Comparing apples and oranges in priming of attention shifts?

Attentional priming involves speeded selection of task-relevant visual search items when search stimuli remain constant from one search to the next. There is a tendency in the literature to interpret diverse priming effects as reflecting activity modulations of the same mechanisms. Priming effects in various different paradigms (from lower-level to higher-level features) have been used interchangeably to study the nature of priming, even when tasks differ vastly in difficulty and neural mechanisms involved. Another view is that priming is a characteristic of all perceptual mechanisms, that operate at different processing levels. Here, this issue was addressed by contrasting time courses and relative sizes of priming effects for repetition of a lower-level and higher-level feature (color vs. facial expression). Attentional priming was tested in two odd-one-out search tasks, one involving discrimination, the other present/absent judgment. Firstly, the sizes of the normalized priming effects were very different for color and expression and secondly, color priming effects lasted for much longer than expression priming, as measured with memory kernel analyses, suggesting that the mechanics behind the effects differ. These two forms of priming should therefore only be compared with great caution. Generally, the results suggest that priming occurs at many levels of processing and can take many forms. This view is highly consistent with research on the neural mechanisms of priming. Priming of attention shifts should be thought of as a general principle of perceptual processing.

‘To LED or Not to LED?’: Using Color Priming for Influencing Consumers’ Preferences of Light Bulbs

Recently, we have seen energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs rapidly replace incandescent ones. However, results of new research are indicative of adverse health impacts of LED lighting, which is characterized by enriched blue light. Our study aims to reveal whether using color priming by attaching red/green traffic-light icons on light bulbs influences consumers’ preferences of light bulbs. We conducted a field study simulating the buying process, in which participants (N = 572) were presented with LED and carbon incandescent bulbs. We alternately displayed two pairs of bulbs: (1) in their original packaging and (2) in packages marked with traffic light icons (red = LED). Our results confirm that traffic light icons significantly (p < 0.01) increase the odds of choosing the healthier carbon bulb. The results highlight the benefits of attaching traffic light icons to light bulb packaging, helping consumers to make more health-conscientious purchasing decisions. Nowadays, this study’s contribution is more significant due to COVID-19 restrictions and stay-at-home policies, since people work or study remotely, which increases their exposure to household lighting. These results may incentivize policymakers to enforce adding traffic light icons to light bulb packaging, thus encouraging LED light bulb manufacturers to reduce the blue light component in order to improve the health aspect of their bulbs.

Color Place Marketing—The Role of Atmospheric Colors on Place Product Association and Consumer Choices in Luoyang, China

Place branding has become a fast-growing area of research in recent years due to the proliferation of technology and services facilitating travel. However, place-branding research has primarily focused on place promotion and image orchestration. The main purpose of this paper is to address the lack of place–product combination research and introduce a novel approach to extract and commercialize distinctive place elements such as colors. We examine the extent to which place atmospheric colors influence consumer decisions through priming. In addition, we look into the moderating role of a consumer characteristic, productivity orientation (PO), on atmospheric color to consumer decisions. Four studies are conducted in Luoyang, China, with 408 samples in pretest, 83 samples in Study 2, and 2361 samples in Study 3 and 4, to examine our hypotheses. The results support the hypothesis of atmospheric color priming: people are more likely to favor products that display colors similar to their surrounding environment. We also find that PO consumers are more likely to favor products that display color patterns similar to the surrounding environment than consumers under social influence. Drawing from a dynamic view of place branding, we provide a unique approach for scholars and practitioners to grasp the concepts of place marketing.

Limited evidence for the effect of red color on cognitive performance: A meta-analysis

Red color supposedly affects cognitive functioning in achievement situations and impairs test performance. Although this has been shown for different cognitive domains in different populations and cultural contexts, recent studies including close replications failed to corroborate this effect. Reported here is a random-effects meta-analysis of 67 effect sizes (38 samples) that compared test performance after viewing red or a control color. For anagram tests and knowledge tests no significant difference between color conditions was found (Cohen’s d of -0.06 and -0.04); for reasoning tests the pooled effect of d = -0.34, 95% CI [-0.61, -0.06] indicated significantly lower scores in the red condition. The cumulative meta-analysis revealed substantially larger effects in initial studies as compared to subsequent research. After correcting for publication bias no evidential value for an effect of red color on intellectual performance was available. The review casts doubt on the existence of a robust color-priming effect in achievement situations.

Limited Evidence for the Effect of Red Color on Cognitive Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Red color supposedly affects cognitive functioning in achievement situations and impairs test performance. Although this has been shown for different cognitive domains in different populations and cultural contexts, recent studies including close replications failed to corroborate this effect. Reported here is a random-effects meta-analysis of 67 effect sizes (38 samples) that compared test performance after viewing red or a control color. For anagram tests and knowledge tests no significant difference between color conditions was found (Cohen’s d of -0.06 and -0.04); for reasoning tests the pooled effect of d = -0.34, 95% CI [-0.61, -0.06] indicated significantly lower scores in the red condition. The cumulative meta-analysis revealed substantially larger effects in initial studies as compared to subsequent research. After correcting for publication bias no evidential value for an effect of red color on intellectual performance was available. The review casts doubt on the existence of a robust color priming effect in achievement situations.

Implicit perceptual memory can increase or decrease with ageing

ABSTRACTA decline in declarative or explicit memory has been extensively characterized in cognitive ageing and is a hallmark of cognitive impairments. However, whether and how implicit perceptual memory varies with ageing or cognitive impairment is unclear. Here, we compared implicit perceptual memory and explicit memory measures in three groups of subjects: (1) 59 healthy young volunteers (20-30 years); (2) 238 healthy old volunteers (50-90 years) and (3) 21 patients with mild cognitive impairment MCI (50-90 years). To measure explicit memory, subjects were tested on standard recognition and recall tasks. To measure implicit perceptual memory, we used a classic perceptual priming paradigm. Subjects had to report the shape of a visual search pop-out target. Implicit priming was measured as the speedup in response time for targets with the same vs different color/position on consecutive trials.Our main findings are as follows: (1) Explicit memory was weaker in old compared to young subjects, and in MCI compared to age-matched controls; (2) Surprisingly, implicit perceptual memory did not always decline with age: color priming was smaller in older subjects but position priming was larger; (3) Position priming was less frequent in the MCI group compared to age-matched controls; (4) Implicit and explicit memory measures were uncorrelated in all three groups. Thus, implicit memory can increase or decrease with age or cognitive impairment, but this decline does not covary with explicit memory. We propose that incorporating explicit and implicit measures can yield a richer characterization of memory.

Problem Solving with Color: Color’s Effect on Affect and Problem Solving with Subgoal Labels

For some students, particular concepts are difficult to understand (Berch & Mazzocco, 2007). Catrambone (1998) identified subgoal labeling as a catalyst for remedying barriers to understanding complex concepts. This study builds on Margulieux and Catrambone’s (2016) research, which examined the effects of subgoal labeling on computer-programming tasks by investigating how performance is impacted by color priming for affective states. Materials used were displayed with red, blue, and green backgrounds as primers. Two control groups with black and no-color backgrounds were used for comparison. The results suggest that color priming did not significantly enhance or inhibit performance. However, there was evidence to suggest that green may be a reliable primer for affect and mood, but not enough to suggest that it be used more than other colors (as evidenced by significant results for the control group). More research should be conducted to examine potential contributing factors for the trends found in this study.