discretely scaled data that was both informed and validated through the principles of the Classical True Score Model. Second, we employed a measurement invariance (MI) approach to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in order to directly compare the measurement quality of continuously scaled factor models to that of discretely scaled models. The simulated design conditions of the study varied with respect to item-specific variance (low, moderate, high), random error variance (none, moderate, high), and discrete scale categorization (number of scale points ranged from 3 to 101). A population analogue approach was taken with respect to sample size (N = 10,000). We concluded that there are conditions under which response scales with 11 to 15 scale points can reproduce the measurement properties of a continuous scale. Using response scales with more than 15 points may be, for the most part, unnecessary. Scales having from 3 to 10 points introduce a significant level of measurement error, and caution should be taken when employing such scales. The implications of this research and future directions are discussed.

It has previously been determined that using 3 or 4 points on a categorized response scale will fail to produce a continuous distribution of scores. However, there is no evidence, thus far, revealing the number of scale points that may indeed possess an approximate or sufficiently continuous distribution. This study provides the evidence to suggest the level of categorization in discrete scales that makes them directly comparable to continuous scales in terms of their measurement properties. To do this, we first introduced a novel procedure for simulating discretely scaled data that was both informed and validated through the principles of the Classical True Score Model. Second, we employed a measurement invariance (MI) approach to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in order to directly compare the measurement quality of continuously scaled factor models to that of discretely scaled models. The simulated design conditions of the study varied with respect to item-specific variance (low, moderate, high), random error variance (none, moderate, high), and discrete scale categorization (number of scale points ranged from 3 to 101). A population analogue approach was taken with respect to sample size (N = 10,000). We concluded that there are conditions under which response scales with 11 to 15 scale points can reproduce the measurement properties of a continuous scale. Using response scales with more than 15 points may be, for the most part, unnecessary. Scales having from 3 to 10 points introduce a significant level of measurement error, and caution should be taken when employing such scales. The implications of this research and future directions are discussed.

It has previously been determined that using 3 or 4 points on a categorized response scale will fail to produce a continuous distribution of scores. However, there is no evidence, thus far, revealing the number of scale points that may indeed possess an approximate or sufficiently continuous distribution. This study provides the evidence to suggest the level of categorization in discrete scales that makes them directly comparable to continuous scales in terms of their measurement properties. To do this, we first introduced a novel procedure for simulating discretely scaled data that was both informed and validated through the principles of the Classical True Score Model. Second, we employed a measurement invariance (MI) approach to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in order to directly compare the measurement quality of continuously scaled factor models to that of discretely scaled models. The simulated design conditions of the study varied with respect to item-specific variance (low, moderate, high), random error variance (none, moderate, high), and discrete scale categorization (number of scale points ranged from 3 to 101). A population analogue approach was taken with respect to sample size (N = 10,000). We concluded that there are conditions under which response scales with 11 to 15 scale points can reproduce the measurement properties of a continuous scale. Using response scales with more than 15 points may be, for the most part, unnecessary. Scales having from 3 to 10 points introduce a significant level of measurement error, and caution should be taken when employing such scales. The implications of this research and future directions are discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate