William Albert

Learning relative directions between landmarks ina desktop virtual environment

This study presents two experiments that examine howindividuals learn relative directions betweenlandmarks in a desktop virtual environment. Subjectswere presented snapshot images of different virtualenvironments containing distinguishing landmarks anda road network. Following the presentation of eachvirtual environment, subjects were given a relativedirection test. The relative direction test involvedindicating the direction of hidden landmarks fromdifferent vantage points in the environment. Half ofthese vantage points were presented during thelearning phase, while the other half were novel.Results showed that subjects learned relativedirections between landmarks equally well when sceneswere presented in either a sequential or random order.Furthermore, viewing a configuration of landmarks ina desktop virtual environment from multipleperspectives produced a viewpoint dependentrepresentation in memory. Subjects had significantlygreater response times for new viewing perspectives,as compared to previously viewed scenes. Thisviewpoint dependent representation of the environmentpersisted despite learning under conditions ofspatio-temporal discontinuity and changes to anenvironmental frame of reference.

The Impact of Advertising Location and User Task on the Emergence of Banner Ad Blindness: An Eye-Tracking Study

The purpose of this study is to explore the emergence of ad banner blindness in the viewing of e-commerce home pages. Building on the literature on inattention blindness and banner blindness, this article assessed the gaze path of users in goal-directed and free-viewing tasks when viewing pages with advertising banners on the right side of the page and on the top of the page above the main navigation menu. The hypotheses are tested using an analysis of variance. Using an eye-tracking methodology, the results identify significant differences in visual attention for banner ad location and for task type. Banner blindness is strongest for advertising banners on the right side of the page and for goal-directed tasks. Neither participants’ ratings of page visual appeal or of page familiarity could explain the findings. The study contributes to the existing literature by resolving some of the cognitive factors that lead to banner blindness and supplementing previous research that focused on relevant perceptual factors.

The Role of Attention in Spatial Learning during Simulated Route Navigation

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of attention in the development of survey (or configurai) knowledge of the environment. However, it is unclear if attention is also necessary for the development of route knowledge. Our aim in this paper is to evaluate the specific role of attention in the acquisition of both route and survey knowledge during simulated navigation. In four experiments, subjects in a condition of full or divided attention were presented a series of routes through a simulated environment. Spatial learning was assessed by having subjects discriminate between old and novel route segments in a subsequent recognition test. Novel route segments consisted of old landmarks from the same route but in the wrong order or with wrong turns, or consisted of old landmarks from two separate routes, or contained old landmarks in new spatial relations to one another. Divided attention disrupted memory for sequences of landmarks (experiment 1), landmark—turn associations (experiment 2), landmark—route associations (experiment 3), and spatial relations between landmarks (experiment 4). Together, these results show that even relatively simple components of spatial learning during navigation require attention. Furthermore, divided attention disrupts the acquisition of spatial knowledge at both the route level and the survey level.

Pre-Conscious Assessment of Trust: A Case Study of Financial and Health Care Web Sites

The goal of this study was to determine the reliability of pre-conscious trust assessments of web sites. Participants in Experiment 1 (n=72) viewed 50 screenshots of popular financial and health care home pages in a random order in two separate trials. Each screenshot was presented for 50ms, followed by a mask for 150ms, followed by an assessment of trust on 9-point semantic differential scale from distrust to trust. Results from a series of Pearson Product Moment Correlations showed that approximately one-half of the participants were consistent in their trust assessments for the same web sites across trials. The correlation between trust assessments on the first and second trials, averaged across all participants was statistically significant (p<.001). Results from Experiment 2 (n=11), utilizing a different method for participant participation, showed a similar pattern of results. These findings suggest that pre-conscious mind plays a more significant role in assessing trust than previously believed.

A Comparison of the Performance of Webcam vs. Infrared Eye Tracking Technology

This study compares results obtained using the SMI infrared and Sticky webcam eye tracking technologies. Participants viewed a series of images twice, once using each technology. A comparison of the results shows that the infrared equipment is more accurate for smaller images, particularly those farther from the center of the screen. Infrared technology is also a better option when it is important to capture dwell time. For larger images, however, the webcam technology achieved accuracy similar to SMI infrared in capturing the percent of participants who fixated on a particular stimulus. For testing that uses reasonably sized images and avoids the periphery of the screen, the webcam system appears to be a viable alternative for determining whether the stimulus is noted. This finding has implications for how eye tracking may be used as part of market research and usability testing.

The Impact of Advertising Location and User Task on The Emergence of Banner Ad Blindness An Eye Tracking Study

The purpose of this study was to explore the emergence of ad banner blindness in the viewing of ecommerce home pages. By using an eye-tracking methodology, the study supported a more granular analysis of user behavior. Building on the literature on inattention blindness and banner blindness, we assess the gaze path of users in goal-directed and free-viewing tasks when viewing pages with advertising banners on the right side of the page or on the top of the page above the main navigation menu. The results support existing literature that banner blindness is strongest for advertising banners on the right side of the page and for goal-directed tasks. The eye-tracking results provide new insight into the cognitive principles underlying these differences.

The Attention Grabbing Salience of Viscerally Engaging Images

Banner ads remain a core component of the marketing mix for companies in both the analog and digital domains. Consumers spend much of their time on websites, whether through mobile or desktop devices, and marketers need to target them where they are. Unfortunately, inattention blindness is a serious impediment to the effectiveness of banner advertising; consumers have become proficient at ignoring banners when they appear in areas predictably associated with advertising. Research has uncovered some strategies to overcome banner blindness, but many of these require customer analytics and can evoke privacy concerns. Others degrade the user experience by interfering with the user’s task. One possible alternative is to use innately salient advertising content, but there is a dearth of research investigating the effectiveness of this approach. The current study fills this gap with an empirical investigation using established, innately salient images in banner ads and a primary task that involved reading text articles that were either intrinsically interesting or boring. Eye-tracking was used to assess the impact on participants’ visual scan patterns and visual attention. The results were mixed. Participants’ visual attention was drawn to banner ads that contained sexually suggestive content, but not for other innately salient categories. The effect of the intrinsic salience of the content was complicated and requires further research to resolve.