Photographic Assessment of Change in Trichotillomania: Psychometric Properties and Variables Influencing Interpretation

Although photographic assessment has been found to be reliable in assessing hair loss in Trichotillomania, the validity of this method is unclear, particularly for gauging progress in treatment. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of photographic assessment of change in Trichotillomania. Photographs showing hair loss of adults with Trichotillomania were taken before and after participating in a clinical trial for the condition. Undergraduate college students (N = 211) rated treatment response according to the photos, and additional archival data on hair pulling severity and psychosocial health were retrieved from the clinical trial. Photographic assessment of change was found to possess fair reliability (ICC = 0.53), acceptable criterion validity (r = 0.51), good concurrent validity (r = 0.30–0.36), and excellent incremental validity (ΔR2 = 8.67, p \u3c 0.01). In addition, photographic measures were significantly correlated with change in quality of life (r = 0.42), and thus could be considered an index of the social validity of Trichotillomania treatment. Gender of the photo rater and pulling topography affected the criterion validity of photographic assessment (partial η2 = 0.05–0.11). Recommendations for improving photographic assessment and future directions for hair pulling research are discussed

Testing the difference between experts\u2019 and lay people\u2019s landscape preferences

The European Landscape Convention, ratified by 40 nations, has placed emphasis on the necessity that the value of the landscape is assessed by the population. However it is standard practice that a few experts decide which areas are of landscape interest and the transformations that are compatible with their conservation. To compare the landscape preferences of experts and lay people a study was done on the Po Delta Natural Park (Italy) using a psychophysical approach. In our case study the average scores of experts and lay people are not very different. However it was also ascertained that the experts evaluate the presence of some elements in a way that differs from lay people. As the responsibility for landscape policies is normally devolved to a few experts it would appear necessary that the preferences and opinions of lay people should always be carefully analysed

A review of research into the development of radiologic expertise: Implications for computer-based training

Rationale and Objectives. Studies of radiologic error reveal high levels of variation between radiologists. Although it is known that experts outperform novices, we have only limited knowledge about radiologic expertise and how it is acquired.Materials and Methods. This review identifies three areas of research: studies of the impact of experience and related factors on the accuracy of decision-making; studies of the organization of expert knowledge; and studies of radiologists' perceptual processes.Results and Conclusion. Interpreting evidence from these three paradigms in the light of recent research into perceptual learning and studies of the visual pathway has a number of conclusions for the training of radiologists, particularly for the design of computer-based learning programs that are able to illustrate the similarities and differences between diagnoses, to give access to large numbers of cases and to help identify weaknesses in the way trainees build up a global representation from fixated regions

Effectiveness of exclosures to control soil erosion and local communities perception on soil erosion

The study investigated how effective exclosures are in the fight against soil erosion and how they are perceived as a means to control soil erosion by the local community (farmers and local experts). The universal soil loss equation (USLE) used to estimate potential soil erosion. Data on local community perception obtained from a survey of 62 farm households and five local experts. In-depth interview, group discussion and non-participant field observation also carried out to obtain additional information. The USLE results agreed with the farmers' (67%) and local experts' opinion that erosion at study area is severe and affect the quality of lives of residents. Insignificant difference (p > 0.05) was observed in the estimated soil loss among treatments. However, the estimated soil loss from free grazing lands was higher by 47% than soil loss from exclosures which illustrated that exclosures are effective to control soil erosion. The majority of farmers (70%) also rated exclosures effectiveness to control soil erosion as high. Local communities were optimistic about the chances to rehabilitate degraded lands and make them productive. The majority of farmers (60%) did not consider population growth as a cause of soil erosion. For the majority of interviewed farmers, poor land management is more important. Efforts to create awareness within the rural communities should focus on the link between high population growth, environmental degradation and poverty. The optimistic view of local communities can be considered as an asset for the planning and development of degraded lands rehabilitation efforts

Risk: a fiction

Uncertainty creates anxiety so attempts have been made to reduce it using mathematical techniques. In the electronics industry the very large quantities of devices processed have provided reliable statistics and the opportunity to employ statistical methods. However, in fields such as decision-making and risk assessment there are strong criticisms of the probability calculus that have been triggered by discrepancies between the analysis of experts and non-experts. A radically different alternative is to view risk assessment and decision-making as exercises in rhetoric centred on storytelling language games. And to see the risk assessors as part of a political network attempting to influence action

Training methods for facial image comparison: a literature review

This literature review was commissioned to explore the psychological literature relating to facial image comparison with a particular emphasis on whether individuals can be trained to improve performance on this task. Surprisingly few studies have addressed this question directly. As a consequence, this review has been extended to cover training of face recognition and training of different kinds of perceptual comparisons where we are of the opinion that the methodologies or findings of such studies are informative. The majority of studies of face processing have examined face recognition, which relies heavily on memory. This may be memory for a face that was learned recently (e.g. minutes or hours previously) or for a face learned longer ago, perhaps after many exposures (e.g. friends, family members, celebrities). Successful face recognition, irrespective of the type of face, relies on the ability to retrieve the to-berecognised face from long-term memory. This memory is then compared to the physically present image to reach a recognition decision. In contrast, in face matching task two physical representations of a face (live, photographs, movies) are compared and so long-term memory is not involved. Because the comparison is between two present stimuli rather than between a present stimulus and a memory, one might expect that face matching, even if not an easy task, would be easier to do and easier to learn than face recognition. In support of this, there is evidence that judgment tasks where a presented stimulus must be judged by a remembered standard are generally more cognitively demanding than judgments that require comparing two presented stimuli Davies & Parasuraman, 1982; Parasuraman & Davies, 1977; Warm and Dember, 1998). Is there enough overlap between face recognition and matching that it is useful to look at the literature recognition? No study has directly compared face recognition and face matching, so we turn to research in which people decided whether two non-face stimuli were the same or different. In these studies, accuracy of comparison is not always better when the comparator is present than when it is remembered. Further, all perceptual factors that were found to affect comparisons of simultaneously presented objects also affected comparisons of successively presented objects in qualitatively the same way. Those studies involved judgments about colour (Newhall, Burnham & Clark, 1957; Romero, Hita & Del Barco, 1986), and shape (Larsen, McIlhagga & Bundesen, 1999; Lawson, Bülthoff & Dumbell, 2003; Quinlan, 1995). Although one must be cautious in generalising from studies of object processing to studies of face processing (see, e.g., section comparing face processing to object processing), from these kinds of studies there is no evidence to suggest that there are qualitative differences in the perceptual aspects of how recognition and matching are done. As a result, this review will include studies of face recognition skill as well as face matching skill. The distinction between face recognition involving memory and face matching not involving memory is clouded in many recognition studies which require observers to decide which of many presented faces matches a remembered face (e.g., eyewitness studies). And of course there are other forensic face-matching tasks that will require comparison to both presented and remembered comparators (e.g., deciding whether any person in a video showing a crowd is the target person). For this reason, too, we choose to include studies of face recognition as well as face matching in our revie

The Presentation of Images: Effects on the Viewer’s Reaction

Background: Perceiving an image evokes a variety of reactions in the viewer. However, not only what is recognized in an image influences the perceiver, but also how an image is presented impacts the reaction to the image. To contribute to the understanding of the relationship between an image’s presentation and how this affects the reaction to it, is the aim of this doctoral thesis. To do so, over the course of three studies presented in the form of three manuscripts, we investigated the effect of a basic image feature (color saturation), the context in which an image is perceived, as well as the effect of image type (whether the image is presented as a photograph or a graphic representation) on the responses to an image. Methods: In each manuscript, we followed a similar path of investigation: We manipulated a particular aspect of how an image is presented and examined the effects of that specific factor on the viewer’s response to the image. In each of the manuscripts presented here, we collected data on different responses to images: from directly measurable dimensions such as naming duration and correct naming, to liking, to more complex aesthetic responses, and to emotions perceived in an image. The design of each study was individualized to properly answer the research question. Results: The results presented in the three manuscripts show that the color saturation—a basic image feature—and the context in which an image is presented influence responses to an image. More specifically, manipulated color saturation affects the liking as well as specific aesthetic reactions to digitally reproduced paintings, but to a different extent for art experts and lay people. We also showed that the affective interpretation of art photographs seen in the context of other photographs is influenced by the valence of these other photographs. But not only neighboring images lead to a change in judgment; The evaluation dimension also affects the emotion perceived in an image. However, whether an image is presented as photograph or graphic representation does not influence naming performance, especially when both types of images include favorable image properties such as color, texture, and shading. Conclusion: The results presented in this thesis underline the importance of image presentation, as it influences reactions to images. This is also reflected in the practice of image making, where the focus is not only on the creation of the image itself, but likewise on its presentation. Moreover, our results show that not all the factors investigated and manipulated in our studies influence viewer responses in the way we expected. Similarly, in image practice, the designer often assumes—based on his or her expertise—that the viewer’s response can be implicitly predicted. However, the results of our studies show that this is not always the case. Therefore, there is a need to empirically investigate reactions to how an image is presented. Especially in visual communication, where an unambiguous message of the image is intended, the combination of practical image making and empirical investigations could be of added value

Image Perceptual Similarity Metrics for the Assessment of Basal Cell Carcinoma.

Efficient management of basal cell carcinomas (BCC) requires reliable assessments of both tumors and post-treatment scars. We aimed to estimate image similarity metrics that account for BCC's perceptual color and texture deviation from perilesional skin. In total, 176 clinical photographs of BCC were assessed by six physicians using a visual deviation scale. Internal consistency and inter-rater agreement were estimated using Cronbach's α, weighted Gwet's AC2, and quadratic Cohen's kappa. The mean visual scores were used to validate a range of similarity metrics employing different color spaces, distances, and image embeddings from a pre-trained VGG16 neural network. The calculated similarities were transformed into discrete values using ordinal logistic regression models. The Bray-Curtis distance in the YIQ color model and rectified embeddings from the 'fc6' layer minimized the mean squared error and demonstrated strong performance in representing perceptual similarities. Box plot analysis and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used to visualize and compare the levels of agreement, conducted on a random validation round between the two groups: 'Human-System' and 'Human-Human.' The proposed metrics were comparable in terms of internal consistency and agreement with human raters. The findings suggest that the proposed metrics offer a robust and cost-effective approach to monitoring BCC treatment outcomes in clinical settings

Rated preference, complexity and familiarity for neo-traditional and modern development patterns using alternative visual medium.

This dissertation examines the impact of complexity and familiarity on visual preference for two content domains defined as Neo-Traditional and Modern. This research has five main themes: (1) To determine if there is a method for community design professions to derive consensus about visual preference. (2) To determine if visual preference favors conventional suburban development patterns or traditional neighborhood development patterns. (3) To determine if scene complexity or coherency affects visual preference. (4) To determine if familiarity of scene content affects visual preference. (5) To determine if visual preference for a simulated scene correlates with its photographic counterpart. To respond to these objectives the research steps included: (1) Assembling a photographic library of street scenes throughout the Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan areas. (2) Categorizing the photographic library into three property value ranges described as low, medium and high. (3) Determining through ratings by a panel of experts which of the photographs best represented Neo-Traditional and Modern development patterns. (4) Preparing digital visualizations of two of the photographs selected by the panel of experts. (5) Submitting the photographs and images to a population sample of 304 people enlisted through the Internet, and having those respondents rate the photographs and images on the basis of visual preference, scene familiarity and scene complexity. The findings of this research are as follows: (1) People who participated in the survey favored modern development patterns over neo-traditional development patterns for all three price ranges. (2) Familiarity is a reliable construct of visual preference. (3) Complexity is not a reliable construct of visual preference. (4) Digital visualization can serve as a reasonable proxy to actual photographs