FOCUS ON SECURITY: TESTING THE LABEL-FEEDBACK EFFECT AND ITS INTERACTION WITH OBJECT DANGEROUSNESS IN VISUAL SEARCH.

The label-feedback hypothesis (Lupyan, 2012) states that language can modulate visual processing. In particular, hearing or reading aloud target names (labels) speeds up performance in visual search tasks by facilitating target detection. The current study conceptually expands previous investigations by comparing the effect of a multimodal label presentation (i.e., an audio+visual, AV, priming label), with that of a multimodal (i.e. noise+visual, NV, label) and two unimodal (i.e. audio, A, label or visual, V, label) control conditions in a visual search task. Furthermore, the name of a category (i.e. a label at the superordinate level) was used as a cue, instead of the more commonly used target name (a basic level label), with targets belonging to one of three categories: proper weapons, improper weapons, garments. According to legislation, objects are typically classified as weapons if they are offensive per se (referred to here as proper) and if they are adapted for use as weapons or carried with the intent of causing injury (referred to here as improper), with specific regulations on their usage and possession in public spaces. However, little evidence exists on the validity of this distinction in psychology, despite a widespread recognition of the importance of psychological states and perceptions in risk assessment. These categories were found to vary for their structure, improper weapons being an ad hoc category unlike proper weapons and garments, and for the perceived dangerousness and familiarity of their exemplars, which increase from garments to proper weapons. Results of the two experiments on the label-feedback effect show an overall transient facilitation of visual search performance in the AV condition compared to control conditions. However, for improper weapons, no significant difference was found between the AV and the NV label condition, suggesting that the specificity of the superordinate label effect can be modulated by the structural properties of a category. The findings are consistent with the idea that the AV condition prompted an "up regulation" of the label, a requirement for enhancing the label’s beneficial effects, with the exception of improper weapons. They also highlight the status of the category of improper weapons and offer additional proof that sets it apart from proper weapons.