Tachistoscopic Study on the Impact of Net Quantity and Dosage Strength Proximity on Dosage Strength Recognition in Prescription Drug Labels

A study was conducted to assess the impact of two different drug label layouts on pharmacy practitioners' ability to correctly extract critical information. Labels were shown to 43 participants under time-pressure conditions, using tachistoscopic presentation. The two layouts did not differ in terms of recognition accuracy, and the anticipated interference between two label elements, dosage strength and net quantity (number of tablets/capsules), when located in close proximity to each other, was not observed. Successive reduction in exposure time (200, 100 and 50 ms) resulted in an increased dosage strength recognition error rate, but the effect was independent of the distance between the dosage strength and net quantity. Possible explanations, as well as the benefit of using tachistoscopic presentation to assess the impact of design changes on user performance are discussed.

The Effect of Food Deprivation on ERP During Identification of Tachistoscopically Presented Food-Related Words

The present study served to investigate the effects of food deprivation on the identification of subliminally presented food-related words by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs were recorded in 16 hungry and 16 satiated subjects during repeated tachistoscopic presentation of food-related words (food names) and food-unrelated words (neutral words, sexual words) as controls. ERPs were recorded during each presentation of a word prior to identification and during the first presentation after identification and exhibited N1, P2, and slow-wave components. The number of tachistoscopic presentations until identification was not affected by hunger and satiety. However, ERPs were differentially affected by hunger and satiety: the P2 to food-related words was larger in hungry subjects compared to satiated subjects in all presentations. Additionally, the P2 was also larger to sexual words in hungry subjects in all presentations except the one preceding the identification response. The slow wave was not affected by hunger but increased with progressing stimulus identification. Following the identification of the words, all ERP components markedly declined in amplitude. The results indicate that hunger affects the processing of food and sexual stimuli during identification at an early ERP component (P2) even if the stimuli are not fully identified. In contrast, the later slow wave is sensitive to progressing stimulus identification, irrespective of hunger and stimulus meaning.

Role of Method of Stimulus Presentation in Research on Recognition of Facial Affect

Previous research regarding recognition of facial affect and personality variables has produced apparently contradictory findings. One reason for these inconsistencies may be varieties of experimental methods employed by different researchers. To investigate this possibility, the relation between three personality variables, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism, and accuracy in recognition of facial affect was examined with three methods of stimulus presentation: slide presentation, photographic display, and tachistoscopic administration. The nontachistoscopic methods correlated moderately and positively. Extraversion correlated positively with the ability to recognize facial expression with the nontachistoscopic methods. Psychoticism correlated negatively with correct affect recognition, although only for tachistoscopic presentation. Neuroticism did not correlate with recognition of facial affect using any of the methods. Possible explanations and limitations are discussed.