Sarah Linsen

Aesthetic preference for spatial composition in multiobject pictures

Five experiments examined preferences for horizontal positions in multiobject pictures. In Experiment 1, each picture contained a fixed object and an object whose position could be adjusted to create the most (or least) aesthetically pleasing image. Observers placed the movable object closer to the fixed object when the objects were related than when they were unrelated (a relatedness bias) but almost never overlapped them (a separation bias). Experiment 2 showed that these results were not due to demand characteristics by replicating them almost exactly in a between-participants design. In Experiment 3, preference rankings revealed a strong relatedness bias together with an inward bias toward the spatial envelope of objects to point into the frame. A weak balance effect was evident in a multiple regression analysis. Experiment 4 replicated the inward bias for the spatial envelope using multiobject groups. Experiment 5 generalized the above findings for different objects when observers had to choose between image pairs that differed only in interobject distance or degree of balance. Strong relatedness effects were again present, but there was no evidence of any preference for balance.

Aesthetic preferences in the size of images of real-world objects.

Konkle and Oliva (in press, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance) found that the preferred (‘canonical’) visual size of a picture of an object within a frame is proportional to the logarithm of its known physical size. They used within-participants designs on several tasks, including having participants adjust the objects size to ‘look best’. We examined visual size preference in 2AFC tasks with explicit aesthetic instructions to choose: “which of each pair you like best”. We also used both within- and between-participants conditions to investigate the possible role of demand characteristics. In experiments 1 and 2, participants saw all possible image pairs depicting the same object at six different sizes for twelve real-world objects that varied in physical size. Significant effects of known physical size were present, regardless of whether participants made judgments about a single object (the between-participants design) or about all objects intermixed (the within-participants design). Experiment 3 showed a reduced effect when the amount of image detail present at different visual sizes was kept constant by posterizing the images. The results are discussed in terms of ecological biases on aesthetic preferences.

The association between symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing and mental versus algorithmic subtraction in adults.

There are two well-known computation methods for solving multi-digit subtraction items, namely mental and algorithmic computation. It has been contended that mental and algorithmic computation differentially rely on numerical magnitude processing, an assumption that has already been examined in children, but not yet in adults. Therefore, in this study, we examined how numerical magnitude processing was associated with mental and algorithmic computation, and whether this association with numerical magnitude processing was different for mental versus algorithmic computation. We also investigated whether the association between numerical magnitude processing and mental and algorithmic computation differed for measures of symbolic versus nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing. Results showed that symbolic, and not nonsymbolic, numerical magnitude processing was associated with mental computation, but not with algorithmic computation. Additional analyses showed, however, that the size of this association with symbolic numerical magnitude processing was not significantly different for mental and algorithmic computation. We also tried to further clarify the association between numerical magnitude processing and complex calculation by also including relevant arithmetical subskills, i.e. arithmetic facts, needed for complex calculation that are also known to be dependent on numerical magnitude processing. Results showed that the associations between symbolic numerical magnitude processing and mental and algorithmic computation were fully explained by individual differences in elementary arithmetic fact knowledge.

Design of the Game-Based Learning Environment “Dudeman & Sidegirl: Operation Clean World,” a Numerical Magnitude Processing Training

Numerical magnitude processing has been shown to play a crucial role in the development of mathematical ability and intervention studies have revealed that training children’s numerical magnitude processing has positive effects on their numerical magnitude processing skills and mathematics achievement. However, from these intervention studies, it remains unclear whether numerical magnitude processing interventions should focus on training with a numerical magnitude comparison or a number line estimation task. It also remains to be determined whether there is a different impact of training symbolic versus nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing skills. In order to answer these two questions, we developed four game-based learning environments, using the storyline of “Dudeman & Sidegirl: Operation clean world”. The first two game-based learning environments comprise either a numerical magnitude comparison or a number line estimation training and the last two game-based learning environments stimulate either the processing of symbolic or nonsymbolic numerical magnitudes.