https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74118 Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:14:24 GMT 2026-04-07T13:14:24Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74240 Title: Exploring the differences in social and non-social cue responses in relation to autism spectrum quotient scores in the general population Abstract: There are a number of events taking place in our surrounding environment every minute of our lives, all sending different types of information. The individual’s immediate experience of these events and his awareness gives rise to the process of attention. Humans have evolved an adaptive mechanism to encode useful information through eye gaze as well as the ability to shift their attention towards the direction another individual is looking at. However, this process of attention shifting might cause some issues for individuals with attention disorders due to their lack of social skills leading to less eye contact (Conway, Jones, DeBruine & Little, 2007; McCallum, 2015; Lawson, Aylward, Roiser & Rees, 2017). This has motivated the current research study. Firstly, it looked at the difference in reaction times between social (human avatar) and non-social (arrows) cues through two different computer-based tasks. Secondly, it looked at the autism spectrum traits of the general population and compared their response times to their social cueing performance. Results showed an interaction between cue types and validity for the first task but only a main effect of validity for the second task. No correlation was found between the participants’ autism quotient scores and their social cue scores. Despite the limitations, the current study helped to further explore the shift of attention to social and non-social cues in both valid and in valid trials. Also it encourages further research to explore spatial cueing in relation to different levels of autism spectrum traits in the general population. Description: M.SC.COGNITIVE SCIENCE Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74240 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74234 Title: Exploring visual capabilities of the marbled shore crab (Pachygrapsus marmoratus) Abstract: The following work aimed at exploring visual capabilities of the marbled shore crab, Pachygrapsus marmoratus, with a special focus on motion detection. Previous work has shown that the species responds to looming stimuli by receding away from the stimulus. Furthermore, individuals are able to detect movement across their entire visual field. There are indications that the crabs carefully monitor speed and direction of an ongoing approach to adjust their reactions accordingly. However, it is yet unclear which aspects of an approaching object trigger an escape response. In an attempt to answer this question, 26 crabs were presented with video clips from different categories. Results from this study showed that P. marmoratus reacted most sensitively towards octopus videos, suggesting that the crabs were perhaps able to recognise octopuses to some extent. Yet, closer investigation did not deliver significant results. The question remains whether P. marmoratus can distinguish between different types of pictorial content and movement, leaving behind a demand for further research. Description: M.SC.COGNITIVE SCIENCE Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74234 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74232 Title: Influence of active control on motion-induced position shift in a 3-dimensional setting Abstract: It is well known that the perceived location of an object can be considerably influenced by motion signals. The position of a stationary Gaussian window with a locally drifting sinusoidal grating - a Gabor patch, appears to shift in the direction of motion of the carrier stimulus. This robust, illusory phenomenon is referred to as motion-induced position shift (MIPS). It has also been theorized that actions are less prone to visual illusions than are perceptions because the same visual information is coded through anatomically distinct pathways and in a different way for perception as for action. Recent studies have used the motion-induced position shift illusion to explore the effect of active control on the perceived physical position of a target. The results indicated that action systems not only are unable to counteract this form of visual illusion but indeed that the illusionary effect was consistently larger under active conditions. These studies, like much research to date has typically presented the stimuli in a frontoparallel, 2-dimensional plane. To pursue the possibility of creating a more ecologically valid stimulus presentation, this study had the goal to explore the influence of motion-induced position shift during active perceptual tasks in a 3- dimensional setting. For this purpose, a novel game experiment was created using Unity3D to measure and analyse the effect of action under globally moving but locally static or drifting visual stimuli. In one task, participants were required to follow with a drifting Gabor patch a curving line along the floor of a virtual tunnel. The other task entailed participants steering the Gabor to collide with block objects lying along the floor of the tunnel. Clear evidence suggesting an effect of embedded motion on global positional error was recorded in both tasks. The current study suggests that the influence of the illusory position shift due to motion extends to action performed in a 3D setting. Mislocalization of position due to motion is not merely an academic oddity, but can also have real life consequences. Every day, people are required to make judgements about what actions to execute based on what they see and safety research recognizes the import of the influence perceptual visual biases can have on this choice of action in human-machine interactions. This research also adds to the understanding on how these interactions can be designed such that unsafe outcomes can be predicted, avoided or eliminated. Description: M.SC.COGNITIVE SCIENCE Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74232 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74194 Title: The cognitive mechanism behind the Bouba Kiki effect : conventional or synaesthetic sound symbolism? Abstract: The Bouba Kiki effect shows a sound symbolic association between sound and meaning where “rounded” and “angular” nonwords are matched to rounded and angular shapes (or images) respectively. This effect has been widely replicated across languages and cultures causing speculation for its categorisation as a form of synaesthetic sound symbolism, however the possibility of its classification as a form of conventional sound symbolism, or a combination of both forms of sound symbolism, has not yet been ruled out. Here we investigate sound symbolism within a Maltese adult population. A group of participants was trained to oppose the typical Bouba Kiki pattern via a five-day training programme consisting of alternative forced choice tasks. After the training, the trained experimental group sat for a post-test experiment, while a control group solely sat for the post-test experiment. We report that (i) the typical Bouba Kiki effect can be replicated with naïve participants from a Maltese population using Maltese language as a basis for nonwords, and (ii) when compared to naïve participants who were correct more often on items that followed the typical Bouba Kiki pattern, trained participants were correct more often on items that opposed the typical Bouba Kiki pattern, though that latter preference was not strong and failed to reach significance. While these results cannot completely confirm that the Bouba Kiki effect is a form of conventional sound symbolism or a combination of both synaesthetic and conventional sound symbolism, it suggests that sound symbolic associations can be learnt, warranting further research on cross modal associations via the Bouba Kiki effect. Description: M.SC.COGNITIVE SCIENCE Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/74194 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z