Complexity, Incongruity, Pre-Exposure and the Familiarity Effect in Visual Selection

Abstract

A consistent finding in the literature concerning visual selection is that subjects spend more time viewing unfamiliar stimuli than familiar stimuli. In the present investigation a procedure to measure competitive viewing times to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli was used. Results of the analyses of viewing times showed that the magnitude of the familiarity effect was a positive function of the duration of stimulus pre-exposure. In addition no differences were found in subjects' "preference" for familial and unfamiliar stimuli as measured by "like-disliked" ratings.

Studies of Voluntary Visual Attention— Theory, Methods, and Psychometric Issues

“…The primary advantage of studying visual fixations is that the procedure is rather simple and requires little understanding or physical effort from the subject. Lemond (1973) reported an inter-judge agreement of 97% on the scoring of video-taped records of the visual fixations of adults. Another advantage is that it is very easy to disguise the purpose of the investigation in such a manner that the subject is unaware that the amount of time spent looking at different stimuli is important.…”

“…By now there are numerous theoretical positions regarding the major determinants of voluntary visual attention, among which are Berlyne (1960,1966), Dember and Earl (1957), Fiske and Maddi (1961), Fowler (1965), and Nunnally and Lemond (1973). The senior author and his colleagues began their investigations about ten years ago based on a loosely conceived cognitive point of view, which emphasized the encoding of the visual stimulus as being primarily important in determining amount of VVA.…”

“…It is our hypothesis that information conflict is a powerful determinant of VVA and usually will dominate any other variable that is present. Dis-cussions of this point of view are given in Nunnally (1972) and Nunnally and Lemond (1973).…”

“…So the theory goes, tedium becomes conditioned to the stimulus and obeys laws of classical conditioning as regards repeated exposures, intertrial intervals, and extinction over a period of non-reinstatements of tedium. Although earlier studies attempted to explain away any effects of tedium on VVA (e.g., Nunnally, 1970, 1971), in subsequent investigations (e.g., Lemond, 1973) it gradually became apparent that the concept of tedium might be important, particularly in studies of prior familiarization of stimuli. Signal characteristicsmotivational.…”

“…The stimuli are separated by enough distance to re-'quire the subject to make gross eye movements in order to view any particular stimulus. Visual fixations are either judged by a hidden rater (e.g., Berlyne, 1958), photographed (e.g., Faw and Nunnally, 1967), or video-taped (e.g., Lemond, 1973).…”