Affordant Shapes of Product Holder Influence Product Evaluation and Purchase Intention

Several studies have shown that stocking products on a display stand (vs. on a shelf) favors purchasing. However, little is known about whether the spatial layout of the display stand (i.e., its shape) may influence consumers ’ evaluation of the product and their purchase intention. The present research aims to investigate the role of the shape of an in-store display as a contextual cue potentially able to influence consumers’ evaluation of the exposed product and their subsequent purchasing intention. Two experiments were carried out in which we manipulated the shape of the product holder and the brand name as a function of brand awareness. We found that a meaningful shape representing the product induced a more positive product evaluation and indirectly, a greater intention to purchase in respect to shelf, when the product was a little- known brand (Study 1). Furthermore, the strongest effect occurred when the display stand facilitated product affordance in consumers ’ minds (Study 2). These results confirmed that the ability of the immediate context (i.e., the display stand) to evoke an action with an object (the product) influences the perceiver evaluation and behavioral intention towards the object itself. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

“Reality is in the air”: concept of perceived augmentation and exploration of its impact on consumer experience

Augmented reality (AR) technology is becoming increasingly used in marketing as a tool for enhancing consumer experience. Developed and defined in the fields of computer science and human-computer interaction, AR technology simulates an overlay of virtual annotations in the physical environment and interacts with it in real- time (Azuma et al., 2001). Some popular examples of AR include virtual mirrors (Ray Ban, ModiFace) and smartphone applications that simulate products such as furniture (IKEA). Despite its increasing deployment in marketing, related academic research about the significance of AR for consumer experience and its impact on consumer behavior has been scarce. This thesis approaches this gap in the literature by studying media characteristics of AR and examining their impact on consumer affective, cognitive and behavioral responses, following the approach of Theory of Interactive Media Effects by Sundar et al. (2015). Throughout a series of four articles, it aims to define salient media characteristics of AR technology and evaluate how they alter consumer experience. The 1st article examines to which extent AR shares media characteristics of other interactive technologies and how these characteristics – namely interactivity, modality, hypertextuality, connectivity, location-specificity, mobility, virtuality – influence consumer responses. Based on a literature review, a research agenda is proposed that identifies the knowledge gaps related to the impact of AR on various types of consumer responses. For example, it suggests that future research should investigate: how lower levels of hypertextuality in an AR app influence consumer satisfaction and exploratory behavior; how can AR represent a social experience, given that little connectivity is present in the current AR apps; what combinations of modality in terms of text, visuals and audio are most effective for AR; to which extent consumers perceive AR apps to be interactive and how that impacts their experience. Finally, the research agenda also underlines the importance of investigating the AR media characteristic augmentation (Preece et al., 2015), absent in previous interactive technologies. The 2nd article focuses on two salient media characteristics of AR apps – interactivity and augmentation. It shows that the presence of AR does not translate into an app being perceived as more interactive in comparison to a non-AR app in terms of control and responsiveness. On the other hand, the study offers first evidence that perceived augmentation is significantly higher for AR apps than for non-AR apps and that it represents a suitable psychological correlate (Sundar et al., 2015) for measuring the perception of AR characteristics that set it apart from other technologies. Two experimental studies demonstrate that perceived augmentation impacts the level of immersion into flow, which then mediates the impact of perceived augmentation on consumer attitude towards the app and behavioral intentions to use it again and talk about it. Based on the previous study, the 3rd article further develops the measurement items of perceived augmentation and investigates its impact on consumer experience. An in-the-wild study (Rogers, 2012) was conducted in a retail store, where we observed consumers’ interaction with an AR make-up try-on application. The findings show that such an application creates a playful experience and that shoppers would use such tool to narrow their consideration set or, in some cases, to even choose products to purchase. Furthermore, the survey study confirms that perceived augmentation significantly relates with playfulness, perceived convenience and behavioral intentions. Finally, a more complete scale for perceived augmentation is developed and validated in the 4th article. Items are refined through several qualitative studies, based on which we propose that perceived augmentation is comprised of two dimensions – virtual enhancement and virtual- physical congruency. An online study with 213 participants confirms this dimensionality and, furthermore, shows that virtual-physical congruency elicits significant impact on enjoyment and perceived informedness, which further impacts future use and purchase intention, while virtual enhancement does not yield a similar impact. The contribution of this thesis lies in defining perceived augmentation as the psychological correlate of AR’s unique media characteristic, augmentation, and in proposing and validating its measurement items. Furthermore, a series of three larger studies, all situated in different contexts (in a lab, in a retail store, online), explain how perceived augmentation yields a significant impact on consumer affective responses and behavioral intentions, and in some cases also on cognitive responses such as perceived convenience and informedness. It also highlights the importance of AR app integration in a specific context, which can prevent it from being perceived as gimmicky. The results of this work have implications for both practitioners and academics and offer numerous directions for future research

Interactions between knowledge representations: affordances, numbers, and words

Understanding the world involves complex cognitive processes occurring and interacting within the mind. Traditionally, this has been thought of as analogous to computational processes, with strict rules that encapsulate obligatory and domain specific modules. Current theories of cognition suggest a radically different approach in that sensorimotor simulation forms a necessary basis of abstract and concrete knowledge. These theories suggest that the ability to represent knowledge relies not only on brain-based processing, but also on the embodied experiences of the cognizer in the environment. However, there remains little agreement as to the nature of such embodied representations, particularly at the level of what constrains their properties and their ability to interact with one another. This thesis focuses on how cross-representational interplay is made possible. Through an empirical dataset, a case for a conceptual interface is made, suggesting co-activated distinct representations may interact by means of a third-party mediating mechanism (e.g. a joint attentional bias). This is demonstrated across a range of experiments using concepts representing several conceptual knowledge domains from more abstract to more concrete, including concepts denoting numerical magnitude, spatial semantics, emotional valency, and manual affordances

Choosing referring expressions

This thesis focuses on the issue of how language users refer to an entity during discourse production, by investigating representations and processes that underlie the choice between pronouns and repeated noun phrases. Past research has shown that the use of pronouns (relative to more explicit expressions) is affected by the referent’s salience in the prior linguistic context, but much less is known about how non-linguistic context affects the referent’s salience and the choice of expression. Recent research has suggested that the referent’s non-linguistic salience has no effect on the choice of pronouns and names (Arnold ;Griffin, 2007). One of the major findings of the research reported in this thesis is that the referent's salience in the visual context plays an important role in the form of reference: Pronouns were less frequent (relative to repeated noun phrases) when the competitor was present than absent in the visual context. My second major finding is that similarity-based interference affects the choice of referring expressions. Pronouns are less frequent when discourse entities are similar in terms of their inherent conceptual properties as well as extrinsic properties, suggesting that the more similar the competitor to the referent, the stronger the interference, reducing pronoun usage. My third major finding is that contrary to many linguistic theories that assume that speakers choose referring expressions that are optimally helpful for their addressee (Ariel, 1990; Clark ;Marshall, 1981; Givón, 1983), speakers do not choose expressions by adopting the addressee's discourse model: Pronouns are more frequent when the referent is salient to the speaker, not to the addressee. I argue that the explicitness of referring expressions is affected by the degree of conceptual access that is needed to initiate production processes: The more conceptual access is needed, the more elaborate expressions tend to be produced.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Authentication Schemes\u27 Impact on Working Memory

Authentication is the process by which a computing system validates a user’s identity. Although this process is necessary for system security, users view authentication as a frequent disruption to their primary tasks. During this disruption, primary task information must be actively maintained in working memory. As a result, primary task information stored in working memory is at risk of being lost or corrupted while users authenticate. For over two decades, researchers have focused on developing more memorable passwords by replacing alphanumeric text with visual graphics (Biddle et al., 2012). However, very little attention has been given to the impact authentication has on working memory. A recent exploratory study suggests that working memory can be disrupted during graphical authentication (Still & Cain, 2019). In this study, we take the next step by controlling for task difficulty and contrasting performance with conventional password-based authentication. Baddeley’s model was employed to examine the impact of authentication on verbal, visuospatial, and central executive working memory (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). Our findings may help designers select authentication systems that minimize adverse effects on users’ critical primary task performance. For instance, we revealed that conventional passwords do not have a greater negative impact on verbal primary task information compared to graphical passcodes. We also replicated findings reported by Still and Cain (2019), where visuospatial was least impaired by authentication. These findings are not intuitive, highlighting the need for further investigation of how authentication impacts primary task information in working memory

The role of phonology in visual word recognition: evidence from Chinese

Posters - Letter/Word Processing V: abstract no. 5024The hypothesis of bidirectional coupling of orthography and phonology predicts that phonology plays a role in visual word recognition, as observed in the effects of feedforward and feedback spelling to sound consistency on lexical decision. However, because orthography and phonology are closely related in alphabetic languages (homophones in alphabetic languages are usually orthographically similar), it is difficult to exclude an influence of orthography on phonological effects in visual word recognition. Chinese languages contain many written homophones that are orthographically dissimilar, allowing a test of the claim that phonological effects can be independent of orthographic similarity. We report a study of visual word recognition in Chinese based on a mega-analysis of lexical decision performance with 500 characters. The results from multiple regression analyses, after controlling for orthographic frequency, stroke number, and radical frequency, showed main effects of feedforward and feedback consistency, as well as interactions between these variables and phonological frequency and number of homophones. Implications of these results for resonance models of visual word recognition are discussed.postprin