Author(s) Bärbel Garsoffky (Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien) - b.garsoffky@iwm-tuebingen.de Stephan Schwan (Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien) - s.schwan@iwm-tuebingen.de
Pre-registered on 2020/12/08 23:26 (PT)
1) Have any data been collected for this study already? No, no data have been collected for this study yet.
2) What's the main question being asked or hypothesis being tested in this study? Does the arrangement of visual information in a 3D room influence memory of this information? Which viewpoints does a viewer chose when trying to memorize visual information placed on the walls of a room?
Hypotheses: (1) Visual information belonging together is better memorized if presented on the same wall in the learning phase compared to if being distributed on two different walls. (2) Viewers orient their central viewing axis more often to the middle of a wall than to a corner.
3) Describe the key dependent variable(s) specifying how they will be measured. Participants´ task: We examine the correctness of visual memory with a kind of “memory play cards”. In the learning phase participants stay in a virtual room and see several pictures (cards) showing different motifs hanging on three of four walls, a little bit like in a museum. All pictures in one room belong to the same category, e.g. “fruits”. Every motif occurs twice in the room, e.g. two cards present the same picture of an “orange” as motif. In the test phase the participants stay in the same virtual room as in the learning phase, but now all cards are turned and only their black back is visible. Then in each trial one card is turned so the motif can be seen and another card (only black back visible) is marked by a square. Then the participants have to press one of two buttons to decide if the marked card (if it would be turned around) would show the same motif as the card with the visible motif or not.
Measuring memory: For analysis of memory, nonparametric sensitivity A´ and nonparametric response bias B´´ will be calculated according to signal detection theory (Macmillan & Creelman, 2005; Stanislaw & Todorov, 1999). Participants with an overall Sensitivity A´ < .5 are excluded, because values < .5 point to sampling errors or response confusion (Stanislaw & Todorov, 1999).
Measuring direction of central viewing axis: The viewing direction to the middle of the wall vis-à-vis the door in the virtual room is defined as 0 degree and then 360 degrees are defined in the horizontal plane in clockwise direction. During the learning phase every 0.5 second, the degree of a participant´s central viewing axis will be recorded.
4) How many and which conditions will participants be assigned to? 2x2 within Design; (1) variable “wall” (the two cards in one trial are arranged on one wall or on two different walls; (2) variable “distance” (between the two cards of one trial are 1 or 3 other cards)
5) Specify exactly which analyses you will conduct to examine the main question/hypothesis. The experiment studies the effect of “wall” on memory, and additionally the direction of central viewing axis in the learning phase.
Sensitivity and response bias of memory will be measured (according to SDT, Macmillan & Creelman, 2005; Stanislaw & Todorov, 1999) and a two-factorial repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) for each of the two depended measures will be conducted with the variables “wall” (same vs. different walls) and “distance” (one vs. three cards between). Main hypothesis: Sensitivity is better, if the two cards are located on one instead of two different walls (i.e. main effect on the variable “wall”). Further hypothesis: Memory will be better if two cards are separated by only one instead of three cards (main effect of the variable “distance”). For exploratory purposes we will also look if there is an interaction between “wall” and “distance”. Concerning the response bias, we expect participants to answer more liberal if the two cards are presented on one instead of two walls and if there are only one instead of three cards between them (main effects on response bias).
Exploratorily, it will be described how long each participant looked in each direction of 360 degrees. Then, a single-factorial repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be conducted with the variable “viewing direction” (central viewing axis towards “middle of a wall” and “towards a corner”). Therefore, only those viewing directions will be analyzed, when a participant´s central viewing axis was either on the middle of a wall with pictures (355 – 5 degrees, 265 – 275 degrees, 85 – 95 degrees) or towards a corner between two walls with pictures (310 – 320 degrees, 40 – 50 degrees). We expect participants to look more often on the middle of a wall than of a corner (main effect). Before analyzing viewing directions, the first 5 seconds of each participant after starting a new room will be omitted from analysis because for ecological validity, the central viewing axis after start in a new room always is 0 degree. Additionally, data during which a participant pressed one of the arrow keys (“turning around, moving eyes”) will be deleted before analysis.
6) Describe exactly how outliers will be defined and handled, and your precise rule(s) for excluding observations. We will exclude data of a participant if this participant leaves the experimental procedure before it ends, if he or she does not work thoroughly (e.g. hiting always the same button), if he or she has an overall sensitivity A´< .5 (Stanislaw & Todorov, 1999), if he or she reloads the virtual realities during the experimental session, or if he or she uses a tablet or handy for participation.
7) How many observations will be collected or what will determine sample size? No need to justify decision, but be precise about exactly how the number will be determined. This is a replication of the prior study “infoanordnung02” (preregistered as #45012). In this prior study data of 22 participants were analyzed and showed a significant effect of "wall" on sensitivity (partial Eta Square = 0.38). Based on this value, G-Power suggests a sample size of n = 25. Because we will make an online study (Prolific) and there is always the possibility that we have to exclude participants, we will sample data of 30 participants.
8) Anything else you would like to pre-register? (e.g., secondary analyses, variables collected for exploratory purposes, unusual analyses planned?) This is an online study using Prolific and a replication of the study preregistered as "infoanordnung02" (#45012) with two changes: (i) central viewing axis is measured additionally, (ii) now conditions are fully randomized (in infoanordnung02 participants each worked on each condition in a randomized order, but unfortunately, because of a programming error, the order of conditions did not vary across participants).
