Digital Image Compression Using Artificial Neural Networks

The problem of storing, transmitting, and manipulating digital images is considered. Because of the file sizes involved, large amounts of digitized image information are becoming common in modern projects. Our goal is to described an image compression transform coder based on artificial neural networks techniques (NNCTC). A comparison of the compression results obtained from digital astronomical images by the NNCTC and the method used in the compression of the digitized sky survey from the Space Telescope Science Institute based on the H-transform is performed in order to assess the reliability of the NNCTC

KDEF-PT: valence, emotional intensity, familiarity and attractiveness ratings of angry, neutral, and happy faces

The Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) is one of the most widely used human facial expressions database. Almost a decade after the original validation study (Goeleven et al., 2008), we present subjective rating norms for a sub-set of 210 pictures which depict 70 models (half female) each displaying an angry, happy and neutral facial expressions. Our main goals were to provide an additional and updated validation to this database, using a sample from a different nationality (N = 155 Portuguese students, M = 23.73 years old, SD = 7.24) and to extend the number of subjective dimensions used to evaluate each image. Specifically, participants reported emotional labeling (forced-choice task) and evaluated the emotional intensity and valence of the expression, as well as the attractiveness and familiarity of the model (7-points rating scales). Overall, results show that happy faces obtained the highest ratings across evaluative dimensions and emotion labeling accuracy. Female (vs. male) models were perceived as more attractive, familiar and positive. The sex of the model also moderated the accuracy of emotional labeling and ratings of different facial expressions. Each picture of the set was categorized as low, moderate, or high for each dimension. Normative data for each stimulus (hits proportion, means, standard deviations, and confidence intervals per evaluative dimension) is available as supplementary material (available at https://osf.io/fvc4m/).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Is complex visual information implicated during language comprehension? The case of cast shadows

Previous research showed that sensorimotor information affects the perception of properties associated with implied perceptual context during language comprehension. Three experiments addressed a novel question of whether perceptual context may contribute to a simulation of information about such out-of-sight objects as cast shadows. In Experiment 1, participants read a sentence that implied a particular shadow cast on a target (blinds vs. an open window) and then verified the picture of the object onto which a shadow was cast. Responses were faster when the shadow of blinds cast on the object matched that implied by the sentence. However, the data did not show the same matching effect for pictures with cast shadows from an open window. In Experiments 2 and 3, we found that verification times for pictures with no cast shadows were faster when preceded by an “open window” sentence, thus suggesting that reading the sentence does not elicit a visual simulation of any specific shadow. Experiment 3 showed that the objects superimposed with a cast shadow of the blinds and blinds themselves were verified faster after reading a “blinds” sentence. However, the results of an order analysis showed the temporal stability of the “blinds shadows” effect, but the disappearance of the “blinds” effect in the second half of the data. We conclude that the results are compatible, to a lesser or greater extent, with multiple accounts, and discuss our findings in the context of a mental imagery view, a mental simulation view, and an amodal representation view.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Simulating background settings during spoken and written sentence comprehension

Previous findings from the sentence-picture verification task demonstrated that comprehenders simulate visual information about intrinsic attributes of described objects. Of interest is whether comprehenders may also simulate the setting in which an event takes place, such as, for example, the light information. To address this question, four experiments were conducted in which participants (total N = 412) either listened to (Experiment 1) or read (Experiment 3) sentences like “The sun is shining onto a bench” followed by a picture with the matching object (bench) and either the matching lighting condition of the scene (sunlit bench against the sunlit background) or the mismatching one (moonlit bench against the moonlit background). In both experiments, response times (RTs) were shorter when the lighting condition of the pictured scene matched the one implied in the sentence. However, no difference in RTs was observed when the processing of spoken sentences was interfered with visual noise (Experiment 2). Specifically, the results showed that visual interference disrupted incongruent visual content activated by listening to the sentences, as evidenced by faster responses on mismatching trials. Similarly, no difference in RTs was observed when the lighting condition of the pictured scene matched sentence context, but the target object presented for verification mismatched sentence context (Experiment 4). Thus, the locus of simulation effect is on the lighting representation of the target object rather than the lighting representation of the background. These findings support embodied and situated accounts of cognition, suggesting that comprehenders do not simulate objects independently of background settings.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Language comprehenders are sensitive to multiple states of semantically similar objects

The present research shows that language comprehenders are sensitive to multiple states of target and semantically related objects. In Experiments 1 to 2B, participants (total N = 273) read sentences that either implied a minimal change of an object’s state (e.g., “Jane chose a mango”) or a substantial change (e.g., “Jane stepped on a mango”) and then verified whether a subsequently pictured object was mentioned in the sentence. Crucially, the picture either showed the original/modified state of an object that was mentioned in the sentence (e.g., “mango” in Experiment 1) or not (e.g., “banana” in Experiments 2A and 2B). The results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that the objects in a modified state were verified faster when a sentence implied a substantial state-change rather than a minimal state-change. In contrast, the reverse was true for the objects in the original state. Importantly, verification latencies of pictures depicting original and modified states of an object in the substantial state-change condition were approximately similar, thus suggesting that language comprehenders maintain multiple representations of an object in different states. The results of Experiments 2A and 2B revealed that when participants had to indicate that a pictured object (e.g., banana) was not mentioned in the sentence, their verification latencies were slowed down when the sentence contained a semantically related item (e.g., mango) and described this item as being changed substantially by the action. However, these verification latencies varied continuously with the degree of change: the more dissimilar the states of a semantically related item, the less time participants needed to verify a pictured object. The results are discussed through the prism of theories emphasizing dynamic views of event cognition.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Misinformation in social interaction: Examining the role of discussion

Memory is a reconstructive process that is prone to intrusions and distortions. These processes can be amplified by the emergence and propagation of false information in the social environment. While the acceptance of misinformation is well documented in individual memory tasks, the production of false memories in social interaction contexts presents mixed findings. One factor that may contribute to these inconsistencies is the collaboration method used, which may vary in the opportunities they offer for more (free-for-all) or less (turn-taking) discussion. The current study contrasts these two collaboration methods in misinformation acceptance. Participants watched a video, followed by an individual recall task. Then, they completed a questionnaire containing true and misinformation about the video, individually or in pairs (using free-for-all or turn-taking methods). Finally, participants were given a new individual recall task. Results revealed that participants responding to the questionnaire using the free-for-all method were more accurate and accepted less misinformation (vs. turn-taking and individual conditions). Critically, in the second individual recall, these participants also recalled less misinformation from the questionnaire than those in the turn-taking condition. These results suggest that discussion opportunities during social interaction enhance correction and error-pruning and reduce misinformation acceptance.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The “ins” and “outs” of product and services marketing: The influence of consonant wanderings in consumer decision-making

The established preference for words featuring consonants ordered inward in the oral cavity—the in–out effect, may assist marketeers when naming new products and services. To investigate the conditions under which this effect may affect consumer preference we conducted four experiments (N = 818) examining the influence of consonant wanderings in the evaluation of different professionals and food products. While inward articulation direction selectively biased warmth judgments about workers who are perceived as relatively neutral on both warmth and competence, for professionals traditionally associated with either a warmth or a competence dimension inward-wandering usernames systematically presented a competitive advantage. In the same way, hypothetical food products with inward-wandering names were judged as more hedonic and more utilitarian. The present evidence supports the potential of the in–out effect to market products and services and highlights the relevance of exploiting this and other oral kinematics phenomena as an asset for managerial practice.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

When vowels make us smile: The influence of articulatory feedback in judgments of warmth and competence

In six studies (N=725), we extended the articulatory feedback hypothesis to person perception, examining how words featuring /i:/ sounds that activate the zygomaticus major muscle and words featuring /u:/ sounds activating the orbicularis oris muscle affect preference, warmth, and competence judgments of mock-usernames. Users with usernames including /i:/, in contrast to /u:/ sounds, were always preferred and judged as warmer and more competent. The impact of this manipulation in shaping preference as well as judgments on the core dimensions of social perception confirms the stability of the vowel-emotion link and the role of articulatory feedback in social information processing.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio