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Babae Po Ako

Transgender “is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth” (American Psychological Association, n.d.). Being transgender is different from being gay or lesbian, such that being the latter just means being attracted and/or forming relationships with a person from the same sex (Manalastas, 2016).

The concept of transgender is actually not novel to the Filipino context. Reviewing the history of the Philippines would show us that transvestism, or cross-dressing, and crossing genders, was already evident in the 16th and 17th century because of the existence of religious priestesses called babaylan. However, these babaylans and their male counterparts disappeared altogether with the colonialism of the Spaniards (UNDP, USAID, 2014). The Spaniards asserted that these babaylans were possessed by the devil (Brewer, 1999).

As of present time, according to Robert Diaz (2016), most modern Filipinos have no concept of transgender because we still equate being a transgender woman, in particular, to being gay or homosexual. For most Filipinos, it is either you are gay or a lesbian, or you are a man or a woman. Moreover, the fact that there is no widely used term here in the Philippines that would correspond to transgenderism or transgendered (Winter, et al, 2007) supports this notion. Nonetheless, being labeled as bakla by the society “marks them out as male (though not ‘real men’) rather than the women as which they might want to be viewed” (Winter, et al, 2007). Consequently, these facts then make it hard for these transgender women to transition from being a male to a female; because it will always be either they are an actual woman, to whom they identify with, or just a bakla who is dressing up as a woman. This transitioning from their gender assigned at birth to the gender they actually identify with is termed as ‘passing’. The American Psychological Association (2015) defined ‘passing’ as, “the ability to blend with heterosexual people without being recognized as transgender based on appearance or gender role and expression.”

Several researches in the past have shown that heterosexual males have more negative attitudes towards transgender women than heterosexual women (Norton & Herek, 2013; Macapagal, 2014; Gerhardstein & Anderson, 2010). Norton & Herek (2013) explains this trend as rooted from sexual prejudice. Furthermore, according to Stone (2009), “gay men are more likely to be either opposed to transgender inclusion or to express support of transgender inclusion rooted in gay liberation politics”. He further explains that the crucial factor as to where a gay man’s attitude would lie between the two is his ability to establish “empathic connections between gender and sexual orientation issues” amongst their transgender peers.

Apart from the varying attitudes the general population has towards transgender women, they also experience economic discrimination, being fired from jobs, verbal harassment, and physical abuse (Lombardi, 2009). In the Philippine context, modern Filipino transgender women face an uphill battle every single day of their life trying to gain society’s acceptance, and not just mere tolerance.

Provided with all these information, the researchers had four main goals in this study: (1) to see how people’s perception of a transwoman’s femininity serves as a factor in people’s attitudes towards her, (2) to determine one’s perception of a transgender woman, (3) to see how transgender women are being treated by society, and lastly, (4) to learn and provide more information about the struggles faced by transgender women during their transition from being male to female.

In order to know these, the study used a mixed methods design, in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. For the the quantitative part, the researchers conducted an online survey to 174 participants – 58 heterosexual females, 61 heterosexual males, and 55 gay males - assigned to 5 treatment conditions ranging from very masculine to very feminine. Their ages ranged from 18 to 53 years old.

The survey, which is a Google Docs form, consisted of 2 parts. The first one, shown below, contains 5 faces – one per treatment condition – very masculine, masculine, neutral, feminine and very feminine. The faces were constructed using a software called Fantamorph. With their consent, the faces of a Canadian-Cambodian actress named Marline Yan, and a Filipino actor named Johan Santos were morphed together in order to create the faces for each treatment condition. The faces were then edited to have the same hair, skin tone, and to remove the mascara from the eyelashes.

The participants were asked to rate the the femininity of the faces using a 7-point Likert scale. Aside from the overall face, they were also asked to rate the femininity of 5 more features: eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips and jawline.

After answering this part, they were directed to the second part of the survey which contains Hill & Willoughby’s (2005) Genderism and Transphobia Scale, which the researchers adapted and translated to Filipino.

The ratings for the individual facial features (i.e. eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips, and jawline) for different face conditions were correlated with their corresponding ratings for the overall facial features. A univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by post hoc tests, were conducted to analyze whether there is an interaction between the two conditions used in the experiment (Gender and Face Conditions).

As for the qualitative part, the researchers interviewed three transgender women. The youngest is Mrs. Tan, who is 1 year into the pre-operative stage. Next is Consuelo, who is under Hormone Replacement Therapy. She plans to undergo Sex Reassignment Surgery when she reached age 30. The last is Ms. Phing, who is a fully transitioned transgender woman. She has already underwent Gender Affirmation Surgery.

Data from the interview were coded with the help of a software called Qualyzer, and themes were generated using the KJ Analysis method.

The results of the study showed promising results. Let’s get to the results of the survey first. The first part of the survey, where the faces were rated, showed that the lips and the eyes were considered by the respondents to be the facial features which determine the gender of faces the most, affirming the results of previous researches. And although the nose was seen by previous researches to be a big predictor of gender in faces (Hage, Vossen, & Becking, 1997; Dempf & Eckert, 2010), the results of the study showed otherwise because the randomly selected models’ noses used in the study did not differ greatly from each other.

The next part of the survey, which focused on the attitudes of the respondents towards transwomen, was analyzed in two ways: by the gender of the respondents, and by the masculinity or femininity of the faces presented to our respondents. Of these two, only the respondents’ gender was seen to affect their attitudes towards transwomen. Of the three groups (heterosexual males, heterosexual females, and gay males), heterosexual males posted the lowest positive attitudes while gay males posted the highest ones. This result concurs with previous findings that heterosexual males have more negative attitudes towards transwomen than heterosexual females, and this disposition is rooted from having sexual prejudice (Norton & Herek, 2013; Macapagal, 2014; Gerhardstein & Anderson, 2010). Gay males, on the other hand, have more positive attitudes towards their transgender peers as they are able to connect with them empathically, especially in the Filipino society where the kapwa concept is salient.

Meanwhile, the masculinity or femininity of the faces that we have presented to the participants didn’t seem to affect their attitudes towards transwomen. The three groups (masculine, neutral, and feminine faces) showed increasing scores respectively, but they were too close to each other to conclude that they were able to indeed change the impression of the respondents towards transwomen. Although previous research has shown that transsexuals were perceived as more attractive if their appearance is congruent with the desired gender of the participant (Gerhardstein & Anderson, 2010), the variances of the facial features in the faces (with regards to their masculinity or femininity) that we have presented may not be enough to replicate this result. Furthermore, the results of our study for this part has been contradicted by our qualitative data, which we will explain why in a bit.

Lastly, the interaction between the respondents’ gender and the masculinity or femininity of the faces presented to them was analyzed. It turns out that there was almost an interaction between the two conditions! Almost — because it was seen that there was a lack of salient connection between the two parts of the survey (i.e. the face rating part and the attitudes scale part). The “transwoman” referred to in the attitudes scale part was not explicitly referred to as the transwoman whose facial features we have previously presented in the face rating part. So instead of basing their attitudes towards the transwoman’s face that has been presented to them, the respondents answered the attitudes scale with their attitudes towards transwomen in general. Because of this, the effect of the transwoman’s masculinity or femininity in the study was not that big; instead, it was the participants’ gender which greatly affected the results. However, should this study be replicated, explicitly identifying and showing the face of the transwoman subject while they are answering the attitudes scale part may bring about more significant results.

Analysis of interviews generated three major themes: (1) transition; (2) affirmation; and (3) opposition.

TRANSITION

The gender development and desire of transgender women to transition are influenced by their family, peers, community and even by media. The participants share a common experience of growing up with mostly female relatives. Their peers also play an important role in their transitioning. As they found peers who they can identify with and they can look up to, their desire to express the inner woman in them was further reinforced. The transitioning process occurred as a gradual and continuous one and along the way, they have faced various hardships. In order to cope to and deal with these struggles, they used several mechanisms such as ignoring other people’s comments, avoiding and choosing the debates they will engage in, and redeeming themselves through excelling in other aspects (e.g. academics, personality, etc). Despite all the struggles they are facing now, transgender women maintain a positive outlook for the future. They are hopeful that individuals like them would be able to experience a world where they can freely express themselves and still be accepted by society. It may take a long time and the journey may be slow but they believe that eventually, we will be a transgender-accepting society.

AFFIRMATION

Transgender women have the desire to match their feminine heart and soul with their outward appearance. They want people to acknowledge them and refer to them as women in the society. Thus, they have expressed the inner woman in them through curling their hair, wearing make-up and dressing like a woman. By doing this, they can show the people around them who they really are in the inside. Aside from expressing themselves, they also assert their identity by choosing not to be quiet about it. Fortunately, their family and friends are supportive and accepting of the manner by which they express themselves. However, the society, in general, remains tolerant but not accepting of their behavior and identity. Acceptance and affirmation from peers and family members are in the form of positive reactions that convey affective, behavioral, and cognitive support to the transitioning of the participants.

OPPOSITION

The process of transitioning is a challenging period for transwomen because it may be hampered by restrictions imposed by the society, institutions, and others. Gender stereotypes and gender expectations restrict and limit the gender expression of transwomen because there is a pressure to conform to the societal notions of what being a woman should be in order to become more easily accepted as women by the society. In addition, rigid belief systems that do not recognize the legitimacy of someone who is “neither a man nor a woman” (Lorber, 1996; as cited in Gagne & Tewksbury, 1998) hinder the society from total acceptance of gender-deviant individuals. Because of this, they may also feel the pressure to label themselves as one gender or the other in order to be recognized as an active member of the society.

In general, the results of the survey mirrored what the participants said in the interviews. Most of the participants are young people and they appear to be more accepting - they strongly disagreed that being a transwoman is a sin or is immoral. In the case of the transwomen who were interviewed, usually the elder members of their family like their parents are those who were unapproving. As for the transgender women in the workplace, the survey participants agreed that transwomen should be allowed to enter the teaching profession. They also strongly disagreed that it is uncomfortable to work with a transwoman. From the interviews, we can see that Consuelo is into the teaching profession already and she said that does not experience discrimination from her colleagues and students. The survey participants also strongly agreed that their views wouldn’t change if a close friend of theirs would reveal to them that she’s a transgender woman. This reflected the interview responses in which all three transwomen said that generally, nothing changed with the way their friends interacted with them before and after they went “out”. The respondents also feel okay with transwomen having romantic relationships, and this could be reflected by Ms. Phing having a fiance and her friends being generally supportive of them.

As for the restrictions imposed on transwomen in the society, the survey participants strongly agreed that there should be none, and that transgender women should be allowed to wear clothes that are for women. From the interviews, all three participants agreed that dressing as a woman and looking more feminine reduces the discrimination they receive from the society because it helps them blend in. However, once they look more like a woman, the struggles of being a woman become their struggles too [Consuelo]. Discrimination would come not really in the form of avoidance but in catcalling and mockery. Although the survey participants feel that restrictions should not be imposed on transwomen, society itself imposes these on them. For example, in the Philippines, they are not allowed to marry, and even going to the restroom and choosing whether to use the men’s or women’s could get them into trouble [Ms. Phing].

Two of the interviewees, Ms. Phing and Mrs. Tan, are hopeful that someday, the society will be accepting and not just tolerating. From the survey, we can see that the attitudes of the participants are affirmative of the idea of transgender women being accepted in the society. Asked whether it will be beneficial for the society if being a transwoman will be viewed as “normal”, the survey respondents strongly agreed. The results also showed that the participants strongly agreed that transgender women should be fully accepted in the society. As mentioned earlier, the election of a transgender woman in the congress is seen as a positive sign that the Filipino society is becoming more accepting. This fact, together with the survey results show that the Filipino society is veering towards transgender acceptance and thus, give more hope to transgender women like Mrs. Tan and Ms. Phing.

References: http://tinyurl.com/MEECAReferences

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“What do Love and Jealousy taste like?”

“Look at that beautiful couple. Aren’t they sweet?” “I saw my crush talking to that girl from chem lab. I’m just so bitter that I don’t want to talk about it.”

It seems that taste and emotions have strong ties to each other. Oftentimes, we hear people use expressions of taste to describe what they’re feeling. Likewise, when we feel strong emotions and want to celebrate something, we resort to eating. Couples usually give each other chocolates on Valentine’s Day. But, will the chocolate taste sweeter when you’re feeling blissfully in love?

In a study conducted in Singapore by Chan et al. (2013), they investigated to see whether the feelings (specifically, phenomenological experiences) of love and jealousy are "embodied” in the taste sensations of sweetness, sourness, and bitterness. They wanted to know if the feelings of love and jealousy can influence taste perception.

Metaphorical expressions like “love is sweet” are called bodily metaphors - “linguistic manifestations” of repeated experiential pairings between an “abstract-target domain” like love, and a “concrete sensorimotor-source domain” like sweet. It is known from a previous study that reexperiences of some psychological states can result to specific physical sensations if these sensations were encoded in “modal nodes” during past psychological experiences. As an example, the repeated associations between body warmth and the physical proximity that caregivers give to infants have resulted to an opposite metaphoric expression, “cold and lonely”.

Bodily metaphors for love and jealousy exist. “Love is sweet” and “jealousy is bitter/sour” are commonly used expressions among different cultures as seen in some literary works. In the English language, expressions such as “tasting sour grapes” and “bitter with jealousy” exist. The question is, do these expressions entail embodied effects?

It is possible that the association of sweetness to love may have come early on, from infancy. To infants, breastfeeding is a manifestation of the mother’s love, and we know that breastmilk tastes sweet. “When these experiences of feeding and maternal love become conflated over time, maternal love would acquire the perceptual node of sweetness” (Barsalou, 1999, as cited in Chan et al., 2013). And this might be the reason why sweetness is associated with love. Also, it has been known that maternal love and romantic love shares the same circuit - thus romantic love may also be able to activate sweetness sensations. On the other hand, “evidence of actual correspondence between jealousy and sourness/bitterness, to (the researchers’) knowledge, is nonexistent.” Therefore, they expected that love is embodied in sweetness, and would produce sweetness sensations; while they questioned whether jealousy is likewise embodied in sourness and bitterness.

In their three-part study, we will be discussing the results of Study 2A and 2B, in which they explored whether inducing feelings of love and jealousy would bias taste perceptions in a candy (2A) and chocolate (2B). To give a short background, in study 1, in which they tried to find out if people endorsed metaphors relating love to sweetness, and jealousy to bitterness/sourness, they were able to establish these relationships to be true (people do associate these feelings with these taste sensations). Also, the metaphoric association between love and sweetness was found to be just as strong as that between jealousy and bitterness/sourness.

For Studies 2A and 2B, they used the following: (1) sweet–sour Ribena pastilles) and (2) bitter–sweet Meiji Morinaga chocolates). The pretests showed that the Ribena pastilles were equally sweet and sour, and the Meiji Morinaga chocolates were equally sweet and bitter. To rule out valence effects between the two emotions (love and jealousy), they measured reported happiness, liking of the food presented, and how much participants were willing to pay for the food as indicators of valence. In this study, 95 students (59 women, 36 men) participated.

Feelings of love were induced by making the participants write about a time where they felt romantic love. In the participants assigned to the jealousy condition, they were asked to write about a time where they felt romantic jealousy. Those assigned to the neutral condition were asked to write about landmarks in Singapore. After this, they were made to taste either the pastille candy or the chocolate for one minute. The participants were asked to rate “how sweet, bitter, sour, spicy, and salty the candy/chocolate was from 1 (not [taste] at all) to 7 (very [taste])... Participants also rated how much they liked the candy/chocolate from 1 (I hate it)to 7 (I love it), and how much they would be willing to pay for a pack of it” (Chan et al., 2013).

Analyses showed that participants induced to feel love rated the pastilles sweeter than those induced to feel jealousy. However, participants induced to feel jealousy did not rate the pastilles differently from those in the neutral condition. The taste of sourness did not differ in the three conditions. With the feeling of love producing higher sweetness ratings, it could be attributed to love having “a more positive valence than jealousy and neutral states” (Chan et al., 2013). 

As for the ratings for the chocolate, there was a significant effect of emotion on the sweetness ratings. Participants in the love condition rated the chocolate sweeter than those in the jealousy and neutral conditions. However, the ratings of sweetness between the jealousy and neutral conditions did not differ as well. There was also no significant effect of emotions on sourness ratings. (Chan et al., 2013)

What could account for these love-sweetness findings? It might be because of the neural reward circuitry shared between love experiences and sweetness sensations. “The anterior cingulate cortex, a region involved in reward anticipation (Bush et al., 2002), is activated when an individual views pictures of his or her romantic partner (Bartels &Zeki, 2000) and when tasting sugar (De Araujo et al., 2003)” (Chan et al., 2013). Hence, it might be possible that when one feels in love, the “anterior cingulate cortex would activate representations associated with sweetness, thereby eliciting sweetness sensations even without actual sweetness input from an external source” (Chan et al., 2013). As for the null effects of jealousy on bitterness/sourness, the researchers say that there are many possible explanations - (1) their measures for sourness/bitterness were not sensitive enough, or (2) participants were generally bad at judging sourness or bitterness. However, “the null effect of jealousy on sourness or bitterness is consistent with the lack of theoretically viable embodied linkages between jealousy and these tastes.” (Chan et al., 2013)

To sum it up, emotions really can affect our perception of taste sensations. However, in this study, only the linkage between love and sweetness was successfully established. More research on the other emotions and taste sensations can be done to further explore this field. 

Reference:

Chan, K. Q., Tong, E. W., Tan, D. H., & Koh, A. Q. (2013). What do love and jealousy taste like?. Emotion, 13(6), 1142-1149. doi:10.1037/a0033758

Photos:

Romantic Couple Valentines Sweets Jealous Woman

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Ability to Taste and Smell of Individuals with Autism

Our ability to taste and smell, though sometimes taken for granted, plays a very important role in our lives. For instance, our ability to taste allows us to determine what food to accept in our body and what to reject (Goldstein, 2013). Both taste and smell are vital in our enjoyment of food. Sadly, there are literatures that tell us that one’s inability and difficulty to identify taste may be the cause of the “high rates of food refusal and selectivity” found in children with autism (Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007).  

Source: spectrumnews.org

Autism is a kind of neurodevelopmental disorder which is characterized by “persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts” and “restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).  As suggested by clinical evidence, those individuals with autism respond to tastes and odors in a manner different from others (Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007). For instance, in one study, it was found that this characteristic is the only thing that distinguishes an individual with autism from those with Fragile X syndrome and other developmental disabilities and also from a typically developing child (Rogers, Hepburn & Wehner, 2003; as cited in Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007). Furthermore, in another study conducted by Suzuki et. al. (2003), they found out that compared to those typically developed adults, those with Asperger syndrome, a high-functioning type of autism, were impaired when it comes to identifying common odors.

Indeed, several studies have been conducted and they have shown that children with autism respond differently in tastes and odor which, in turn, results to atypical eating behaviors. Yet, no empirical study has been conducted to determine the involved neurobiological mechanism that underlies this characteristic (Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007).

However, neurobiological studies provided evidence that there is a brainstem dysfunction in autism, which also includes the hypoplasia of the facial nerve (CN VII) nucleus (Rodier et. al, 1996; as cited in Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007) that is associated with one’s ability to detect taste. On the other hand, areas such as the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, which are cortical brain structures involved in taste identification and perception, were also found to have been implicated in people with autism. From this, Bennetto and Kuschner (2007) wanted to explore whether the dysfunction in the brainstem or the cortical structures is the one contributing for the taste dysfunction in people with autism. They hypothesized that participants with autism will be less accurate in terms of identifying taste and odor. Impaired performance in taste detection would suggest involvement of the brainstem while impaired taste identification, but intact detection, would imply the involvement of cortical structures (Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007).

In order to test these hypotheses, “21 children and adolescents with high functioning autism and 27 typically developing controls” were asked to perform taste and olfactory identifications task. The following solutions were asked to be identified: sucrose, quinine, citric acid and sodium chloride; each of which represents a taste namely sweet, bitter, sour and salty. “Sniffin’ Sticks” Odor Identification Screening Test, which is a commercially-available, standardized test for olfaction, was used to measure the participants’ ability to identify 12 common odors. Aside from that, electrogustometry was used in order to determine the threshold for taste detection (Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007).

Results showed that in terms of identifying a taste, those with autism are significantly less accurate in identifying citric acid (which is sour) and marginally worse in identifying quinine (which is bitter in taste). However, in identifying sucrose (sweet) and sodium chloride (salty), those with autism performed just like a typical developing adolescent and adult. Also, consistent with the researcher’s hypothesis and other researches, those with autism are also less accurate in identifying odors compared to the control. Electrogustometry reveals that when it comes to the ability to detect taste, there is no significant difference between those with autism and those without (Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007).

Overall, this study provided empirical evidence that adolescents and adults with autism are less accurate in identifying odors and tastes. However, their ability to detect taste remains intact. Based from previous literatures, this finding would imply that the problem in taste dysfunction for these individuals occur at cortical brain structures such as the orbitofrontal cortex which “contains the secondary taste cortex and olfactory cortex” (Bennetto, Kusschner & Hyman, 2007).  

Sources American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Bennetto, L., Kuschner, E. S., & Hyman, S. L. (2007). Olfaction and Taste Processing in Autism. Biol Psychiatry, 62(9), 1015-1021.

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation & Perception (9th Ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Suzuki, Y., Critchley, H. D., Rowe, A., Howlin, P., & Murphy, D. (2003). Impaired Olfactory Identification in Asperger's Syndrome. Journal of Neuropyschology, 105-107.

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We Eat (And Drink) With Our Eyes: The Effect of Color on Flavor Perception

Image from rachaeldorothymorgansteindesign.wordpress.com

Of course we do not literally eat or drink with our eyes because that would be impossible and crazy, but many studies have shown the effects of color, which is a visual experience, on flavor perception. It is important that we distinguish between two types of questions that the studies on the multimodal nature of eating have tried to answer. First, does the presence or absence and the intensity of color have an effect on the perception of the intensity of flavor or taste? And does color affect the identification of a particular food or drink’s flavor? To put it simply, we distinguish between color’s effect on the detection and recognition of flavors/tastes. In general, studies have not been able to confirm the role of color on the perception of a flavor’s intensity. Numerous researches, on the other hand, have demonstrated the facilitatory effect of color on the identification of certain flavors.

Image from www.gffoodservice.com.au

Color and Perceived Flavor Identity

In contrast with the inconclusive results with regard to the relationship of color and flavor detection, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that color influences judgments of flavor identity. (e.g., DuBose et al. 1980; Hall 1958; Institute of Food Technologists 1980; Kanig 1955; Levitan et al. 2008; Moir 1936; Sakai 2004; Shankar et al. 2009; Stillman 1993; Zampini et al. 2007, 2008; see also Dolnick 2008; as cited in Spence, Levitan, Shankar, and Zampini, 2010).

For example, in a study by Zellnar et al. in 1990, participants were able to identify odors (which subsequently influences flavor perception) more rapidly when colored appropriately than when colored otherwise. Earlier, DuBose et al. (1980) found that individuals are more likely to misidentify the flavor of a food item when it is colored inappropriately. What is interesting though is that their incorrect responses are influenced by the colors of the drinks themselves. For example, they reported that a cherry-flavored drink had a lemon/lime flavor when colored green. They, however, do not recognize the same flavor when the drink is colored red instead (Spence et al. 2010). Although the results have been fairly consistent with each other, an important limitation is that the participants were not aware of the deception ( i.e. they were not informed that the color of the drinks may or may not be informative of the flavor of the drink). Hence, there is a big possibility that they are responding according to what is expected of them as dictated by the salient visual cues (Spence et al., 2010). For example, a red-colored drink would normally be strawberry or cherry-flavored and so, when the flavor stimulus is ambiguous, an individual would use color to guide their perception of the flavor instead.

Because eating and drinking is not solely a gustatory experience isolated from our other sensory modalities, it is likely that other contextual cues such as whether food/drink is hot or cold, dense or light, etc. would also influence the way we create expectations of what the flavor of that certain food item would be. It is therefore expected that red, which is the color found to have a great influence on the expectations of a food item’s flavor, odor, and taste would have a large effect on flavor and taste perception as well (Spence et al. 2010). Indeed, there is truth to the saying that we eat and drink with our eyes – and apparently, our sense of touch, smell, and hearing as well. Continuing with this line of argument, we may deduce that certain cultural and societal factors that shape our expectations would affect our expectations of what a food item of a certain color’s flavor would be (Spence et al. 2010). For example, in the Philippines, strawberries are locally grown but cherries are not readily available in local markets. It is reasonable to expect then that Filipinos would more likely think that a red-colored food item is strawberry-flavored than cherry-flavored. The cognitive influence of expectancy illustrates the likelihood of a “top-down” processing in flavor perception. In particular, color-induced expectancy effects facilitate flavor identification by directing a participant’s attention to a striking feature of a particular flavor stimulus (e.g., Ashkenazi and Marks 2004; Marks 2002; Marks and Wheeler 1998; Marshall et al. 2006; Oram et al. 1995; as cited in Spence et al. 2010).

Image from www.lifestylefood.com.au

Therefore, these studies do not establish the clear crossmodal perceptual effect of color on flavor perception (Spence et al. 2010). It may be that the effect of color on flavor perception is purely a result of some kind of confirmation bias, i.e. the participants reported the flavor that would confirm their expectations of what a particular food item’s flavor should be based on its color. To eliminate the possibility that participants are operating on a response bias, Stillman (1993) and Zampini et al. (2007), separately conducted studies in which the participants were explicitly informed that there is no relationship between the color and the flavor of the drinks. Both studies confirmed the crossmodal effect of color on flavor perception which suggests that the results of the previous studies are not merely a result of some decisional bias (Spence et al. 2010). This makes it reasonable to conclude that color indeed has a perceptual effect on flavor identification. The challenge for the future now is to establish the physiological basis for such perceptual processes with regard to identifying flavors. This would solidify the crossmodal effects of color on the perceptual identification of flavors.

Image from www.atyourpalate.com

The implications of these studies could help food companies enhance the overall experience of their customers while consuming their products. More importantly, it could aid those who have partially lost their gustatory senses to regain at least some of this ability in order to give them a fuller experience of what they are eating or drinking. In addition, it allows us to appreciate how our sensory modalities could be distinct but not disjointed – that is, although they are separate in the sense that they have their own processing systems and physiological parts, the way we experience the world is integrated into one whole perceptual product that incorporates the information from all the different modalities. Therefore, the phrase “eating with our eyes” may not sound crazy and impossible after all.

Reference:

Spence, C., Levitan, C.A., Shankar, M.U., & Zampini, M. (2010). Does Food Color Influence Taste and Flavor Perception in Humans? Chem. Percept., 3, 68-84. DOI 10.1007/s12078-010-9067-z

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Smoking Kills (Your Nose and Tongue)

It is a known fact that smoking cigarettes increases your chances of dying at an earlier age due to the complications that it brings about. But do you know that in a way, smoking also kills your nose and tongue even if you’re still alive? Smoke from cigarettes is strong and pungent for some; it is recognizable due to its distinct smell. Because of this, it is not unusual for smokers to feel that their sense of smell has been reduced by a bit after smoking. However, this experience and claim has not been solidly backed up by previous researches for many years until very recently, as there have been contradicting accounts of whether there really is a link between smoking and olfaction (or smelling) and taste loss. These contradictions can be explained though by differing methods, as well as the nose can be more sensitive for some substances than others, making it hard to establish consistency with the odors and smells used for each study (Brämerson, Johansson, Ek, Nordin, & Bende, 2004).

Now you might be wondering why would people be concerned about losing their sense of smell (and taste) and its relation to smoking. You also lose them when you get infected with a cold, so what’s the big deal, right? Well, for one, some lose these senses permanently, and smoking may be a factor that catalyzes this. Losing your sense of smell permanently, which is also called anosmia, is no big joke. Your sense of smell allows you to have a warning system that would alert you to any possible hazards or threats that otherwise would not be seen, heard, or felt. These include gas leaks, or smoke coming from a fire. Aside from this, our sense of smell plays a huge role in being able to taste flavors in the food we eat and drink, so being deprived of this would make one’s eating experience unenjoyable unlike before.

Image Source: https://goo.gl/Ho3RhD

Given the importance of the sensory modalities, there have been studies in many different locations around the world that have tried to determine whether there is a link between smoking and loss of olfaction and/or taste. One such study, made in 2008, involved the residents of the city of Dortmund in Germany. In this study, which aimed to “evaluate the effect of smoking on taste and smell impairment in a large population,” 1,312 participants were tested for their smelling and tasting capabilities (Vennemann, Hummel, & Berger, 2008). These participants, aged 25 to 75, were invited and underwent a series of interviews and standardized testing. “Sociodemographic data, medical histories, comorbidities, drug intake, and several health-related lifestyle variables” were asked from the participants in the interviews (Vennemann, Hummel, & Berger, 2008). Their sense of smell was tested through the use of “Sniffin’ Sticks,” which are felt-tip pens which emit different odors, the same way a set of pens would have different colors. Hyposmia, or a reduced sense of smell, would be diagnosed if they identify only 6-10 odors from the 12 odors administered. Anosmia, or an extremely reduced, or fully dysfunctional, sense of smell, would be diagnosed if they identify less than 6 odors. For their sense of taste, four solutions corresponding to the four basic tastes (excluding umami), were sprayed on the participants’ tongues. A diagnosis of “taste impairment” would be given should they fail to correctly identify all four tastes (Vennemann, Hummel, & Berger, 2008).

Results showed that “3.6% were functionally anosmic, and 18% had olfactory dysfunction” (Vennemann, Hummel, & Berger, 2008). Approximately 20%, on the other hand, had taste impairment. It was also seen that current smokers had an increased risk of olfactory dysfunction, as non-smokers fared better in the smelling test than those who smoked. However, smoking did not automatically increase the risk for taste impairment. The risk for taste impairment would increase if the smoker would smoke 20+ cigarettes a day, as people who fell into this group reported a significantly increased risk for taste impairment. Olfactory and taste impairment risk also increased with age, and men seem to be predisposed to have a more heightened risk than females – a finding which has been validated in a more recent study (Keller, Hempstead, Gomez, Gilbert, & Vosshall, 2012). Despite this, one important thing to note in this study was that age and other comorbid medical conditions were ruled out as the cause of olfactory dysfunction in participants who were deemed positive for such a condition, as these were controlled for in the experiment.

Prevalence of hyposmia, anosmia and taste impairment according to smoking status. Image Source: Vennemann, Hummel, & Burger (2008)

These previous researches were contradicted by a 2004 study, in which a town with Sweden posted the same rate of people with olfactory dysfunction, however, these were attributed to age, the presence of nasal polyps which inflamed the olfactory epithelium (where nerve endings which sense odor molecules are found) and the presence of diabetes (Brämerson, Johansson, Ek, Nordin, & Bende, 2004). Despite this, numerous other researches were seen to be more similar with Vennemann, Hummel, & Berger’s (2008) findings, as it was seen that “smokers were found to be nearly six times as likely to evidence an olfactory deficit as non-smokers, depending on the duration and the amount of cigarettes smoked” (Katotomichelakis, et al., 2007).

Now, why does smoking affect our sense of smell the most? Well, as smoke goes up our noses and consequently, our nasal tract, they come in touch with olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) which transmit to our brain electrical signals that would determine which odors we are smelling as of the moment. Due to this, they are made more vulnerable to environmental exposure and injury, and subsequently, death. Normally, they would regenerate, but the inhalation of smoke exacerbates their death, to the point that the regenerative capacity of the epithelium in the nasal airways cannot cope up with the speed of the death of the OSNs (Vent, et al., 2004). However, when smoking is stopped for a considerable time, the OSNs are able to catch up with their regeneration, enabling the OSNs to work again properly, bringing about a normal sense of smell again, as long as the epithelium is not permanently damaged (Frye, Schwartz, & Doty, 1990). Taste impairment that only comes with more frequent smoking, on the other hand, can be attributed to a higher threshold of damage for our sense of taste. However, since the sense of taste and smell go hand in hand, severe damage to the latter can signal the start of damage to the former, which does not regenerate as quickly as OSNs (Vennemann, Hummel, & Berger, 2008).

Image Source: http://goo.gl/CkSwe0

Knowing all of these, it would be wise to reconsider smoking should you are currently engaged in this habit. It does not only kill you, but it also kills parts of you while you are still alive. We should learn how to take care of our sensory modalities, as life wouldn’t be the same if you cannot experience it fully. It is not too late to stop smoking, as aside from the sights and sounds of our surroundings, the smells and tastes that come with it give our perceptual experiences depth and texture that otherwise, wouldn’t be available to us should our noses and tongues are burnt out by the cigarettes that we smoke.

References:

Brämerson, A., Johansson, L., Ek, L., Nordin, S., & Bende, M. (2004). Prevalence of Olfactory Dysfunction: The Skövde Population‐Based Study. The Laryngoscope, 114(4), 733-737.

Frye, R. E., Schwartz, B. S., & Doty, R. L. (1990). Dose-related effects of cigarette smoking on olfactory function. Jama, 263(9), 1233-1236.

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation & Perception (9th Ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Katotomichelakis, M., Balatsouras, D., Tripsianis, G., Davris, S., Maroudias, N., Danielides, V., & Simopoulos, C. (2007). The effect of smoking on the olfactory function. Rhinology, 45(4), 273.

Keller, A., Hempstead, M., Gomez, I. A., Gilbert, A. N., & Vosshall, L. B. (2012). An olfactory demography of a diverse metropolitan population. BMC neuroscience, 13(1), 1.

Vennemann, M. M., Hummel, T., & Berger, K. (2008). The association between smoking and smell and taste impairment in the general population. Journal of neurology, 255(8), 1121-1126.

Vent, J., Robinson, A. M., Gentry‐Nielsen, M. J., Conley, D. B., Hallworth, R., Leopold, D. A., & Kern, R. C. (2004). Pathology of the olfactory epithelium: smoking and ethanol exposure. The Laryngoscope, 114(8), 1383-1388.

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It’s All in the Name

While we were in a taxi going home last Saturday, I noticed that the driver was listening to some radio show talking about business. I remember the show host asking his guest about what is the difference between a doughnut bought in a bakery down the street and a doughnut from a famous brand? Why is it that the latter is more expensive than the former? The answer is: BRAND. The host emphasized that what makes the doughnut from the famous brand more expensive is the name that is associated with it. We are not really paying for the product itself, rather we are paying for the brand (Balita, 2016). 

In line with this, it is not only the price of the product that is affected by its brand name but also how consumers perceive its taste. In an experiment by Allison and Uhl (1964), they tried to see how beer brand identification would influence the way the participants (whom at the same time are also consumers) would perceive its taste. They hypothesize that "beer drinkers cannot distinguish among major brands of unlabeled beer either on an overall basis or on selected characteristics (Allison & Uhl, 1964).

Three hundred twenty six (326) males, all of whom are beer drinkers and drink beer at least three times a week, participated in the two-part study. The study also utilized two bottles each from five types of beer brands. In addition, according to expert taste testers, each brand taste significantly different than the other. The following list shows the classifications of the beers used in the study:

In the first part of the study (blind test), all the participants were sent a six-pack consisting of three brands of beer bottles, one of which is from the brand the participants most often drank. All these bottles were unlabeled and were only identified through letter tags. On one side of the beer bottle, together with the letter tag is a general rating scale ranging from 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent). On the other hand, the other side exhibits another scale for the nine specific characteristics (shown below) that could be rated as "too much", "just enough", or "not enough". A week after these bottles were distributed, they were all  picked up and another batch of bottles (same five brands plus a sixth brand that was added for this part of the experiment) were delivered, marking the beginning of the second part of the study (labeled test). The procedure for this second part is basically the same as the first, in which there are two rating scales which they have to accomplish; the only difference is that the bottles now have their brand labels. Again, after a week, they were picked up together with their respective rating tags.

Rating Tags on the Beer Bottles

Results of the experiment show that for the blind test, participants were not able to distinguish the difference between the overall taste of the beer brands. The reported  differences on the ratings for the nine specific characteristics were also found to be not significant except for the "just enough" votes on the fizziness of brand CD.  In addition, there was also no significant difference in the general ratings (whether it was poor or excellent) of the participants, even if their preferred beer brand was part of the six-pack. For example, "drinkers of brand EF rated beer CD significantly above "their" brand" (Allison & Uhl, 1964). On the other hand, for the labeled test, the overall ratings increased considerably and significantly. Moreover, the differences in the overall ratings of the beer brands were all significant except for brands EF and IJ which were relatively the same. In relation to this, the ratings for the specific characteristics such as aroma, body, foam, and strength, also increased when labels were put on the beer bottles. However, ratings for the bitterness and sweetness were relatively the same for both blind and labeled test.

In general, these results show that beer brand identification really influence how consumers would perceive its taste. This implies that apart from the overall quality of the product, business owners and marketers must also focus on building up and taking care of their product's brand since this primarily affects how much consumers would be willing to pay just to buy it as well as what their overall experience with the product would be.

References:

Allison, R. I., & Uhl, K. P. (1964). Influence of Beer Brand Identification on Taste Perception. Journal of Marketing Research, 1(3), 36-39. doi:10.2307/3150054

 Radyo Negosyo [Radio broadcast]. (2016, May 7). In Radyo Negosyo. Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines: DZMM 630.

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Listen, something’s behind you!

Reading this post’s title - you might have thought of something really familiar. Remember scenes in horror movies? Yeah, probably in almost every thriller you’ve seen, there will always be a scene there where the creepy something is just behind the main character. It will be quiet, then a sudden, frightful noise will scare the hell out of you.

So, why always at the back, right? Probably because of the uncertainty factor that comes when you can’t see but you can feel, or more appropriately in this blog post, hear whatever that is behind you.

In a study by Asutay & Västfjäll (2015), they set up an experiment to determine whether the location of a sound source can make a difference in how fast we attend (or react) to particular sounds, and if it affects our emotions - the sound as having a more positive or negative impact to how we feel.

Twenty-five people (18 males and 7 females) with normal hearing capabilities were exposed to two groups of sounds, and within each group, 1 sound to evoke positive (+) emotions, and 1 for negative (+) emotions. The first group is composed of “human vocalization” noises - a baby’s laughter (+) and a woman’s scream (-). The second group is composed of “environmental scene” sounds - ocean waves (+) and car crash (-). The experiment was done in a dark room, and the participants were put to the test one-by-one.

Then for each sound, they were made to judge:

(1) How they felt and how attentive they were to the sound played. This was done by making them answer separate scales (Visual Analog Scales) of valence (how positive or negative the sound was), and of arousal (how aroused they were after hearing the sound).

(2) The location of where the sound is being played - is the sound coming from the front, or is it from the back? The participants were asked to immediately press the corresponding arrow keys.

(Just an illustration of a sound localization - locating sounds - problem)

The findings suggested that negative sounds produced more intense negative reactions and higher arousal. Vocalizations also got more intense valence (particularly more negative) and higher arousal than environmental scene sounds (Asutay & Västfjäll, 2015).

With regards to the position or location of the sound source’s effect on attention and emotion, the results showed that sounds were rated more negative when they were heard from the back. This could be attributed to the fact that there is an uncertainty factor involved. The participants also showed an attentional bias when the sound came from the back, as they registered faster and more accurate judgments than when the sound came from the front. This means that the sound location really had an effect on attention. Another finding is that environmental stimuli tend to be more arousing when presented at the back than at the front (Asutay & Västfjäll, 2015).

In sum, the findings say that there really is an auditory bias towards the “rear perceptional field” when it comes to attentional and emotional levels. This gives support to the knowledge that our auditory system serves as an alarm system for our bodies, that even without seeing a potential threat, we can be alert and aware of its location. Also, this auditory bias can be useful “so that visual attention could be quickly shifted in case of emotionally significant information” (Asutay & Västfjäll, 2015) which we can then use to distance ourselves quickly from imminent danger.

References:

Asutay, E., & Västfjäll, D. (2015). Attentional and emotional prioritization of the sounds occurring outside the visual field. Emotion, 15(3), 281-286. doi:10.1037/emo0000045

Photos:

Woman Screaming

Sound Localization

Terminator

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Cochlear Implants and Language Development

In the past, several researchers have demonstrated how hearing-impaired people lag behind their normal-hearing peers in terms of language development. As an illustration, as stated in the study by Svirsky and coworkers, "most children who are born profoundly deaf or who became deaf before the age of 3 fall significantly behind their normal-hearing peers in their mastery of the surrounding oral language in its written, read, spoken, and signed forms" (2000).

Nonetheless, numerous studies have also shown how the use of cochlear implants may help a person's language development. For instance, Skinner and colleagues (1994) found that "most postlingually deafened adult cochlear implant users (i.e., those who learned language before becoming deaf) can understand some speech without lip reading and can also conduct fluent conversations with the aid of lip reading" (as cited in Svirsky, et al., 2000).

Source: www.felixmay.com

Cochlear implants, as explained by Goldstein (2014), "consists of (1) a microphone that receives sound signals from the environment; (2) a sound processor that divides the sound received by the microphone into a number of frequency bands; (3) a transmitter that sends these signals to (4) an array of 33 electrodes that are implanted along the length of the cochlea." He further clarifies that "these electrodes stimulate the cochlea at different places along its length, depending on the intensities of the frequencies in the stimuli received by the microphone. This stimulation activates an auditory nerve fibers along the cochlea, which send signals toward the brain. The video below exhibits how it all works:

One of the studies which sought to demonstrate whether cochlear implants do facilitate the development of English language skills was conducted by Mario A. Svirsky, Amy M. Robbins, Karen Iler Kirk, David B. Pisoni, and Richard T. Miyamoto in the year 2000. Apart from this general objective, their study also aimed to compare the following: • The measured English language of prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants and these children's predicted language development had they not received the implants; and • The measured English language development of the sample of children with cochlear implants and the norms obtained from normal hearing children (Svirsky, et al., 2000)

Utilizing the expressive section of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales, which is a standardized test which aims to measure various language skills, the experimenters tested 70 children 4 months before their implantation and then again 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30 months after implantation. Unfortunately, the experimenters noted that "not all children were tested at all intervals because some were not available for testing and others had not yet reached the longer-term follow-up intervals" (Svirsky, et al., 2000). Moreover, PBK word recognition test was used to assess the spoken word recognition of 18 children, two years after the implantation of the cochlear implant.

For the first analysis, the researchers utilized the complete data, from 23 implanted children, which they gathered through the 18-month follow up. These scores were then compared to the 113 unimplanted deaf children the experimenters used for their previous study. Results showed that both groups of implanted and unimplanted deaf children "showed a gap between their language age and their chronological age, and this gap was greater for older children" (Svirsky, et al., 2000).

Furthermore, for the second analysis, data gathered from the 23 children prior to their implantation and at the three intervals after their implantation was compared to the predicted language age of the same subjects had they not been implanted with the device. These predicted scores were obtained through the model the experimenters generated in their previous study. Results from this analysis demonstrate that even though the implanted deaf children's scores fall under the norm set by normal-hearing children, they still had a higher language age compared to the language age predicted by the model should they have not received cochlear implant.

The following graph presents how deaf children with cochlear implant had greater language age increase than what was predicted for those unimplanted deaf children. According to Svirsky and colleagues (2000), "these findings suggest that earlier implantation in deaf children would result in smaller delays in language development". Nevertheless, further data analysis would show that even after 24 to 30 months, the language age of implanted children still falls below the norm of normal-hearing children.

Finally, results from the PBK recognition test showed that correlation between word recognition and language quotient (LQ; ratio between a participant's language age and his or her chronological age) was higher for those children who exclusively used their oral productions (OC) than those children who used their oral productions together with manual signs (TC). It was also discovered the correlation of the former (for the OC group) was statistically significant; whereas the latter (for the TC group) failed to reach statistical significance.

All in all, these analyses exhibit "that cochlear implants have a significant beneficial effect on the development of English language in profoundly deaf children" (Svirsky, et al., 2000).

Nevertheless, despite the evidence this study has provided with regards to how cochlear implant facilitates language development, some people part of the Deaf community are still in opposition to its usage. They reason that usage of such device "might result in the "genocide" of Deaf culture due to the dwindling number of children who might otherwise become a part of the Deaf World and help maintain its viability" (Svirsky, et al., 2000). Apart from this, they also do not see themselves as handicapped for they consider sign language as their primary language.

References:

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation and Perception, 9th edition. USA: Wadsworth/Cengage

Svirsky, M. A., Robbins, A. M., Kirk, K. I., Pisoni, D. B., & Miyamoto, R. T. (2000, March). LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN PROFOUNDLY DEAF CHILDREN WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS. Retrieved April 16, 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3429133/

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Sound-y Dooby Doo, Where Are You?

You may notice that as people grow older, their sense of hearing tends to weaken. Sometimes, our grandmas or grandpas are not able to hear what we were saying, unless we repeat it to them with a louder voice. For some, this may be irritating, as you are compelled to repeat things over and over again with a strain on your voice. However, we have to understand them, as previous researches have seen that as we go older, the neural responses in the cochlea, or where outside sound stimulus are converted into electrical signals which can be processed by your brain, deteriorate. Also, this can be worsened by an early exposure to noise which are higher than normal and acceptable levels (Kujawa & Liberman, 2006). Among older people, on the other hand, a longitudinal study saw that men lose their hearing twice as fast than women, and that while men have more sensitive hearing for sounds with lower frequencies than women, it is women who have more sensitive hearing for sounds with higher frequencies (Pearson, et al., 1995).

Image Source: http://glossynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/nra-tone-deaf1.jpg

To add to their problem of limited hearing, sometimes, older people find themselves baffled as to where the sounds that they have just heard came from. To see how older people find the source or “localize” the sound that they hear, a group of researchers from the Netherlands conducted a research in 2013 that compared the sound localization of adults to those of children and younger adults (Otte, Agterberg, Van Wanrooij, Snik, & Van Opstal, 2013). They did this to replicate and to see whether they would obtain the same results with previous researches on the matter, especially with that of Dobreva, O'Neill, & Paige (2011). The latter’s results stated that for older people, their ability to locate sound vertically (i.e. from a top-down orientation) was just as limited when compared with their ability to locate sound horizontally (i.e. from a left-right orientation). They hypothesized that a degeneration in the brain’s processing allows for this limitation of ageing. On the other hand, Otte et. al (2013), besides aiming to verify this hypothesis, also operated that the size of the outer ear, or the pinna, has something to do with the person’s ability to localize sounds on a vertical orientation.

The human ear’s pinna has curves which help to focus sound waves towards the ear canal. In addition, the cartilage in the ear’s pinna, as well as in the nose, continue to grow into adulthood even if bone growth has halted. This is why older people are observed to have bigger ears and/or noses, and research has shown that the ear’s pinna can serve as an indicator of a person’s chronological age (Tan, Osman, & Tan, 1997). Because of this, the researchers of our featured study (Otto et. al, 2013), aimed to see in their research if older people’s enlarged pinnae are able to help in their localization of sound.

Human ear morphology and measurements. From Otte, Agterberg, Van Wanrooij, Snik, & Van Opstal (2013).

Localizing sounds on a vertical orientation is harder than localizing sounds on a horizontal orientation. For the latter, the cues used involve both ears. One of these cues is called the Interaural Time Difference (ITD), or “the difference between when a sound reaches the left ear and when it reaches the right ear” (Goldstein, 2014). The other cue, the Interaural Level Difference (ILD), is “based on the difference in the sound pressure level of the sound reaching the two ears,” wherein the difference of which is brought about by the blockage of the head of some sound waves, especially those of higher frequencies (Goldstein, 2014). On the other hand, localizing sounds on a vertical orientation is much harder, as here, the cues used involved only use one ear. The primary cue used here, called spectral cues, depend on the “distribution of frequencies that reach each ear from different locations” (Goldstein, 2014). The reflection of these frequencies bounce along the ear’s pinna, giving rise to different distributions of frequencies depending on the source of the sound.

In the research, they grouped their participants into three groups: children (n = 18), young adults (n = 10), and older adults (n = 14). All of them did not have hearing complaints and none had hearing aids. They were then tested for (subtle) hearing loss, and they had their ear pinnae measured as well. Afterwards, they were led to a completely dark room with 58 speakers attached on the walls. They were made to wear a spectacle with an attached dim laser pointer on their head, and were instructed to point their laser pointers towards to where they think the sound stimulus came from. It was found out that most of the older adults suffered from high frequency hearing loss (HFHL), allowing them to hear high-pitched sounds less, in addition to their inability to hear sounds with low volumes.

The research has also shown that the ability to localize sounds horizontally was not affected with aging, contrary to Dobreva, O'Neill, & Paige’s (2011) research results. Hence, the older adults’ use of their ITD and ILD has not deteriorated. On the contrary, the elderly’s ability to localize sounds vertically was seen to be affected with aging, as their responses were filled with more errors than those from the younger participants. One explanation for this is that the body’s response to sound localization is that it aims to maximize accuracy and precision by taking into account the noise in the neural processing, as well as the uncertainty of the stimulus environment. Spectral cues are seen to be more complicated than ITDs and ILDs, as they are more vulnerable to perturbation by noise and sensory uncertainty. Lastly, regarding the effects of having larger ears, it was seen that having larger ear pinnae in the elderly were not sufficient enough to produce a significant change in the ability to localize vertically.

All in all, it was seen that for children, a frequency of 11 kHz was needed for them to localize sounds vertically. For older participants, their reliance on high-frequency sounds lessened, primarily due to HFHL. Their ability to localize sounds horizontally was not affected though, and the research’s difference with that of Dobreva, O'Neill, & Paige’s (2011) results may be brought about by methodological differences (the latter used hand-held laser pointers which are less natural than laser pointers attached to the head, near the eyes). Hence, the results suggest that ITD and ILD processing in the brain does not deteriorate when we age. The inability of older adults to localize sound vertically can be explained by their HFHL, which affects their perception of spectral cues, which heavily rely on sounds with higher frequencies. Without the ability to hear sounds with higher frequencies, their ability to rely on spectral cues for vertical localization of sounds is lost as well.

Relative weight of ILDs, ITDs, spectral cues, and hearing levels plotted against frequency. From Otte, Agterberg, Van Wanrooij, Snik, & Van Opstal (2013).

Hopefully, this research, having pinpointed now the mechanism of sound localization in the elderly, would be able to help researchers in developing hearing aids which would allow the elderly to localize sounds vertically, providing them with a richer, fuller hearing experience.

References:

Dobreva, M. S., O'Neill, W. E., & Paige, G. D. (2011). Influence of aging on human sound localization. Journal of neurophysiology, 105(5), 2471-2486.

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation & Perception (9th Ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Kujawa, S. G., & Liberman, M. C. (2006). Acceleration of age-related hearing loss by early noise exposure: evidence of a misspent youth. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(7), 2115-2123.

Otte, R. J., Agterberg, M. J., Van Wanrooij, M. M., Snik, A. F., & Van Opstal, A. J. (2013). Age-related hearing loss and ear morphology affect vertical but not horizontal sound-localization performance. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 14(2), 261-273.

Pearson, J. D., Morrell, C. H., Gordon‐Salant, S., Brant, L. J., Metter, E. J., Klein, L. L., & Fozard, J. L. (1995). Gender differences in a longitudinal study of age‐associated hearing loss. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(2), 1196-1205.

Tan, R., Osman, V., & Tan, G. (1997). Ear size as a predictor of chronological age. Archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 25(2), 187-191.

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Early Intervention, Better Sound Localization

One of our biggest faults as humans is that we tend to take for granted the exact thing that separates us as humans – our ability to relate to each other and to the world in a much more sophisticated manner and with a deeper understanding than any other living species here on earth. Take for example how we overlook the merits of our sensory systems and how we only start to appreciate them once they become lost. It still amazes me how our brain, which is basically just an organ made up of cells and fibers that transmit electrical impulses, could give us the perceptual experiences that we have each and every second of our lives. Much of the works on perception focus on explaining the mechanisms by which these systems work not only to make us appreciate and understand them more, but also to help those who may have impairments in their systems. After all, what good would knowledge be if we are not able to see how they could improve the quality of our lives?

In a study by Van Deun and colleagues (2010), they aimed to describe the advantages of early intervention in children who experienced prelingual hearing loss with regard to their ability for sound localization. With the development of technology, better interventions have evolved as well. Bilateral cochlear implants is now the standard for remedies for the hearing-impaired and researches on its effectiveness have started gaining attention from the science community. It is important to note that, according to several studies, adults with postlingual deafness could develop sound localization significantly better than adults with very early onset of deafness. This suggests that hearing must have been present early on in life for sound localization to develop post-implantation (Nopp et al., 2004; as cited in Van Deun et al., 2010). The challenge for the current research now is to answer the question of whether prelingually deaf children could develop sound localization if implantation was done at a young age. To answer this, they evaluated sound localization in 30 children, aged 4-15 years old, who received cochlear implants sequentially at ages from 6 months to 9 years for the first implant, and from 1.5 to 12 years for the second implant.

To test for sound localization, the subjects were placed inside a standard office room containing 9 loudspeakers spaced 15° apart, spanning the area from -60° to +60°. Each loudspeaker was connected to a PC by either one of the two soundcards. The PC and soundcards were located in a room adjacent to the testing room. To help you visualize the set-up, a schematic diagram is provided below:

Two experimenters administered the tests – one inside the testing room with the child, and another inside the control room controlling the sound stimuli from the PC. To make the experiment attractive enough for children, a telephone game was played: pictures of Smurfs were used to mark the loudspeakers and toy telephones were placed on top. The children’s task was to name the Smurf that was receiving the call from his/her telephone. Feedback was given only in case of a correct answer. The sound stimulus was presented 3 times from each direction across the duration of the experiment. Before the testing proper, two training phases were administered to the kids.

Results of the experiment showed that 19 out of the 30 children exhibited localization that was better than chance, and that the best scores were even comparable to the normal-hearing range. To enrich the implications of these findings, statistical analyses were employed to pinpoint predictors of better or worse localization for the 30 children. These predictors and the roles that they play are summarized below:

Age at first implantation. The study shows that the age at which the child received the first implantation has a significant effect on sound localization ability in that the group that received implantation at a much younger age localized better than the older group.

Age at second implantation. The age at second implantation did not, however, show any significant implication when the results of the whole group was analyzed.

Duration of hearing aid use. Children who used hearing aids for more than 18 months prior to implantation obtained significantly better scores than those who used them for only less than 18 months.

Specialized vs. mainstream schooling. Children who went to schools for the deaf scored significantly poorer than those who went to mainstream schools.

The implications of age at first implantation and duration of hearing aid use highlight the importance of stimulation in early life, in at least one ear, dramatically affects the development of sound localization skills. In other words, early implantation is important for the development of sound localization, while the use of hearing aids could be a good predictor of localization performance for children who received implantations much later. The effects of the age at second implantation, however,  may have been obscured by other factors according to Van Deun and colleagues (2010). True enough, it was found that the use of hearing aids contralateral to the implanted ear affected the development of sound localization for children with unilateral implants in that they performed significantly better than those who did not use hearing aids. The age of second implantation would then matter especially for those who did not wear hearing aids contralateral to the implanted ear. To put it simply, the earlier the second implantation is, the better. The environment in which the child is exposed to apparently also significantly affects the development of sound localization. In a mainstream school, the hearing-impaired child will be exposed to the same cues and stimulation with normal children and this leads to better adaptation and localization development. 

In summary, all predictors point us to the same message: early intervention and early stimulation would result to better development of sound localization in hearing-impaired children. The implications of the study should help better inform the families of children who are suffering from early-onset deafness. Also, it could help the government and health institutions to better prepare and equip themselves with adequate tools that may help the members of the deaf community. Because just like you and me, they deserve to enjoy and experience the world as much as we do. 

Reference:

Van Deun, L., van Wieringen, A., Scherf, F., Deggouj, N., Desloovere, C., Offeciers, F.E., ... Wouters, J. (2010). Earlier intervention leads to better sound localization in children with bilateral cochlear implants. Audiology & Neurology, 15, 7-17. DOI: 10.1159/000218358

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Hearing is Seeing

Most of us probably have heard of the idea that blind people become better than sighted people when it comes to hearing. For the blind, auditory signals play a very important role in perceiving and interpreting the world around them. By utilizing sound information, they are capable of identifying spatial information and various attributes of an object (Ohuchi, et.al, 2006). But, is there really evidence to back up the claim that blind people are better than the sighted in terms of hearing?

Source: newsroom.ucla.edu

Ohuchi and coworkers (2006) wanted to explore further on the above-mentioned idea. In their study, they examined the difference between the blind and sighted in terms of sound localization. Sound or auditory localization is the ability of an individual to locate the origin or source of a sound (Goldstein, 2014). They also investigated whether rotation or movement of the head would facilitate better ability to localize sound.

Their experiment was participated by a total of 8 males with normal hearing. Four of them were congenital blind adults while the other four were sighted. The experiment was conducted in a soundproof room where they placed “twelve loudspeakers arranged at 30 degrees intervals in a circle with a radius of 1.5m” (see image below).

Source: Ohuchi, et. al, 2006

The participants were asked to sit in the middle and “a sound stimulus was randomly presented from one of the 12 loudspeakers.” Their task was to report the area where the sound originates and estimate the distance from which the sound is coming from. In order to equalize the condition of the blind and the sighted, the sighted adults were blindfolded upon entering the room so that they will not have an idea about the location of the loudspeakers. This particular experiment was conducted under two conditions. The first one is a condition where the participants are NOT allowed to move their heads while the second one is a condition where they can freely move their heads when trying to locate the sound.

Results showed that “sound localization errors of the blind listeners were lower than those of the sighted listeners.” Analysis revealed that this difference in localization errors is statistically significant which means that indeed, blind adults were better than the sighted when it comes to identifying the location of the sound source. In fact, errors of the blind listeners in reporting the sound location were less than 7 degrees at most!

Furthermore, it was also shown that under the condition where participants were not allowed to move or rotate their heads, the blind participants’ perceived distance to a sound source is quite exact; but for those who are sighted, they have the tendency to underestimate the distance to a sound source.

However, contrary to what is expected by the researchers, the allowance of head movement or rotation did not produce any significant effect in sound localization. This means that movement or rotation of the head neither increase nor decrease the participants’ ability to localize sound.

But, what really accounts for this increase in auditory processing? According to Kalat (2013), “Being blind does not change the touch receptors in the fingers or the receptors in the ears. However, it increases attention to touch and sound, and the brain adapts to that attention.” Interestingly, several PET and fMRI scans showed that for blind people, areas in the brain originally associated with vision responds to auditory stimuli. This shows that the visual areas help blind people identify the things around them.

Overall, this experiment provided evidence for the notion that there is better sound localization among blind adults. Furthermore, we have seen that when one sensory system is impaired, the others try to compensate for it (Kalat, 2013).

Sources:

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation  & Perception (9th Ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Kalat, J. W. (2013). Discovering Biological Psycholofy (Philippine ed.). Pasig, PH: Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd.

Ohuchi, M., Iwaya, Y., Suzuki, Y., & Munekata, T. (2006). A Comparative Study of Sound Localization Acuity of Congenital Blind and Sighted People. Acoust. Sci. & Tech., 27(5), 290-292.

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Green means “Go” Foods? A Study on Traffic Light Colors and Healthy Food Choices

Psych 135 - BLOG #1: On Color Perception by Iris Escalada

Colors. We may not be constantly aware of it, but colors work as our guides in this world. Aside from enhancing the beauty of things, they can also direct our attention to certain things. Plus, they serve many signalling functions. For example, we know that when a banana is yellow, it is ripe; while when it is green, it isn’t.

In this case, we know that in the context of a stop light, Green means “Go”, Yellow means “Caution”, and Red means “Stop”.

A study conducted in 2015 by Remi Trudel and his colleagues proved the usefulness of using commonly, or universally known color conventions like the “Traffic Light Color Coding” or “TLC” in making effective food labels for leading people to make healthier food choices. Using green-dominant and red-dominant food labels, they made dieters (those who follow a particular meal plan or diet) and nondieters (those who are not making conscious efforts to choose their food according to a diet plan) rate different foods with different labels on a Health Quality Perception scale. The use of TLC labels in food proved to be effective in both dieters and nondieters, but in different ways.

In dieters, the effect of TLC labels on food choices is less direct. However, the use of colors did help to grab their attention and read the nutrition labels more carefully. It was also proved later on that the participants’ information recall of the TLC table improved.

While for nondieters, the colors functioned more directly in helping them make their choices. They served as useful decision aids. The nondieters - not being as conscious as dieters in making food choices based on calorie count, sodium content, etc. - mostly relied on visual cues in making their choices. The green-dominant labeled food ended up being rated as the healthiest food among the bunch. However, their information recall appeared to be lower than in the dieters’ group.

Given these information, we can conclude that color really does serve us lots of signaling functions and can also affect the way we make decisions and actions. Applying these findings in the food labelling industry can help people make healthier choices, in dieters and nondieters alike. The good thing is that it will be easier for us to make better food choices even without having enough knowledge on food groups, calories, and sodium content. In the future, if this would be used in the food advertising industry, it is possible that with just one look at the label’s colors and making a quick decision to buy the green/go foods, we’ll be taking one step towards fitness and healthy living.

References: 

Goldstein, E. B. (2013). Sensation and Perception (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Trudel, R., Murray, K. B., Kim, S., & Chen, S. (2015). The impact of traffic light color-coding on food health perceptions and choice. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 21(3), 255-275. doi:10.1037/xap0000049

Photo Credits:

Stoplight

Sardine Cans

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Visual Attention and Video Games

Before there were mobile phones and downloadable apps, there were brick games and Tamagotchi – a Japanese handheld game which requires the player to be owner to a digital pet. When mobile phones were invented, built-in games became instant hits and probably anyone who has ever had access to a mobile device or any kind of digital gadget has tried some kind of video game. Facebook users have also recently jumped into the craze of a hidden feature in the site’s messenger app which allows its users to play a virtual game of basketball. Video-gaming has become such a normal part of this generation’s daily activities that it becomes necessary to look into the possible consequences that it may bring to our perceptual and motor abilities – exactly what Green and Bavelier described in their 2003 study entitled: Action Video Game Modifies Visual Selective Attention. In this study, they showed that action video games could enhance an individual’s performance in a wide range of visual skills by comparing the performances of video-game players to non-players across different visual perception tasks.

According to the theorists of perception (Goldstein, 2014), humans have a certain capacity that each one of us uses in carrying out perceptual tasks –perceptual capacity. For each particular task, there is a significant amount of our perceptual capacity that is used up. They call this our perceptual load. To put simply what the load theory of attention is telling us, it assumes that easy tasks use up only a small portion of our perceptual capacity – therefore, low perceptual load– and so, there is a significant amount of our perceptual capacities left that “spills over” to process distractors or task-irrelevant stimuli. Therefore, the easier the task at hand, the more attentional resources available to process extraneous stimuli, thereby increasing irrelevant processing. The more difficult the task, the less attentional resources available to process distractors. In short, easy tasks make us prone to more distractions!

Would action video-gaming, which requires a player to make quick decisions, and focus on several elements at a time, increase a person’s perceptual capacity?

Image from counter-strike.soft32.com

Apparently so! Generally, video-game players showed a distractor effect that was present even when the task was difficult. Thus, when the non-video gamers have already exhausted their attentional resources in difficult tasks, gamers still had some left to spare to process irrelevant stimuli.

In enumeration tasks, in which participants were tasked to identify how many squares they see in a briefly flashed display, gamers outperformed the non-gamers. Video-gaming apparently enhances the number of visual items that could be identified by an individual.

Similarly, in a ‘useful field of view’ task which measures participants’ ability to locate a target stimulus amidst a sea of distractors (similar to Where’s Waldo™), gamers performed significantly better than non-gamers. It could then be concluded that video-gaming enhances perceptual capacity and the spatial distribution of visual attention.

Image from reddit.com

When presented with a series of stimuli, there usually is a brief period in which our visual processing of a second target presented after an initial stimulus is impaired. This phenomenon has been called by psychologists as “attentional blink”. Because action video games usually involve the need to quickly shift attention from one visual stimulus to another, it is interesting to note if video-gaming could bypass the attentional blink phenomenon and improve one’s processing of serial stimuli. Not surprisingly, gamers outperformed non-gamers and exhibited less attentional blink. The following video shows an example of a simple attentional blink task.

To eliminate the possibility that the chosen gamers were inherently different than the non-gamer participants, which may have caused the differences in their performances on the visual tasks, training experiments were conducted. In these experiments, an experimental group underwent video-game training in which they played Medal of Honor for an hour a day in 10 consecutive days. The control group played Tetris, a non-action arcade game which requires focus on only one object at a time, thus not altering aspects of the player’s visual attention. Before training, all participants were measured on their performances on the enumeration, useful field of view, and attentional blink tasks. These were compared to their performances on the same tasks post-training. The training was effective in that all participants improved in all tasks. However, the experimental group exhibited greater improvement than the control group suggesting the effectiveness of action video-game playing in altering people’s visual attention.

In summary, Green and Bavelier (2003) were able to prove that action video-game playing could indeed enhance aspects of an individual’s visual attention – particularly in perceptual capacity, useful field of view tasks, and attentional blink tasks. However, we must never be too quick to use these findings to justify our video game addiction. Remember to always do things in moderation. Although action video-games may improve your visual attention, a bulk of our personalities still depend on our experiences with the world and with other people. So from time to time, it is best to drop your console controllers and go out, have fun, and enjoy the outdoors!

Sources:

Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action Video Game Modifies Selective Visual Attention. Nature 423, 534-537.

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation  & Perception (9th Ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. 

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Color and Marketing

Colors play a vital role in our lives. It adds beauty to our environment, functions as signals, helps us identify, recognize and classify things and a lot more (Goldstein, 2014). Colors also affect our mood and emotions and they can produce certain reactions or responses to an individual (Color Psychology, 2014).

Picture Source: https://www.truevaluepaint.com/color-101/color-psychology/

These days, it can be noticed that researches focusing on trying to understand the science behind the effect of color in human behavior and emotions have caught the attention and interest of many. This topic is particularly important to those who are in the field of architecture, business and marketing.

In a research done by Joseph A. Bellizi and Robert E. Hite (1992), two experiments, wherein a shopping context is simulated, is conducted in order to understand how color affects the consumers’ feelings and their purchase behavior. Particularly, they chose to study the effects of red and blue color because of their opposite properties.

Picture Source: http://drsircus.com/spiritual-psychology/color-psychology/

How do colors affect purchases?

In their first experiment, each participant was exposed in either a red or a blue retail environment. Assuming that they have decided to buy a television set, their task was to shop and to indicate which set they will likely buy. They were provided with four television sets from which they can choose and was also given the option to indicate that they will try to look for another shop if none of the provided sets was able to meet their satisfaction.

From this experiment, a total of 39% of the participants who shopped in the store with a red environment decided that they will try to look in another store. On the other hand, only 18% of the participants in the blue-environment store indicated this. Furthermore, those who shopped in the blue environment were more likely to purchase the most expensive set displayed than those in the red environment. Shoppers under the blue condition spent (simulated) an average of $458 while those under the red condition spent only an average of $314. These findings provide evidence that the blue environment is more likely to increase the purchase behavior of the shoppers than the red environment.

How do colors affect mood and shopping intention?

The success of the first experiment is definitely a great achievement. So, the researchers tried to explore further by looking at how color of an interior of a store affects our intention and mood. In the second experiment, they presented the participants with slides showing an interior of a retail furniture store and made them answer a questionnaire about their feelings toward the store and their intention to purchase.

As expected, results showed that those people who are exposed in the blue interior showed “a greater intention to shop, browse and buy an item in the store”. In addition to that, they also reported more pleasant feeling in the blue interior than in the red one. This pleasurable feeling may be associated to the greater purchase intention of the participants.

Overall, the research showed that even if the color red is associated with arousal and excitement, red retail environments tend to be experienced as negative and unpleasant; whereas, blue, which is related to peace and calmness, is seen to be more positive and pleasant in the retail environment. Thus, “blue environments are more appropriate that red environments for creating the desired atmosphere” in the retail settings.

Sources:

Bellizi, J. A., & Hite, R. E. (1992). Environmental Color, Consumers' Feelings and Purchase Likelihood. Psychology & Marketing, 9(5), 347-363. Retrieved March 31, 2016.

Color Psychology (2014). Retrieved April 02, 2016, from https://www.truevaluepaint.com/color-101/color-psychology/

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation  & Perception (9th Ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

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I’mma get your Cigare-ttention

Cigarette smoking is one of the biggest hurdles facing health advocates around the world, as it has been proven and linked to various forms of cancer, organ damage, degenerative disease, among others. Furthermore, the nicotine in cigarettes make smokers addicted to smoking, which makes it hard for them to stop. You or someone you know might be struggling from this, and it is really hard to make them stop, since nicotine addiction is hard to circumvent. Also, making people stop smoking requires constant motivation, guidance, and effort; otherwise, the person will relapse. In recent years, measures have been taken to discourage people from smoking, as well as to make smokers stop. Some of the measures implemented here in the Philippines include the addition of text-based health warnings in cigarette packs and advertisements (e.g. “Smoking is dangerous to your health”), and even increasing the tax for cigarettes, under RA 10351, also known as “The Sin Tax Law of 2012.” Under this law, the tax for cigarettes will gradually increase annually, from the year of the law’s implementation up until 2017, where an additional PhP30 shall be added to the price of one cigarette pack.

Picture Source: http://bit.ly/1UzIVuN (Courtesy of Institute for Global Tobacco Control)

However, research has shown that even if the affordability of cigarettes declined upon the implementation of the Sin Tax Law, income growth has increased, making cigarette affordability reach a stagnant, or even increasing rate in the years to come (Ulep, 2015). Because of this, it is suggested that the current rates be amended to recommended levels, such that the price of cigarettes would be less affordable relative to the country’s income growth. Besides this, research has also shown that text-based health warnings may be effective at first, but quick habituation among smokers may disregard the effects that these warnings may bring about (White, Webster, & Wakefield, 2008; Hammond, 2011). Furthermore, these researches have found out that cigarettes with “pictorial health warnings elicit strong emotional reactions [which] are significantly more effective” (Hammond, 2011).

Related to this, the Philippines’ Department of Health recently released Implementing Rules and Regulations or IRR for RA 10643 or the Graphic Health Warning Law, which mandates cigarette manufacturers to include graphic, pictorial health warnings on the lower half of the packs of cigarettes that they sell. Contact numbers and hotlines which aim to help smokers quit smoking are also included in the packs (Nicholls, 2016). Health officials and advocates are expecting that combined with the cigarettes’ increasing cost, smokers would be forced to quit, especially with the very visual knowledge of what could happen to them should they continue to smoke daily and incessantly.

Picture Source: http://bit.ly/1qnPTXm (Courtesy of Rappler.com)

Given this positive development, it is interesting to note that in the United Kingdom, a research was done in 2011 regarding the effectiveness of pictorial health warnings in cigarette packs, but not against text-based health warnings. Rather, they compared pictorial health warnings amongst packs with branded designs, versus those which just had a plain, standardized design. The research, by Munafò, Roberts, Bauld, and Leonards (2011), aimed to determine the impact of plain packaging on visual attention towards pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs. Using a mixed model design, they compared the visual attention of non-smokers (n = 15), weekly/non-daily smokers (n = 14), and daily smokers (n = 14) on either branded or plain packs. “Branded” packs would have the usual manufacturer’s design and layout on the packs, with the health warning occupying the packs’ lower halves. “Plain” packs, on the other hand, aside from the pictorial health warning, only had the cigarette brand’s name, the number of cigarette sticks inside, with a standardized font, color, and background for all brands. They then measured the participants’ eyes’ saccadic movements, or where they move their eyes as they focus their attention to either the brand, or the pictorial health warning.

Picture Source: Munafò, M. R., Roberts, N., Bauld, L., & Leonards, U. (2011)

The participants were presented 10 pictures each of the branded and plain packs in two runs, for 10 seconds each with 1-second intervals between pictures. The researchers then measured where the participants focused their eyes, and subsequently, their attention. According to the results, the health warnings on the plain packagings received a higher number of eye gazes than the brand name, compared to those with branded packagings. However, this was only true for the non-smoker and weekly smoker groups. For these groups, there were no statistically significant differences between the number of eye gazes between the brand and health warning in the branded packaging condition, but there was a statistically significant difference between the brand and health warning in the plain packaging condition. This means that with the plain packaging, the participants were able to notice and focus more on the health warning, rather than the brand, which increases the effectiveness and potential of these warnings to curb cigarette use. This may be explained by stimulus salience, as the plain background makes the observer focus his/her attention more to the colorful stimulus, which is the health warning, making them focus on this stimulus more (Goldstein, 2014).

Although the aforementioned groups posted statistically significant differences in the experiment conditions, the participants from the daily smoker group did not post any statistically significant differences between the number of eye gazes between the brand and the health warning, for both the branded and plain packagings. This may be explained by the fact that daily smokers (who, in the UK, consume an average of 11 cigarette sticks per day) are probably habituated or used to these warnings, primarily due to repeated exposure and gradual desensitization, since they are so used to seeing these warnings many times everyday, to the extent that these won’t have an effect on them anymore.

The implications of this research are that with these type of plain packagings proposed in this research would do a better job in deterring non-smokers from smoking, and it may help making non-daily smokers quit smoking. This research would also answer the cigarette manufacturers’ qualms that the removal of branding would lead to an increased decrease in sales, as it shows that daily smokers, which are a huge chunk of their market, are not affected that much by this change in packaging layout and design. This research has limitations though, such as in sample size, age and gender differences, as well as limited foresight as to what these results may mean in the future, since non-smokers and non-daily smokers might get used to this new proposed packaging design as well in the long run. Nevertheless, this research gives us a peek on ways how to curb cigarette smoking in the country using psychological concepts. When armed with the right weapons such as this, despite the long battle ahead, we are optimistic that people will be deterred from smoking, preventing the deaths and harm that this vice brings about. 

References:

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation  & Perception (9th Ed. ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Hammond, D.  (2011). Health warning messages on tobacco products: a review. Tobacco  control.

Munafò, M. R., Roberts, N., Bauld, L., & Leonards, U. (2011). Plain packaging increases  visual attention to health warnings on cigarette packs in non‐smokers and  weekly smokers but not daily smokers. Addiction, 106(8), 1505-1510.

Nicholls, A.  (2016, February 16). DOH releases IRR for graphic health warnings in  tobacco packs. Retrieved from CNN Philippines:  http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/02/15/DOH-graphic-health-warnings-tobacco.html

Ulep, V. (2015). The  Impact of Sin Tax Law on the Affordability of Cigarette in the Philippines  (Phase 1). Quezon City: HealthJustice Philippines, Inc.

White, V.,  Webster, B., & Wakefield, M. (2008). Do graphic health warning labels  have an impact on adolescents’ smoking‐related beliefs and behaviours? Addiction,  103(9), 1562-1571.

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Cellphones and Road Accidents

It has become a common occurrence that every time I watch a news program, whether it would be in the morning before going to school or at night during dinner, there would always be a feature about a road accident involving different types of vehicles – from motorcycles, SUVs, jeepneys, and to public utility buses. In fact, in 2015, the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) released a report, in which it says that out of the 11, 285 road accidents that occurred nationwide from January to June, 567 people have died and a whooping number of 5, 220 were left injured (Philippine News Agency, 2015). In relation to this, the Philippine News Agency (2015) also cited the press briefing of the PNP-HPG where their spokesperson Supt. Oliver Tanseco listed the most common reasons why drivers encounter an accident while on the road. The aforementioned reasons are as follows:

True enough, with the increasing availability of car cradles and mounts, as well as other means to be able to utilize cellular phones hands-free, and the increasing need of people to be connected to other people, it is therefore not surprising to find using cellphone while driving as one of the common causes vehicular accidents happen here in the Philippines.

To provide an explanation as to how using our cellphones while driving might pose a risk of being involved in a vehicular accident, allow me to refer to a study conducted by David Strayer, Frank Drews, and William Johnston in 2003. These University of Utah-based experimenters aimed to determine how hands-free cellphone conversations would affect a participant during a driving simulation test. They also aimed to assess the hypothesis formulated by Strayer and Johnston (2001), which is as follows: “cellphone conversations impair driving performance by withdrawing attention from the visual scene, yielding a form of inattentional blindness”. Inattentional blindness is defined as being “unaware of clearly visible stimuli if they aren’t directing their attention to them” (Goldstein, 2014). The study administered four different experiments (and different sets of participants each), with different objectives, and had a total of 110 university undergraduate participants.

[Note: The conversations utilized per each participant were based on a questionnaire they answered before the experiment began, which “assessed their interest in potential topics of cellphone conversation” (Strayer, et al, 2003)]

The first experiment had participants driving on a multi-lane freeway, which may be in high or low traffic density, and following a pace car that would brake at random intervals.  Half the scenarios for each trial were used in the driving-only condition (single task) while the other half were used in the driving-while-conversing-on-the-cellphone condition (dual task). Generally, results showed that participants were more likely to collide with the pace car when they were conversing on their cellphones in the high-density traffic condition; because their reactions were slow. It was also found that participants “increased their separation between themselves and the pace car when they were conversing on the cell phone” (Strayer, et al, 2003)

The second experiment, on the other hand, aimed to “examine how cell phone conversations affect the driver’s attention to objects that are encountered while driving” (Strayer, et al, 2003). The participants, same as with the first experiment, drove using a simulator; then afterwards they were made to identify whether they saw the following billboards while they were driving in the scenario. Results showed that talking on the cellphone while driving lessened the participants’ ability to identify whether the billboards were actually in the driving scenario.

Furthermore, the third experiment “measured eye fixations while participants performed the driving task conducted in experiment 2” (Strayer, et al, 2003). To be classified as ‘fixated’, the eyes of the participants must be directed at the center of the billboard for at least 100 milliseconds. Results implied that even though the participants became fixated on the billboards, they were still less likely to identify it during the recognition experiment if they were conversing on their cellphones during the simulation.

Finally, the fourth experiment aimed to further examine how conversing on cellphones while driving affects visual attention. The experiment “measured the implicit perceptual memory for words that were presented at fixation during the pursuit tracking task” (Strayer, et al, 2003). Basically, in the pursuit tracking task, participants were made to use a joystick “to maneuver a cursor on a computer display to keep it aligned as closely as possible to a moving target” (Strayer, et al, 2003). It is also during this task that words were presented at the center of fixation and they were made to push the button on the joystick should the word be an animal name. Results indicated that talking on their cellphones while driving also reduced attention even to objects which were presented at fixation.

In general, all four experiments conducted in this study proved that having conversations on the cellphone while driving really reduces our attention. This basically implies that drivers should avoid using their cellphones, even when it is in a car cradle/mount or you are not manipulating it with your fingers; because, just as this study has proven, doing so might cause us to collide with another car (or in other words, be involved in an accident). Furthermore, like what the experimenters recommended at the end of their research, the government and its officials should strictly implement rules, or even devise laws, that would prohibit drivers from using their cellphones, even hands-free, while driving.

Sources:

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Sensation and Perception, 9th edition. USA: Wadsworth/Cengage

Philippine News Agency. (2015, August 17). PNP-HPG reports road accident statistics for H1. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.mb.com.ph/pnp-hpg-reports-road-accident-statistics-for-h1/

Strayer, D. L., Drews, F. A., & Johnston, W. A. (2003). Cell phone-induced failures of visual attention during simulated driving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 9(1), 23-32. Retrieved March 28, 2016.