Name: Zhaoyu Wang

Master’s Thesis Proposal Meeting

Date: Monday, December 12th, 2022

Time: 1:00 PM

Location: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/98190540170

Zoom Meeting ID: 981 9054 0170

Advisor: James Roberts, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:
Susan Embretson, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)
Daniel Spieler, Ph.D. ( Georgia Tech)

Abstract: Is the dimensional salience or the perceptual importance of alternative object characteristics quantified in multidimensional scaling techniques related to the seemingly analogous quantity in unfolding models of individual preference for those same objects?  In other words, if an individual does not weigh differences in two objects on a single dimension, then this suggests these two objects would be equally preferred on the basis of only that single dimension because they are perceptually similar. However, just because an individual attends to a perceptual difference between two objects, does not necessarily mean that the perceived difference will ultimately affect the individual’s relative preference for the two objects unless the dimension on which those differences occur is important to the individual’s preference generation process. Our goal is to investigate how dimensional salience in perception and preference are related to each other using data from a physical attraction study conducted with 81 3D computer-generated models. The dimensional salience in perception and preference will be empirically measured using the individual weights in the output of INDSCAL (Individual Difference Scaling) and the coefficients from the Multidimensional External Unfolding Model (EUM), respectively.  After that, we will apply the Independent Samples T-test and F-test to examine the mean and variation of preferential preference with the change of perceptual salience. Furthermore, we will examine the variance in preferential salience as a function of perceptual salience.

There is a substantive body of literature about the salience of alternative dimensions which influence preference judgments in several research fields such as marketing and economics, while few studies exist about salience measurement in psychology. This study will contribute to the literature about dimensional salience of perception and preference in psychology, as well as the measurement of both perceptions and preferences in the physical attraction domain using traditional scaling techniques like INDSCAL and EUM.