To investigate the impact of four visual elements, namely text, colour, image, and shape, on the visual perception of Chinese consumers when observing nutrition labels, as well as to enhance their attention towards nutritional information, this study examines the visual effects of nutrition labels incorporating these elements through eye movement experiments, questionnaire surveys, subjective evaluations, and other research methods. The aim is to determine the optimal design solution. The results revealed that participants displayed the highest level of attention towards the round x image group, followed by the colour group. Thus, exceptional image design and a suitable colour scheme can significantly enhance consumers\' attention during browsing. This study offers valuable references and guidance for the redesign of food nutrition labels, while also presenting research insights for the application of visual perception in other domains.

In environments teeming with distractions, the ability to selectively focus on relevant information is crucial for advanced cognitive processing. Existing research using event-related potential (ERP) technology has shown active suppression of irrelevant stimuli during the consolidation phase of visual working memory (VWM). In previous studies, participants have always been given sufficient time to consolidate VWM, while suppressing distracting information. However, it remains unclear whether the suppression of irrelevant distractors requires continuous effort throughout their presence or whether this suppression is only necessary after the consolidation of task-relevant information. To address this question, our study examines whether distractor suppression is necessary in scenarios where consolidation time is limited. This research investigates the effect of varying presentation durations on the filtering of distractors in VWM. We tasked participants with memorizing two color stimuli and ignoring four distractors, presented for either 50 ms or 200 ms. Using ERP technology, we discovered that the distractor-induced distractor positivity (PD) amplitude is larger during longer presentation durations compared to shorter ones. These findings underscore the significant impact of presentation duration on the efficacy of distractor suppression in VWM, as prolonged exposure results in a stronger suppression effect on distractors. This study sheds light on the temporal dynamics of attention and memory, emphasizing the critical role of stimulus timing in cognitive tasks. These findings provide valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying VWM and have significant implications for models of attention and memory.

BACKGROUND: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) refers to individuals\' perceived decline in memory and/or other cognitive abilities relative to their previous level of performance. Sensory decline is one of the main manifestations of decline in older adults with SCD. The efficient integration of visual and auditory information, known as audiovisual integration, is a crucial perceptual process. This study aims to evaluate audiovisual integration in older adults with SCD.
METHODS: We adopted the audiovisual detection task, the Colavita task, and the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI) task to evaluate the audiovisual integration by examining both redundant and illusory effects. Older adults diagnosed with SCD (N = 50, mean age = 67.8 years) and a control group of non-SCD older adults (N = 51, mean age = 66.5 years) were recruited. All participants took part in the three aforementioned experiments.
RESULTS: The outcomes showed that a redundant effect occurred in both SCD and non-SCD older adults, with SCD older adults gaining more benefits in audiovisual detection task. Moreover, an equivalent amount of the visual dominance effect was observed among both SCD and non-SCD older adults in Colavita task. In addition, older adults with SCD perceived an equal fission illusion but a bigger fusion illusion compared with non-SCD older adults in SIFI task.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, older adults with SCD exhibit increased audiovisual redundant effects and stronger fusion illusion susceptibility compared to non-SCD older adults. Besides, visual dominance was observed in both groups via the Colavita task, with no significant difference between non-SCD and SCD older adults. These findings implied that audiovisual integration might offer a potential way for the identification of SCD.

BACKGROUND: Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we aimed to investigate audiovisual integration neural mechanisms during a letter identification task in the left and right sides. Unimodal (A,V) and bimodal (AV) stimuli were presented on either side, with ERPs from unimodal (A,V) stimuli on the same side being compared to those from simultaneous bimodal stimuli (AV). Non-zero results of the AV-(A + V) difference waveforms indicated audiovisual integration on the left/right side.
RESULTS: When spatially coherent AV stimuli were presented on the right side, two significant ERP components in the integrated differential wave were noted. The N134 and N262, present in the first 300 ms of the AV-(A + V) integration difference wave, indicated significant audiovisual integration effects. However, when these stimuli were presented on the left side, there were no significant integration components. This audiovisual integration difference may stem from left/right asymmetry of cerebral hemisphere language processing.
CONCLUSIONS: Audiovisual letter information presented on the right side was easier to integrate, process, and represent. Additionally, only one significant integrative component peaked at 140 ms in the parietal cortex for spatially non-coherent AV stimuli and provided audiovisual multisensory integration, which could be attributed to some integrative neural processes that depend on the spatial congruity of the auditory and visual stimuli.

The Delboeuf illusion occurs when two circles (test figures) of equal radius are placed side by side and surrounded by concentric circles (inducers) of varying radii, resulting in the test figure being misestimated depending on the size of the surrounding inducer. This study conducted three experiments to explore the impact of shape and the contour attraction and parallel attraction on the Delboeuf illusion for different shapes. In Experiment 1 (n = 64), the test figures remained as circles while the inducers varied in shape. Experiment 2 (n = 64) involved simultaneous changes in the shape of both the test figures and the inducers. Experiment 3 (n = 64) replicated Experiment 2, with the exception that the areas of the inducers were equal and the distances between the inducers and the test figures were also equal. We conclude that the shape of the inducer and the test figure had an impact on the visual size perception, and in the magnitude of the Delboeuf illusion, varied depending on contour attraction. Configurations with circles or shapes resembling circles exhibit contour attraction, while configurations with shapes possessing longer parallel lines shift toward parallel attraction, both attractions enhance the perceived magnitude of the Delboeuf illusion.

Numerous studies on perceptual training exist, however, most have focused on the precision of temporal audiovisual perception, while fewer have concentrated on ability promotion for audiovisual integration (AVI). To investigate these issues, continuous 5-day audiovisual perceptual training was applied, during which electroencephalography was performed in response to auditory-only (A), visual-only (V) and audiovisual (AV) stimuli before and after training. The results showed that the perceptual sensitivity was greater for training group than for control group and was greater in the posttest than in the pretest. The response to the AV stimulus was significantly faster in the posttest than in the pretest for the older training group but was significantly greater for A and V stimuli for the younger training group. Electroencephalography analysis found higher P3 AVI amplitudes [AV-(A + V)] in the posttest than in the pretest for training group, which were subsequently reflected by an increased alpha (8-12 Hz) oscillatory response and strengthened global functional connectivity (weighted phase lag index). Furthermore, these facilitations were greater for older training groups than for younger training groups. These results confirm the age-related compensatory mechanism for AVI may be strengthened as audiovisual perceptual training progresses, providing an effective candidate for cognitive intervention in older adults.

Recent studies have emphasized the association between action and perceptual awareness, suggesting that action-related information can contribute to perceptual awareness. Given that the Level of Processing (LoP) hypothesis proposes that the emergence of awareness depends on the level of stimulus processing, the current study examines whether action impacts perceptual awareness across different processing levels. In Experiment 1, participants identified target stimuli\'s color (low-level task) or category (high-level task) via mouse clicks, followed by visual awareness ratings. Experiment 2 replicated the tasks using hand-grip dynamometers. Results from Experiment 1 support the LoP theory, showing a more gradual emergence of awareness for low-level features and a more dichotomous emergence for high-level features. In Experiment 2, higher reported visual awareness ratings were observed at greater physical effort, regardless of task type. These results suggest that action-related information influences reported awareness of stimuli in the same way at low- and high-level stimulus processing.

Evidence from epidemiological studies suggests that hearing loss is associated with an accelerated decline in cognitive function, but the underlying pathophysiological mechanism remains poorly understood. Studies using auditory tasks have suggested that degraded auditory input increases the cognitive load for auditory perceptual processing and thereby reduces the resources available for other cognitive tasks. Attention-related networks are among the systems overrecruited to support degraded auditory perception, but it is unclear how they function when no excessive recruitment of cognitive resources for auditory processing is needed. Here, we implemented an EEG study using a nonauditory visual attentional selection task in 30 individuals with age-related hearing loss (ARHLs, 60-73 years) and compared them with aged (N = 30, 60-70 years) and young (N = 35, 22-29 years) normal-hearing controls. Compared with their normal-hearing peers, ARHLs demonstrated a significant amplitude reduction for the posterior contralateral N2 component, which is a well-validated index of the allocation of selective visual attention, despite the comparable behavioral performance. Furthermore, the amplitudes were observed to correlate significantly with hearing acuities (pure tone audiometry thresholds) and higher-order hearing abilities (speech-in-noise thresholds) in aged individuals. The target-elicited alpha lateralization, another mechanism of visuospatial attention, demonstrated in control groups was not observed in ARHLs. Although behavioral performance is comparable, the significant decrease in N2pc amplitude in ARHLs provides neurophysiologic evidence that may suggest a visual attentional deficit in ARHLs even without extra-recruitment of cognitive resources by auditory processing. It supports the hypothesis that constant degraded auditory input in ARHLs has an adverse impact on the function of cognitive control systems, which is a possible mechanism mediating the relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline.

In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether long-term music training could improve audio-visual speech integration in Chinese, using event-related brain potential (ERP) measurements. Specifically, we recruited musicians and non-musicians to participate in our experiment where visual Chinese characters were presented simultaneously with congruent or incongruent speech sounds. In order to maintain participants\' focus on both auditory and visual modalities, they were instructed to perform a probe detection task. Our study revealed that for the musicians, audiovisual incongruent stimuli elicited larger N1 and N400 amplitudes compared to audiovisual congruent stimuli. Conversely, for the non-musicians, only a larger N400 amplitude was observed for incongruent stimuli relative to congruent stimuli, without a significant difference in N1 amplitude. Furthermore, correlation analyses indicated that more years of music training was associated with a larger N1 effect for the musicians. These results suggest that musicians were capable of detecting character-speech sound incongruence at an earlier time window compared to non-musicians. Overall, our findings provide compelling evidence that music training is associated with better integration of visual characters and auditory speech sounds in language processing.

For convenience and experimental control, cognitive science has relied largely on images as stimuli rather than the real, tangible objects encountered in the real world. Recent evidence suggests that the cognitive processing of images may differ from real objects, especially in the processing of spatial locations and actions, thought to be mediated by the dorsal visual stream. Perceptual and semantic processing in the ventral visual stream, however, has been assumed to be largely unaffected by the realism of objects. Several studies have found that one key difference accounting for differences between real objects and images is actability; however, less research has investigated another potential difference - the three-dimensional nature of real objects as conveyed by cues like binocular disparity. To investigate the extent to which perception is affected by the realism of a stimulus, we compared viewpoint adaptation when stimuli (a face or a kettle) were 2D (flat images without binocular disparity) vs. 3D (i.e., real, tangible objects or stereoscopic images with binocular disparity). For both faces and kettles, adaptation to 3D stimuli induced stronger viewpoint aftereffects than adaptation to 2D images when the adapting orientation was rightward. A computational model suggested that the difference in aftereffects could be explained by broader viewpoint tuning for 3D compared to 2D stimuli. Overall, our finding narrowed the gap between understanding the neural processing of visual images and real-world objects by suggesting that compared to 2D images, real and simulated 3D objects evoke more broadly tuned neural representations, which may result in stronger viewpoint invariance.