An ERP study on instrument form cognition

In order to explore the influence of different types of instruments and color combinations on brain activity, with speedometer as the example, four kinds of dial shapes and four design variables were adapted and studied. Thirty healthy graduate students participated in the study. Participants were required to react by pressing specific keys, respectively, when a pointer pointed to a safe area versus a warning area of a dial; reaction time (RT) and accuracy were recorded. Within each dial shape, combinations with shorter RT and higher accuracy (class-G) and combinations with longer RT and lower accuracy (class-B) were selected and subsequently used as target stimuli for which event-related-potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Through t-tests and ANOVA, similar trends in class-G on P300 amplitude at Fz, Cz, Pz and Oz illustrated that brain activity induced by different dial shapes is similar, and dials in class-B were found to need more attention to read. Furthermore, frontal and parietal alpha band power appears to be significantly higher under class- B. It is worth noting that changed location of warning area reflected the difference of band power.