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Responses to arts and entertainment media offer a valuable window into human behaviour. Many individuals worldwide spend the vast majority of their leisure time engaging with video content at home. However, there are few ways to study engagement and attention in this natural home viewing context. We used motion-tracking of the head via a web-camera to successfully measure real-time cognitive engagement in 132 individuals while they watched 30 minutes of streamed theatre content at home. Head movement was negatively associated with engagement across a constellation of measures. Individuals who moved less reported feeling more engaged and immersed, evaluated the performance as more engaging, and were more likely to express interest in watching further. Our results demonstrate the value of in-home remote motion tracking as a low-cost, scalable metric of cognitive engagement, which can be used to collect audience behaviour data in a natural setting.

In experiment 2, we found evidence of motor adaptation in response to a constant visual feedback delay within our non-predictable target acquisition task. This finding was interesting and unexpected, as predictability is often considered a necessary component for adaptation (e.g., Sheridan, 1993). Furthermore, Rohde et al. (2014) previously demonstrated that participants do not show evidence of an after-effect or updated motor plan in non-predictable tasks. Interestingly, the adaptation process we observed appears to differ from previous examples of visuomotor adaptation. Typically, participants will update their motor plan to directly counteract the displacement, e.g., shooting in front of a moving target to accomodate the delay. However, such an update was not possible within our task, as the future location of the static target was non-predictable. However, we observed a 'conservative adaptation', where participants would develop a new motor plan that served to minimise movement distance by keeping the movement trajectory unidirectional. Participants would make a ballistic movement that intentionally undershot the target, followed by a small corrective movement. This minimsed movement distance by preventing overshoots. Although this appeared to be a conscious strategy update, this motor behaviour continued once the delay was removed. This is evidenced by the increase in mean completion time from the no-delay pre-exposure phase to the no-delay post-exposure phase. Participants were unable to abandon this motor plan, and it consequently interfered with performance once the temporal perturbation was removed, a common marker of adaptation. In experiment 3, we aim to investigate this 'conservative visuomotor adaptation' process further. This apparent adaptation occured within a non-predictable task without a reference signal, an observation inconsistent with previous delay literature. Therefore we further explore the potential differences between this 'conservative visuomotor adaptation' and traditional visuomotor adaptation by investigating whether itoccurs in response to a varying delay, a condition that prevents traditional visuomotor adaptation (e.g., Davis et al., 2010; Wilson et al., 2020).

Performance recovery following repeated exposure to a visual feedback delay is often attributed to visuomotor adaptation. However, visuomotor adaptation is not always possible, namely in tasks without a predictable reference signal (Rohde et al., 2014), as the motor plan cannot be updated to directly counteract the temporal displacement (e.g., executing the motor plan earlier). Furthermore, within our acquisition task, the optimal motor plan does not change between delay and non-delay conditions. For example, a movement distance of 10cm between the cursor and target is unnafected by the delay. Therefore, the motor plan does not need 'updating', but rather the participant must improve their visuomotor mapping, increasing the precision of their movement to overcome the latent visual feedback. Therefore, an alternative explanation for post-delay performance recovery in non-predictable tasks is visuomotor learning (visuomotor mapping development). Carnahan et al. (1996) found evidence of visuomotor learning within their delayed tracking task. They found that not only did delay exposure result in skill transfer, they also found that these participants demonstrated a larger degree of skill transfer than those who completed the non-delayed task. They reasoned that this occurred because participants in the delay condition fixated on the stable target, rather than the spatially unstable cursor. In later research, it was shown that increased target fixation and performance improvement are associated during visuomotor learning (Sailer et al., 2005). Therefore, it is possible that delay exposure may facilitate visuomotor learning. In the present study, we will investigate this conclusion with two key aims. The first is to identify whether the visuomotor learning supports performance recovery in a delayed non-predictable target acquisition task. The second is to identify whether the delayed visual feedback promotes visuomotor learning within our task.

This project aims to identify, principally, whether older adults display greater movement variability than younger adults, resulting in slower adaptation and aftereffect decay rates. Secondly, it aims to investigate whether the degree of baseline movement variability between individuals can partially predict the rate of adaptation and/or aftereffect decay rate. Finally, it aims to evaluate the effects of two perturbations of different magnitudes on the rate of adaptation in young and aged adults.

Visual search is a behavior we engage in regularly. In addition to explicit searches like looking for a car key, many other situations are also considered visual searches, even though we would not classify them as such at first (e.g. searching for the letter “A” on the keyboard). These searches entail complex attentional and memory processes, which can be studied by means of the visual search paradigm. In this approach, participants are instructed to search for one or more targets embedded in a display of distractors and to decide whether the target is absent or present. In real-life situations, visual searches are often performed under time pressure (e.g. we must find the car key as quickly as possible to avoid running late for an appointment). At times, we decide to interrupt an ongoing search to begin a new one. For example, we interrupt our search for the car key to find the public transportation card as a better alternative. In the proposed experiment, we want to explore the extent to which time pressure affects visual search. To this end, we will ask participants to perform two consecutive searches for a target on two different displays while we record their eye movements. The experiment will include three experimental conditions with varying time pressure to complete both searches (search 1 + search 2). In each trial, the participant will be encouraged to try to find both targets, but she/he will also have the possibility to interrupt the first search at any given point to continue to the second search.

Bristol Arts Channel is an arts & culture initiative happening across Bristol during a global emergency and lockdown (COVID19). The core aim of the initiative is to reignite a sense of community and belonging in times of drastic isolation, as well as to to increase participation and support local artists and venues. An emergent social identity in a time of crisis can have powerful implications for community resilience and empowerment. Beyond its direct impact, the initiative explores the timely question of how a local arts scene can be reimagined and expanded digitally. A study will be carried out to collect audience impressions and insights. The research will adopt a survey methodology and consists of two closely related studies. The aim of the study is examine questions related to the psychological outcomes of taking part in the initiative, its potential economic value and the meaning of locality in the digitalisation of arts and culture events. The registration includes a brief research proposal, list of research questions and hypotheses, illustrative analysis plan, and a copy of planned surveys.

Visuomotor adaptation and movement accuracy have both been shown to decline with age. This project aims to determine whether there is a link between these two age-related changes, in that greater movement variability may negatively impact on the rate of adaptation. Young, healthy participants will be asked to complete a visuomotor adaptation task, formed of three phases, baseline, adaptation and aftereffect. During the baseline phase, participants will be asked to perform a ballistic movement to point at on-screen visual targets using a joystick-controlled cursor. During the adaptation phase, participants will be required to perform the same task as before, but the on-screen cursor movement will have a 35-degree visual rotation applied, so that a conflict is produced between the predicted and actual motor outcome. Participants will be required to adapt to this perturbation, in order to move the joystick-controlled cursor to the visual target appropriately. Finally, during the aftereffect phase, visual displacement will be removed and the participants will be asked to perform the same task as outlined in the baseline phase. The effect of movement accuracy (motor skill) on rate of adaptation will be investigated by comparing the rate of adaptation between participant's dominant and non-dominant hands. Participants will complete the task twice in one one-hour session, once with their dominant and once with their non-dominant hand. A one minute break will be given between the two attempts.

Recent work has used physiological measures such as heart rate and skin conductance to assess audience engagement (Richardson et al., 2020). For example, when processing narratives, audiences demonstrate physiological synchrony (Perez et al., 2021) which may fluctuate based on how engaging the content is at each moment (Song et al., 2021). However, these measures have not been validated against traditional self-report engagement questionnaires, or across many different genres of content. In this study, we will measure participants heart rate and skin conductance while they watch audiovisual content. After each clip, participants will complete the narrative engagement scale (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009) to rate their engagement. We will investigate whether there is a correlation between individual’s engagement ratings and physiological responses.

Secondary task reaction-times have been used within audience psychology to investigate the attentional demands of various media stimuli (e.g. Hinde, Smith & Gilchrist, 2018). This method has been used to draw conclusions about how engaged individuals are in the media, however has not been validated against more traditional measures of engagement (e.g. retrospective questionnaires). Therefore in this study, we will measure participants reaction times to a secondary task (responding to high and low pitch tones) and self-reported scores on the narrative engagement scale (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009) to assess whether they are correlated.

How we feel is known to influence the decisions we make. Specifically, people in negative affective states tend to make more ‘pessimistic’ decisions than those in positive affective states in response to uncertainty. We aim to confirm that individuals with negative trait affect make more pessimistic decisions when faced with ambiguous stimuli, and to determine how negative trait affect influences decision-making processes at the individual level by applying computational modelling. Further to this, we aim to differentiate between how anxiety versus depression symptoms influence decision-making under ambiguity.

This experiment is based upon the results of Crowe, Howard, Gilchrist, and Kent (2021) who explored the effect of motion on visual search in a change event task. The authors developed a dynamic visual search task, which involved monitoring the display for a critical change event, to investigate the effect that dynamic stimuli may have on the detection of a feature change in visual search (Crowe, Howard, Gilchrist, & Kent, 2021). Participants needed to search for an orientation change of Gabor patches, where the display showed either all static or all dynamic stimuli or a combination of static and dynamic stimuli with either a static or dynamic target (Crowe et al., 2021). Crowe et al. found that motion of the distractors and the target itself slowed down change detection. Crowe et al. suggest that the motion of the target and distractor stimuli silence fast feature change detection, as seen in the ‘Motion Silencing Effect’ (MSE) with other types of stimuli (Suchow & Alvarez, 2011a). The MSE is a visual illusion where a stimulus display changing in size, shape, hue or brightness appears to change more slowly in its respective stimulus dimension once the display starts to rotate, with an apparent cessation of stimulus change at higher rotation speeds (Suchow & Alvarez, 2011a). The authors initially suggested that motion silences the detection of this feature change, despite participants attending to the display and being aware that the stimuli are changing (Suchow & Alvarez, 2011b). It is plausible that the MSE is contributing to the finding by Crowe et al. (2021) of motion possessed by both the target and distractor stimuli slowing down rapid feature change detection. However, the search task employed by Crowe et al. is complex in comparison to the methods used in more ‘classic’ motion silencing experiments. The latter usually employ psychophysical methods, in the form of method-of-adjustment or binary choice tasks, where the observer fixates their gaze on a constrained display of changing stimuli arranged in an annulus (Choi, Bovik, & Cormack, 2014; Suchow & Alvarez, 2011a). To the authors’ best knowledge, no task has yet investigated the MSE in a visual search task, or any task that may translate to more real-world applications. As such, this study aims to investigate the role of the MSE in dynamic change detection tasks, which require visual search for successful task completion. To approach the question of whether dynamic change detection tasks are also subject to motion silencing, the authors have decided to approximate the study by Crowe et al. (2021) gradually, through an initial exploration into the occurrence of the MSE in static and dynamic Gabor patch displays. Here, each Gabor patch changes orientation, and the displays will be shown at different rotational speeds. The participants will be required to make a binary judgement after each visual display, to indicate whether they were able to perceive the orientation change of the individual Gabor patches, or not.

A key challenge in audience experience research is being able to measure and understand audience immersion: the moments when audiences become fully captivated by an artistic experience. Beyond entertainment, the experience of immersion, or cognitive absorption, is critical to domains such as learning and memory, performance, persuasion. There is evidence to suggest that there are observable markers of immersion, among which are changes in audience motion (e.g., Theodorou & Healey, 2017) and synchrony (Farmer et al., 2020; Dmochowski et al., 2014). Identifying such markers would allow for the development of unobtrusive measures of momentary immersion. However, to date there has been no systematic large-scale attempt to identify behavioural markers of audience immersion in naturalistic setting. The aim of this study is to provide an in-depth analysis of movement patterns of home audiences. Dmochowski, J. P., Bezdek, M. A., Abelson, B. P., Johnson, J. S., Schumacher, E. H., & Parra, L. C. (2014). Audience preferences are predicted by temporal reliability of neural processing. Nature Communications, 5, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5567 Farmer, H., Bevan, C., Green, D., Rose, M., Cater, K., & Stanton Fraser, D. (2020). Did you see what I saw?: Comparing attentional synchrony during 360° video viewing in head mounted display and tablets. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000332 Theodorou, L., & Healey, P. G. T. (2017). What can Hand Movements Tell us about Audience Engagement ? Introduction : Interacting with Audiences. 3302–3307. https://mindmodeling.org/cogsci2017/index.html

Immersion is a phenomenon characterised by deep mental involvement and an orientation of attention away from the real world, and has been documented across a wide range of media stimuli (e.g. book, cinema, gaming, virtual reality, live performance). However, there is comparatively little research which investigates this sensation of immersion across different media types. In this study, we will compare immersion while audiences watch a television programme with the audio content removed and subtitles enabled (Condition 1), to the same programme with the visual content removed and audio-description enabled (Condition 2). This way the content will share the same narrative information, but differ in all low-level sensory properties. Immersion will be measured indirectly through continuous physiological recording of heart rate and skin conductance, and using retrospective self-report questionnaires. Our aim is to understand the relative contributions of narrative, visual, and auditory properties towards immersion.