360-degree indirect visual display (IVD) is becoming inevitable for emerging display technologies like security andsurveillance tasks. In this paper, we evaluated the effect of free- compared to goal-oriented exploration of an unknownvirtual environment on spatial knowledge, while using desktop 360-degree IVD. The ’goal-oriented exploration’ in thisstudy required returning to the starting position in order to complete the exploration. Spatial knowledge was assessed bycomparing the map-sketch score against the exploration-type. We found no difference in spatial knowledge across theexploration-types. However, participants with gaming experience scored significantly higher map-sketch score across theexploration-types, indicating the advantage of previous experience.

The current study examines the interaction between predisposed mood, perceptual processing, and induced mood using music. We conducted an experiment in which participants were asked to identify stimuli at global or local (G/L) perceptual levels with four different background music conditions, which had different valence and arousal ratings. We used BMIS to assess current mood and PHQ-9 and GAD-7 to assess depression and anxiety, and divided the participants into two groups: distress and no distress (encompassing both disorders). We found a main effect of background music on mood. However, the distress group showed an overall low mood. Further, we observed an overarching effect of predisposed mood, encompassing depression and anxiety, on individuals' transient mood experience and perceptual task performance. Individuals in the non-distress group showed a larger global-precedence effect. The results are discussed in light of emotional reactivity theories and the theory of positive emotion.

COVID-19 implied social distancing, forced behavioural changes, and the economic downturn has been associated with poor mental health and wellbeing. Depression and suicide are the highly predicted psychosocial risks caused by the pandemic crises. Early studies evaluating the effect of COVID-19 on psychiatric health have succeeded in developing screening measures. However, they have been limited in understanding its relations with individual psychological flexibility. An individual's psychological flexibility determines the ability to fight against such adversities on an immediate time scale and the future psychotherapeutic treatment. We conducted an online study to examine the relationship between psychological flexibility and risks to depression and their relationship with COVID-19 peritraumatic distress. We used Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI), Beck's Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI) to measure the above psychological factors. The results are discussed in light of individual psychological flexibility and its association with BDI-II and CPDI outcomes.

Previous research shows that performance is better when a highpitch is responded with up or right responses and a low pitch isresponded with down or left responses, called the spatial-pitchassociation of response codes (SPARC) effect. Despite the in-tuitive coupling of perception-action, studies investigating theSPARC effect have, however, used feedback to manipulate thestimulus-response mapping. Feedback contradicts the purposeof intuitive stimulus-response mapping by enabling short-termlearning. This study primarily investigates the role of feedbackon SPARC effect. We believe that feedback can facilitate in-congruent mapping and can, therefore, reduce the cost betweenincongruent and congruent mapping resulting in a diminishedSPARC effect. Our results, however, show that feedback hasno influence on the SPARC effect indicating that long-termassociations can not be overcome by short-term learning dueto robust perception-action coupling. Further, unlike previousstudies, we observed a strong horizontal SPARC effect in non-musicians as well.

Analytic reasoning differences, as gauged from intelligence metrics, in students engaged in streams requiring a predom-inantly divergent (arts) or convergent thinking (science and engineering) is a topic of interest. In this paper we haveexamined this difference by a modified sequence of two sections (D & E) of the Standard Ravens Progressive matrices(RPM). The scan path gaze behavior was analyzed with an eye tracker. The 30 engineering students (half of them arealso trained in fine arts) scored higher than the 15 fine arts students. In the former cohort, the artistic and the non-artisticset show no difference in performance but the scan path, fixation count and time taken indicate possible differences invisual strategies for pattern identification. From the detailed analysis, we argue that intelligence as measured by RPM isenhanced by training in reasoning and logic as in engineering streams and might not reflect an innate ability.

Emergency signages are crucial for safe evacuations but have been challenged by inconsistent and ambiguous designs. We conducted two experiments to evaluate a specific emergency signage design, i.e., running man's pictogram, in ease of conveying the direction to exit an unknown building. We compared the running man's pictogram with traditional arrow signage in exp.1, and in exp. 2, we examined the key features that contribute to the running man's composition. In both conditions, the participant's task was to determine the running man's/ arrow's orientation and press the instructed corresponding keys. We observed a faster and more accurate response for the right arrow than the right running man in experiment 1. Further, in exp. 2, the head/face component showed an advantage in identifying the running man's orientation over the leg/hand. Results suggest running man alone in emergency signage may be risky, especially when it is incomplete without a head and face.

The current study examines the role of constraints in well-defined problem-solving in ill-defined problem-solving. We chose variants of Raven’s advanced progressive matrices(APM) for well-defined problem-solving and creative reasoning tasks (CRT) for ill-defined problem-solving. Using traditional APM, we created a novel version of APM with comparatively lesser constraints available to solve the puzzle, called creative APM(cAPM). The cAPM task was designed to induce divergent thinking along with convergent thinking. It is assumed that the difference in constraints changes the nature of the problem space in solving APM and cAPM and may differently affect the following creative reasoning task. We randomly assigned 50 participants to perform APM or cAPM, followed by the CRT, in a fixed order. We observed a significant effect of constraints available to solve well-defined problems on ill-defined problem-solving. The current result shows higher CRT scores when CRT preceded cAPM (Median = 79.25) than APM (Median = 53.00). The result suggests that the flexibility in constraints to solve a well-defined problem induces more divergent thinking alongside convergent thinking and facilitates creative thinking required in ill-defined problem-solving.

Recently, there has been research on what factors influence a user’s password setting practices, which include various types of emotions such as anger, risk-taking tendencies, etc. However, research has shown that factors such as memorability and perceived memorability have a greater influence on password choice. Some recent research has shown a negative correlation between the perceived memorability and the perceived security of passwords, particularly passphrases (that are technically more secure). However, it is unclear whether this effect can be extended to groups with good experiences with digital spaces (IT professionals, entrepreneurs, etc.). Furthermore, it has not been determined whether random, uncommonly-worded, or complex structure passphrases would also maintain the correlation, as opposed to relatively less secure, common/simple passphrases. This study examines this problem using a diverse demographic and different categories of passphrases.