The visual perception of volume: Judgment and fixations for objects

Negar Sammaknejad, Donald Hoffman, Amy Escobar, Pete Foley, Julie Kwak

Accepted December 31, 2018

First published December 31, 2018

https://doi.org/10.26387/bpa.283.1

Abstract

Understanding consumers’ perception and judgments of product volume is critical for consumer researchers, package designers, and public health advocates. In this study, in a set of three experiments, observers chose which of two bottle images with different height-to-width ratios depicted greater volume. The elongation bias was replicated and a leftward bias was found. Eye movements were recorded as a measure of attention and pupil dilation was recorded as a measure of cognitive load. Fewer fixations were made to the chosen bottle; the last fixation was more often to the rejected bottle. The top halves of the bottles and the side nearest the alternative bottle receive more attention. There were more fixations, slower responses, and lower confidence for more visually complex bottles. Pupil dilation increased when judging the volume of more complex bottles. The context of a shelf increased confidence in some cases. Implications for packaging design are discussed.

The visual perception of volume: Judgment and fixations for objects

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Sammaknejad Negar. Hoffman Donald. Escobar Amy. Foley Pete. Kwak Julie. The visual perception of volume: Judgment and fixations for objects. BPA Applied Psychology Bulletin. 2018;283(1):2-17. doi:10.26387/bpa.283.1.

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The visual perception of volume: Judgment and fixations for objects

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