The Contribution of Attention to the Mere Exposure Effect for Parts of Advertising Images.

Repeatedly presented stimuli are affectively evaluated more positively than novel stimuli. This phenomenon, known as the mere exposure effect, is used in advertising. However, it is still unclear in which part of advertising images the mere exposure effect occurs. Given the recent suggestion that attention plays an important role in the mere exposure effect, it is possible that the mere exposure effect does not occur for commercial products when advertising images consist of a commercial product along with an attractive human model. To investigate this possibility, we manipulated the relationship between advertising images repeatedly presented in an exposure phase and images presented in a later rating phase. In the exposure phase, participants were repeatedly presented with advertising images consisting of a cosmetic product along with an attractive female model and were instructed to attend to a specified part of the image (Experiment 4) or were given no such an instruction (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). In the rating phase, participants were asked to evaluate their preference for complete advertising images (Experiment 1), the images of female models (Experiment 2), or images of products (Experiments 3 and 4) that were previously presented or not presented. The mere exposure effect was found for whole advertising images and images of female models. On the other hand, the mere exposure effect for the images of products was seen only when participants were explicitly encouraged to direct their attention to the product parts of the advertising image. That is, the results of this study suggest that the mere exposure effect does not always occur for every part of the repeated advertising images, and that attention would modulate the mere exposure effect for advertising images.

The mere exposure effect for visual image.

Mere exposure effect refers to a phenomenon in which repeated stimuli are evaluated more positively than novel stimuli. We investigated whether this effect occurs for internally generated visual representations (i.e., visual images). In an exposure phase, a 5 × 5 dot array was presented, and a pair of dots corresponding to the neighboring vertices of an invisible polygon was sequentially flashed (in red), creating an invisible polygon. In Experiments 1, 2, and 4, participants visualized and memorized the shapes of invisible polygons based on different sequences of flashed dots, whereas in Experiment 3, participants only memorized positions of these dots. In a subsequent rating phase, participants visualized the shape of the invisible polygon from allocations of numerical characters on its vertices, and then rated their preference for invisible polygons (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). In contrast, in Experiment 4, participants rated the preference for visible polygons. Results showed that the mere exposure effect appeared only when participants visualized the shape of invisible polygons in both the exposure and rating phases (Experiments 1 and 2), suggesting that the mere exposure effect occurred for internalized visual images. This implies that the sensory inputs from repeated stimuli play a minor role in the mere exposure effect. Absence of the mere exposure effect in Experiment 4 suggests that the consistency of processing between exposure and rating phases plays an important role in the mere exposure effect.

Distractor devaluation effect in the attentional blink: direct evidence for distractor inhibition.

When two targets (T1 and T2) are embedded in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), T2 is often missed (attentional blink, AB) if T2 follows T1 by less than 500 ms. Some have proposed that inhibition of a distractor following T1 contributes to the AB, but no direct evidence supports this proposal. This study examined distractor inhibition by assessing a distractor devaluation effect where inhibited items were evaluated less positively than controls. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that a distractor presented just after T1 was evaluated less favorably when T2 was misidentified, independently of stimulus characteristics. Experiment 3 produced distractor devaluation in T2 incorrect trials when the evaluated distractor was the second item after T1. In contrast, a distractor presented before T1 was not devaluated (Experiment 4). Experiment 5 demonstrated that participants could not recognize presented distractors after an RSVP task, rejecting the possibility that memorized distractors were devalued. Results show a relationship between the devaluation of distractors following T1 and the AB, providing the first direct evidence of the distractor inhibition during the AB.

[The properties reading scrolling text].

Scrolling text presentation refers to a medium where multiple sentences can be presented in a limited space by drifting text from either right to left or bottom to top. In this study we explored the properties of reading scrolling text. First, looking at the actual scrolling devices in daily life, we surveyed the relationship between the scrolling speed and the maximum number of characters displayed on the devices (number of characters). Then, we experimentally investigated the scrolling speed that participants preferred (preferable speed) as a function of the number of characters (Experiment 1). Error detection performance (Experiments 2 and 3) and participants' impressions (Experiment 4) about the scrolling text presented under various conditions (i.e., speed and number of characters) were also investigated related to the preferable speed. The ideal scrolling speed in daily life and the properties of the preferable speed in terms of information processing in reading are discussed.

Near-full-length REV3L appears to be a scarce maternal factor in Xenopus laevis eggs that changes qualitatively in early embryonic development.

REV3 is the catalytic subunit of DNA polymerase zeta (pol zeta), which is responsible for the damage-induced mutagenesis that arises during error-prone translesion synthesis in eukaryotes. The related REV3L genes in human and mouse encode proteins of approximately 350kDa, twice as large as yeast REV3, but full-length REV3L has not been identified in any vertebrate cell. We report that Xenopus laevisREV3L encodes a 352-kDa protein that has high overall amino acid sequence similarity to its mammalian counterparts, and, for the first time in a vertebrate species, we have detected putative REV3L polypeptides of 300 and 340kDa in X. laevis oocytes. Only the 300-kDa form is stored in eggs, where its concentration of about 65pM is much lower than those of other replication and repair proteins including the accessory pol zeta subunit REV7. In fertilized eggs, the levels of this polypeptide did not change until neurula; the larger 340-kDa form first appeared at stages after gastrula, suggesting a pattern of regulation during development. These observations indicate the existence of REV3L as a scarce protein, of approximately the full predicted size, whose level may impose severe constraints on the assembly of pol zeta in X. laevis.

Attentional modulation of the mere exposure effect.

The mere exposure effect refers to the phenomenon where previous exposures to stimuli increase participants' subsequent affective preference for those stimuli. This study explored the effect of selective attention on the mere exposure effect. The experiments manipulated the to-be-attended drawings in the exposure period (either red or green polygons in Experiments 1 and 2; both red and green polygons in Experiments 3 and 4) and black to-be-evaluated drawings in the affective judgment period (morphologically identical to the red or green polygons in Experiments 1 and 4; morphologically identical to the composite drawings in Experiments 2 and 3). The results showed a significant mere exposure effect only for the target shapes involved in attentional selection, even when the participants could recognize the nontarget shapes. This indicates that selective attention modulated the mere exposure effect.

A memory-based interference effect in midstream order deficit.

People do not accurately recognize the relative order of a letter sequence displayed in a rapid serial visual presentation when the letter sequence is presented repeatedly and the exposure of the letters is very brief in the first half of the presentation. This phenomenon is known as midstream order deficit (MOD), and is considered to reflect the limitation of temporal resolution in segmentation processes. However, the results from three experiments revealed that MOD occurred even when the stimuli induced exogenous segmentation. Furthermore, a MOD-like effect could be observed when an irrelevant letter sequence was presented before the target letter sequence. We propose a new explanation for MOD, based on interference between the representations of order in memory and current perception.

[Effect of sense of direction on navigational behavior].

A sense of direction is said to depend on at least two factors, awareness of orientation and memory for spatial behavior. This study investigated whether these two factors could predict navigational performance in the actual world. Takeuchi's Sense of Direction Questionnaire (SDQ) was administered to 233 students, and two factors were identified: awareness of orientation (Factor I) and memory for spatial behavior (Factor II). From these students, thirty participants chosen based on their Factor I scale-score (high-and low-group) to participate in a navigation experiment. The experimenter led them to one place and asked them to come back to the start point on their own. To manipulate the participants' ability related to Factor II, half of the participants were instructed to count backwards as a distractor-task during the approach route. The high-group came back to the start point faster than the low-group. Moreover, the participants without the distractor-task more often explored shortcuts on the return route, whereas those with the distractor-tasks more often chose the same route as the approach route. These results indicate that the SDQ could predict navigational performance in the actual world.

[Effects of surrounding stimuli on reading scrolling text].

We examined the effect of surrounding information on reading text that was scrolling from right to left inside a fixed window. In Experiment 1, participants adjusted the scrolling rate so that they could comfortably read the text scrolling in the window. Above or below the window, a character was flashed with a random stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). The results showed that the comfortable scrolling rate increased with the size of the window (i.e, the number of characters simultaneously displayed in the window). Moreover, the comfortable scrolling rate decreased when discrimination of the flashed character was required. In Experiment 2 a character was flashed above or below the right or left end of the window. The results showed that the increase of the comfortable scrolling rate with window size was less effective when the character was flashed above or below the right end of the window. These results are discussed in relation to the role of eye movements when reading scrolling text in the presence of surrounding information.

DNA polymerases eta and kappa are responsible for error-free translesion DNA synthesis activity over a cis-syn thymine dimer in Xenopus laevis oocyte extracts.

In translesion synthesis (TLS), specialized DNA polymerases (pols) facilitate progression of replication forks stalled by DNA damage. Although multiple TLS pols have been identified in eukaryotes, little is known about endogenous TLS pols and their relative contributions to TLS in vivo because of their low cellular abundance. Taking advantage of Xenopus laevis oocyte cells, with their extraordinary size and abundant enzymes involved in DNA metabolism, we have identified and characterized endogenous TLS pols for DNA damage induced by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. We designed a TLS assay which monitors primer elongation on a synthetic oligomer template over a single UV-induced lesion, either a cys-syn cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD) or a pyrimidine (6-4) pyrimidone photoproduct. Four distinct TLS activities (TLS1-TLS4) were identified in X. laevis oocyte extracts, using three template/primer (T/P) DNA substrates having various sites at which primer extension is initiated relative to the lesion. TLS1 and TLS2 activities appear to be sequence-dependent. TLS3 and TLS4 extended the primers over the CPD in an error-free manner irrespective of sequence context. Base insertion opposite the CPD of the T/P substrate in which the 3'-end of the primer is placed one base upstream of the lesion was observed only with TLS3. TLS3 and TLS4 showed primer extension with similar efficiencies on the T/P substrate whose 3'-primer terminal dinucleotide (AA) was complementary to the CPD lesion. Investigations with antibodies and recombinant pols revealed that TLS3 and TLS4 were most likely attributable to pol eta and pol kappa, respectively. These results indicate that error-free insertion in CPD bypass is due mainly to pol eta (TLS3) in the extracts, and suggest that pol kappa (TLS4) may assist pol eta (TLS3) in error-free extension during CPD bypass.

[The examination of attentional load theory by Stroop-like task].

Attentional-load theory (Lavie, 1995) states that task load determines whether task-irrelevant stimuli are processed semantically. In three experiments students were asked to perform a Stroop-like task. They named a centrally fixated target color, while ignoring the task-irrelevant stimulus, which was an incompatible, compatible or non-color word. When perceptual load (the number of target-like stimuli adjacent to the target) was increased, the Stroop-like effect was diminished, providing the evidence for early selection. However, when cognitive load (task demands for identical stimuli) was increased, the evidence for late selection was found. These results were inconsistent with the previous hypothesis that both kinds of task load similarly affect the attentional mechanism.