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Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result

Placing one’s hands near an object has been reported to enhance visual processing in a number of ways. We explored whether hand proximity confers an advantage when applied to complex visual search. In one experiment, participants indicated the presence or absence of a target item in a baggage x-ray...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Andringa, Ronald, Boot, Walter R., Roque, Nelson A., Ponnaluri, Sadhana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5871631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29607404
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41235-018-0094-7
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author Andringa, Ronald
Boot, Walter R.
Roque, Nelson A.
Ponnaluri, Sadhana
author_facet Andringa, Ronald
Boot, Walter R.
Roque, Nelson A.
Ponnaluri, Sadhana
author_sort Andringa, Ronald
collection PubMed
description Placing one’s hands near an object has been reported to enhance visual processing in a number of ways. We explored whether hand proximity confers an advantage when applied to complex visual search. In one experiment, participants indicated the presence or absence of a target item in a baggage x-ray image by pressing response boxes located at the edge of a tablet computer screen, requiring them to grip the display between their hands. Alternatively, they responded using a mouse held within their lap. Contrary to expectations, hand position did not influence search performance. In a second experiment, participants used their finger to trace along the x-ray image while searching. In addition to any effect of hand proximity it was predicted that this strategy would encourage a more systematic search strategy. Participants inspected bags longer using this strategy, but this did not translate into improved target detection. A third experiment attempted to replicate the near-hands advantage in a change detection paradigm featuring simple stimuli (Tseng and Bridgeman, Experimental Brain Research 209:257–269, 2011), and the same equipment and hand positions as Experiment 1, but was unable to do so. One possibility is that the grip posture associated with holding a tablet is not conducive to producing a near-hands advantage. A final experiment tested this hypothesis with a direct replication of Tseng and Bridgeman, in which participants responded to stimuli presented on a CRT monitor using keys attached to the side of the monitor. Still, no near-hands advantage was observed. Our results suggest that the near-hands advantage may be sensitive to small differences in procedure, a finding that has important implications for harnessing the near-hands advantage to produce better performance in applied contexts.
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spelling pubmed-58716312018-03-28 Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result Andringa, Ronald Boot, Walter R. Roque, Nelson A. Ponnaluri, Sadhana Cogn Res Princ Implic Original Article Placing one’s hands near an object has been reported to enhance visual processing in a number of ways. We explored whether hand proximity confers an advantage when applied to complex visual search. In one experiment, participants indicated the presence or absence of a target item in a baggage x-ray image by pressing response boxes located at the edge of a tablet computer screen, requiring them to grip the display between their hands. Alternatively, they responded using a mouse held within their lap. Contrary to expectations, hand position did not influence search performance. In a second experiment, participants used their finger to trace along the x-ray image while searching. In addition to any effect of hand proximity it was predicted that this strategy would encourage a more systematic search strategy. Participants inspected bags longer using this strategy, but this did not translate into improved target detection. A third experiment attempted to replicate the near-hands advantage in a change detection paradigm featuring simple stimuli (Tseng and Bridgeman, Experimental Brain Research 209:257–269, 2011), and the same equipment and hand positions as Experiment 1, but was unable to do so. One possibility is that the grip posture associated with holding a tablet is not conducive to producing a near-hands advantage. A final experiment tested this hypothesis with a direct replication of Tseng and Bridgeman, in which participants responded to stimuli presented on a CRT monitor using keys attached to the side of the monitor. Still, no near-hands advantage was observed. Our results suggest that the near-hands advantage may be sensitive to small differences in procedure, a finding that has important implications for harnessing the near-hands advantage to produce better performance in applied contexts. Springer International Publishing 2018-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5871631/ /pubmed/29607404 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41235-018-0094-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Original Article
Andringa, Ronald
Boot, Walter R.
Roque, Nelson A.
Ponnaluri, Sadhana
Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result
title Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result
title_full Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result
title_fullStr Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result
title_full_unstemmed Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result
title_short Hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result
title_sort hand proximity effects are fragile: a useful null result
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5871631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29607404
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41235-018-0094-7
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