Permanent link for Research Review: "Enhancing Imaging Anatomy Competency: Integrating Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Viewers Into the Anatomy Lab Experience" on January 24, 2025

Biometrics research continues to play a critical role in how we make advancements in education. In a recent study, researchers tested whether or not viewing Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine (DICOM) helped medical students do better, and feel more confident on tests. 

Many medical students are only given the opportunity to view static anatomy prior to testing in medical school, which leads both educators and researchers wondering if students are able to systematically interpret scan images, or are simply memorizing the patterns shown to them. By using eye-tracking software, researchers can review conscious and subconscious behavior of students, analyzing their gaze patterns and visual-spatial evaluations (Worley Et al., 2). 

How was this study conducted:

1. Nine first year medical students (the test group) were exposed to DICOM software in their anatomy course, and ten second year medical students (the control group) were exposed to static images in a powerpoint presentation in their anatomy course.
2. The students were given a pre-quiz survey asking them to rank their “confidence in identifying anatomical structures in cardiothoracic imaging using a 10-point Likert scale (1 = not confident at all; 10 = very confident)” (Worley Et al., 2).
3. They were then asked to identify anatomic structures on 15 digital radiographic images, while tracking their eye-movement, focusing on saccade peak velocity and fixation duration.

Findings:

The study found that the first year students exposed to DICOM images did significantly better on the test than the second year students who were not. Despite this, there were no significantly different reported levels of confidence, saccade peak velocities, or fixation durations. As a result, no strong conclusions can be made about whether or not the test group was significantly more capable of reviewing the images or not, but this may also be due to the small sample size of the test group.

While the curriculum change from Power Point images to DICOM software hasn’t proven to create extremely remarkable changes in medical students’ education, it does show some level of improvement in identifying anatomical structures. Despite this, a major limitation of the study is that the second year medical students were provided their Power Point lesson nine months prior to conducting this study, whereas the first year students utilized the DICOM software only two to five months prior to conducting the study. But, this may be rendered moot due to the second year students’ longer exposure to experience with anatomy due to their sophomore status in the program.

Lessons from this Publication

1. It is important to have a large sample size when doing biometric research, as it allows for larger generalizations to be made- which is particularly important in educational contexts for educators to apply the findings of new research to their curriculums and classrooms.

1. The researchers also asked participants how long they spent studying for the quiz, but due to the open-ended nature of their question, they weren’t able to derive any meaningful results. This indicates a need for objective survey questions that can produce distinct results when aiming to create quantifiable data points.
2.  It is important to consider extraneous variables in research. In this publication, the researchers assume that the first years’  more recent exposure to anatomy class “cancels out” the second years’ longer exposure to anatomy, but it is possible that these variables don’t have equal effects on the test subjects.

What does this mean for us?

This study emphasizes the importance of educational uses for biometrics. While statistically insignificant in this study, this method has the opportunity to provide valuable insights when students are required to analyze imagery by watching their patterns, areas of interest, and time spent in each area of interest.

Click here to read the full article.

Worley L, Colley M A, Rodriguez C C, et al. (September 07, 2024) Enhancing Imaging Anatomy Competency: Integrating Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Viewers Into the Anatomy Lab Experience. Cureus 16(9): e68878. doi:10.7759/cureus.68878

Categories: Biometrics Research
Posted by Georgia Hessel on Permanent link for Research Review: "Enhancing Imaging Anatomy Competency: Integrating Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Viewers Into the Anatomy Lab Experience" on January 24, 2025.

Permanent link for Research Review: "Utilizing Sensory and Visual Data in the Value Estimation of Extra Virgin Olive Oil" on January 17, 2025

Keeping up on your New Year’s resolution to cook more? If so, you may find yourself staring down an aisle of the grocery store, looking at infinite brand choices for a product. You’ve probably picked up a fancy, pricey version of a product, thinking to yourself, “is this worth it?”. If you have, you aren’t alone, as shoppers across the globe aim to make informed decisions regarding added product nutrients, where the product is made, and price point. 

A recent study done in Morocco and Tunisia studied that very phenomenon, using a cross-modal study to determine how sensory stimuli and visual stimuli play a role in how much customers are willing to pay (WTP) for a product, specifically, extra virgin olive oil. 

How was this study conducted:

1. Participants were gathered from various cities across Morocco and Tunisia to blind taste test various extra virgin olive oils
2. Afterwards, they were given generic bottles with the origin of each oil and its polyphenol content to try.
3. Participants were then informed about the taste profile of oils with higher polyphenol content, and given an explanation that oils with higher polyphenol content have various health benefits, following the same steps as before.
4. The participants were again asked to try four different olive oils, with plain bottles similar to stages 2 and 3.
5. Participants were asked to try olive oils again, this time seeing images of the front and back sides of each oil’s respective bottle.
6. Each participant was shown all four bottles and asked to choose one.

Findings:

Based on taste alone, participants generally found all of the olive oils to be worth the same. But when introduced to polyphenol benefits, participants from Tunisia, who seemed to be more aware of polyphenol, gave a higher WTP to the olive oils with more polyphenol, and once the Moroccan participants were educated on polyphenol, they also assigned higher WTPs to the oils with more polyphenol.

But where do biometrics come in? This is what the article shared:

“We were interested in investigating whether the duration of visual attention to different areas of interest (AOI), such as text about the origin and polyphenol content of the extra virgin olive oil, in combination with the characteristics of the oil (including taste, when relevant) and study phases, predicts participants WTP.” (Suurmets, Et al.) “With regards to visual attention, it was found that as the viewing time on AOI_Origin increases by 1 ms, the WTP is estimated to increase by 0.002 MAD”. (Suurmets, Et al.)

In summary, the researchers found that the more time spent looking at certain areas of the bottle, the willingness to purchase increased as well. 

What does this mean for us?

• Researching areas of interest on product packaging in tandem with taste may give us more complex analysis of grocery marketing
• Like other research methods, biometrics can be used in tandem with surveys and interviews to compare a multitude of variables at once
• We can now start to meld research of conscious and unconscious processing together in regards to product research, making for stronger, more reliable data
• Audience education is a critical component of product marketing, as an uninformed audience is less likely to care about a product’s benefit

Next time you’re at the grocery store, take a second to think about what features your eyes are drawn to on a product. 

Click here to read the full article.
Suurmets, S., Clement, J., Piras, S., Barlagne, C., Tura, M., Mokhtari, N., & Thabet, C. (2024). Utilizing Sensory and Visual Data in the Value Estimation of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Foods, 13(18), 2904. http://doi.org/10.3390/foods13182904

Categories: Biometrics Research
Posted by Georgia Hessel on Permanent link for Research Review: "Utilizing Sensory and Visual Data in the Value Estimation of Extra Virgin Olive Oil" on January 17, 2025.

Permanent link for Research Review: "How to accurately measure attention to video advertising" on January 8, 2025

A 2024 study is making waves in attention studies, studying what biometric measures most accurately measure video advertising attention. 

Attention-based analytics are becoming increasingly popular amongst marketers and advertisers, but with a lack of industry standardization for testing procedures, attention metrics have very little comparable validity. This study determined the most accurate biometric measures for attention using iMotions software, comparing each measure to EEG results as a “gold standard”.

How was this study conducted:

1. A pre-test was conducted where participants self-reported how much of their attention was captured from 0-100%. Out of the 100 ads shown, the authors selected 10 ads with very high and low attention ratings.
2. Participants were shown a 4 minute relaxing zen garden video to collect their baseline measurements.
3. Participants watched 60 minutes of television interrupted with 5 ad breaks of 6 ads apiece. Of the 30 ads shown, 10 ads were tested and 20 ads were filler.
4. Assorted physiological measures were tracked such as heart rate, eye tracking, blink duration, fixations per second, individual attention dispersion, skin conductance, and facial expression. These measures were tracked against a “gold standard”: EEG, which “is typically not commercially scalable because it requires measurement in labs but was sufficiently scalable and affordable for the purposes of this study. Lower frequency EEG alpha brain waves indicate low attention; therefore, an EEG signature of attention is alpha dipping below the baseline level (Kolar et  al. 2021; Reeves et  al. 1985)” (Harnett et al., 2024).

Findings:

The researchers found that heart rate through BPM is the most accurate measure of attention. Measuring heart rate with BPM is also linked to conscious processing, which the researchers concluded was indicative higher attention. In the past, researchers criticized self reporting of attention since it doesn’t capture unconscious processing, but the authors argue in this paper that self-reporting is valuable because it captures conscious attention. For this reason, biometric measures such as eye-tracking may not be as useful as we previously thought for tracking attention in video advertisements. This is due to the fact that automatic visual processing can do a lot of heavy lifting while a subject is failing to consciously process anything that is happening on screen. Additionally, measures like eye-tracking don’t account for accompanying audio stimuli. These ideas are backed by the data from this study, where perceived “attention” through eye-tracking don’t correspond to the heart rate BPM measurements or the “gold standard” EEG measurement. 

What does this mean for us?

1. In the next few years, heart rate BPM measurements may emerge as an industry standard practice for measuring attention in video advertisements.
2. Tracking BPM is quite an accessible measurement, meaning we may see an increase in companies using biometric studies to inform their market research and advertisement creation.
3. As advertisers, we should be on the lookout for more research on conscious vs unconscious processing in video advertisements, to further indicate the effects of each on consumers.

Fun facts about the study:

1. The researchers tested heart rate, eye tracking, blink duration, fixations per second, individual attention dispersion, skin conductance, and facial expression.
2. Ideally, fMRI would be used as a golden standard to compare each biometric variable, but since it isn’t scalable, EEG was used instead.
3. The study started with 324 compiled 30 second advertisements, which was narrowed down to 100 for testing, before landing on the 10 used in the study.
4. The ads were from the following categories: “financial services, Internet service providers, online retail, skin care, automotive, whitegoods, electronics, snacks, side dishes, and household cleaners”, and the authors made sure each ad was from a different brand in order to test brand recall.
5. There were 261 participants in the study, resulting in 181 complete data sets.

Click here to read the full article.

Hartnett, N., Bellman, S., Beal, V., Kennedy, R., Charron, C., & Varan, D. (2024). How to accurately measure attention to video advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 1–24. http://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2024.2435164

Categories: Biometrics Research
Posted by Georgia Hessel on Permanent link for Research Review: "How to accurately measure attention to video advertising" on January 8, 2025.

Permanent link for A Look at Techfluence Talks with Dr. Ewa Maslowska on November 12, 2024

Dr. Ewa Maslowska, PhD, visited our students and staff this Wednesday, November 6th 2024 on Zoom with her presentation, Studying Attention To Media Content Across Devices: Implications for Advertising, the first of our Techfluence Talks guest speaker series in the Biometrics Lab.

About Dr. Ewa Maslowska

Ewa is an Associate Professor in the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is also an Affiliate in the Institute of Communications Research, Informatics, and Center for Social and Behavioral Science. Ewa studies people and brands on digital platforms. She also uses experiments and trace data to investigate the effects of (algorithmic) personalization and eWOM on consumers’ attention, perceptions, and decision making. Her current projects are investigating dark patterns and fake online reviews. Ewa received her PhD in Communication from the University of Amsterdam and her MA in Psychology from the Jagiellonian University. 

Presentation Recap

Ewa’s presentation taught students about biometrics research techniques, history, and ethics. First, she explained various biometric research metrics including eye tracking, galvanic skin response, heart rate, and facial expression analysis. She went on to discuss her work specifically looking at eye tracking, including fixations, gaze points, time spent, heatmaps, areas of interest, and revisits. These measures help us to learn how people process information, and what they are engaged with on the screen. Her own work has focused on themes of e-commerce, information processing, preference formation, decision making, and learning. 

Ewa also discussed the evolution of digital media and biometrics technology. She shared fascinating insights, such as that people tend to focus on pictures in desktop ads, and headings on mobile devices. She expressed that there are cultural and behavioral differences in the way we express emotion, and it’s important to consider these factors when analyzing biometric data. Furthermore, she emphasized the importance of ethical use of biometrics in advertising, as it can potentially be invasive to the user.

After her thorough presentation, audience members asked thoughtful questions about using biometrics with surveys and interviews, the benefits of teaching advertising and public relations students about biometrics, and AI/privacy concerns with biometrics.

What’s Next for the Lab?

Stay tuned for Winter semester 2025, in which the AdPR Biometrics Lab will be hosting another guest speaker for Techfluence Talks. In the meantime, you can get updates from the lab through our website 9dap.eduftp.net/soc/biometrics and follow us on Instagram at @gvsubiometricslab. You can read more about Dr. Ewa Maslowska at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign's website.

Thank you for visiting us, Dr. Ewa!

Posted by Georgia Hessel on Permanent link for A Look at Techfluence Talks with Dr. Ewa Maslowska on November 12, 2024.

Permanent link for Systematic Review of Eye Tracking on October 4, 2024

Here are some of the latest trends in eye tracking research, as it pertains to consumer behavior.

Click here to read the full article.

Categories: Biometrics News Biometrics Research
Posted by Georgia Hessel on Permanent link for Systematic Review of Eye Tracking on October 4, 2024.

Permanent link for Research Finds "Most Annoying Advertisements" on October 4, 2024

Advertisements are at least a little annoying, and advertisers can even corroborate that idea. However, a new study by the Department of Management Science and Technology at the University of Patras in Greece determined which ads are considered the most annoying by young digital natives.

51 participants were asked to navigate a website, on which various ads were displayed on different pages. Each of the ads was a different style: right rail, right rail animated, non-modal, modal, banner, intra content with content reorganization, and intra content without content reorganization. (See each type below)

After navigating the website, participants were asked which ads were most annoying. The findings concluded that 72.5% of users found the modal (popup) advertisement annoying, followed by intra content with content reorganization ads, which bothered 13.7% of users. Meanwhile, right rail and nonmodal ads were considered the least annoying. 

How does this relate to biometrics?

While the participants were skimming the website, their eye movement was being tracked. The data showed that while individuals were most annoyed by the modal ad, they looked at it extremely quickly when it arrived on screen, looked at it for a long time (relative to other ad types), and dwelled on it for more than 50% of the time it was on screen, nearly 40% higher than the next highest dwell time of an ad, which is intra content with content reorganization. Despite this, it is notable that modal advertisements were rarely revisited, whereas other ad types had a much more significant amount of return views. 

What does this mean for advertisers?

When advertising towards a younger, more technologically literate audience, it is important to consider the negative impacts of advertising. While modal ads may scream “buy me!” and catch every viewer’s attention, the negative impact of interrupting a user’s experience on a website may not outweigh the benefits.

On the other hand, right-rail advertisements are a great way to remain noninvasive while getting a viewer’s message across.

Fun Fact: In this study, participants revisited right rail ads an average of 3.44 times but only revisited animated right rail ads 0.25 times. Next time you create a right rail ad, consider that simple may be best!

Check out the original article here.

Categories: Biometrics Research
Posted by Georgia Hessel on Permanent link for Research Finds "Most Annoying Advertisements" on October 4, 2024.

Permanent link for New Grad Assistant in Lab on September 24, 2024

GVSU’s Biometrics Lab in the School of Communications has a new member joining the team!

Meet Georgia Hessel, she/her, a current graduate school student studying for her master’s in communications. Georgia received her undergraduate degree double majoring in Advertising and Public Relations as well as Film and Video in Winter of 2024.

During her undergrad, she was president of STAGE, GV’s theatre club, for two years, and directed the club’s first musical, Legally Blonde, winning the Outstanding President Award at GVSU’s Student Life Awards. She was also on the creative team for GVSU’s 2022-2023 NSAC team, and was a very active member in the Film and Video community, production designing, directing, and producing various classroom and personal projects.

Outside of school, Georgia loves to paint, craft, and collect plants. She has recently taken up her grandparents’ hobby of flower design, and has been enjoying entering competitions this past summer.

As the Graduate Assistant for the Biometrics Lab, Georgia will be responsible for continuing professor research at the university, creating blog content and instructional videos, running lab tests, and leading classroom outreach initiatives. 

Meet Georgia in the lab at Lake Superior Hall Room 125.

Posted on Permanent link for New Grad Assistant in Lab on September 24, 2024.

Permanent link for Native Advertising vs. Banner Advertising: An Eye-Tracking Experiment on October 28, 2023

Introduction

Facebook is a crowded marketplace for advertisers, and people often ignore ads. This makes it challenging to grab users' attention on social media.

Research Study

A recent study investigated the connection between ad formats (native vs. banner) and visual attention and conceptual persuasion knowledge. The research also examined the impact of visual attention and conceptual persuasion knowledge on brand recognition and brand attitude.

Methodology

The study used an eye-tracker to track how people viewed ads on a fictitious Facebook page. The eye-tracker recorded 300 measurements per second, which allowed the researchers to understand how people interacted with the ad.

Findings

The study found that people paid more attention to native ads than banner ads on Facebook. Native ads are designed to blend in with the surrounding content, making them less likely to be ignored. Native ads also had a more positive impact on people's attitudes towards the brand.

Implications for Brand Managers

The study has several implications for brand managers. First, they should use more native ads to ensure potential customers see them. Second, native ads can educate potential customers about the brand and its products. Third, brand managers should be aware of the evolving behaviors of consumers on social media. As people become more familiar with native ads, they may learn to ignore them. Therefore, brand managers need to be creative and innovative in using native ads.

Conclusion

Native advertising is a more effective way to reach and engage potential customers on Facebook than banner advertising. Native ads are less likely to be ignored and have a more positive impact on brand attitude. However, brand managers need to be aware of the evolving behaviors of consumers on social media and be creative in using native ads.

Link to the original study: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10660-021-09523-7

Categories: Biometrics Research
Posted by Imran Mazid on Permanent link for Native Advertising vs. Banner Advertising: An Eye-Tracking Experiment on October 28, 2023.