University of Lincoln

About: University of Lincoln is a education organization based out in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Higher education. The organization has 2341 authors who have published 7025 publications receiving 124797 citations.

Visual processing in migraine.

Abstract: Background Migraine is a common neurological condition that often involves differences in visual processing. These sensory processing differences provide important information about the underlying causes of the condition, and for the development of treatments. Review of psychophysical literature Psychophysical experiments have shown consistent impairments in contrast sensitivity, orientation acuity, and the perception of global form and motion. They have also established that the addition of task-irrelevant visual noise has a greater effect, and that surround suppression, masking and adaptation are all stronger in migraine. Theoretical signal processing model We propose utilising an established model of visual processing, based on signal processing theory, to account for the behavioural differences seen in migraine. This has the advantage of precision and clarity, and generating clear, falsifiable predictions. Conclusion Increased effects of noise and differences in excitation and inhibition can account for the differences in migraine visual perception. Consolidating existing research and creating a unified, defined theoretical account is needed to better understand the disorder.

The eyes have it: Using eye tracking to inform information processing strategies in multi-attributes choices

Abstract: Although choice experiments (CEs) are widely applied in economics to study choice behaviour, understanding of how individuals process attribute information remains limited. We show how eye-tracking methods can provide insight into how decisions are made. Participants completed a CE, while their eye movements were recorded. Results show that although the information presented guided participants' decisions, there were also several processing biases at work. Evidence was found of (a) top-to-bottom, (b) left-to-right, and (c) first-to-last order biases. Experimental factors-whether attributes are defined as "best" or "worst," choice task complexity, and attribute ordering-also influence information processing. How individuals visually process attribute information was shown to be related to their choices. Implications for the design and analysis of CEs and future research are discussed.

How Self-Esteem Shapes our Interactions with Play Technologies

Abstract: The experience that results from video game play is shaped by the play environment, but also by various characteristics of the person playing. We investigated how player self-esteem predicts post-game motivation (enjoyment, effort, and tension), and conducted mediated regressions to show that players' self-esteem alters post-play motivation by affecting how needs are satisfied during play. We also explored how self-esteem predicts post-play positive and negative affect and conducted mediated regressions to show how motivation partially mediates those effects. Our work suggests that players with different levels of self-esteem experience games differently; but more importantly, we provide an explanation of how these differences form by examining the mechanisms during games that ultimately contribute to player experience. Situating our results within theories of self, we discuss the importance of self-esteem for understanding player experience, describe the implications for games research, and consider how self-esteem shapes our interactions with play technologies.

Quantifying camouflage and conspicuousness using visual salience

Abstract: 1. Being able to quantify the conspicuousness of animal and plant colouration is key to understanding its evolutionary and adaptive significance. Camouflaged animals, for example, are under strong selection pressure to minimise their conspicuousness to potential predators. However, successful camouflage is not an intrinsic characteristic of an animal, but rather an interaction between that animal’s phenotype and the visual environment that it is viewed against. Moreover, the efficacy of any given camouflage strategy is determined not by the signaller’s phenotype per se, but by the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of potential predators. Any attempts to quantify camouflage must therefore take both predator perception and the visual background into account. 2. Here I describe the use of species-relevant saliency maps, which combine the different visual features that contribute to selective attention (in this case the luminance, colour and orientation contrasts of features in the visual environment) into a single holistic measure of target conspicuousness. These can be tuned to the specific perceptual capabilities of the receiver, and used to derive a quantitative measure of target conspicuousness. Furthermore, I provide experimental evidence that these computed measures of conspicuousness significantly predict the performance of both captive and wild birds when searching for camouflaged artificial prey. 3. By allowing the quantification of prey conspicuousness, saliency maps provide a useful tool for understanding the evolution of animal signals. However, this is not limited to inconspicuous visual signals, and the same approach could be readily used for quantifying conspicuous visual signals in a wide variety of contexts, including, for example, signals involved in mate choice and warning colouration.