Using behavior and eye-fixations to detect feigned memory impairment.

Background: Detecting invalid cognitive performance is an important clinical challenge in neuropsychological assessment. The aim of this study was to explore behavior and eye-fixations responses during the performance of a computerized version of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM-C) under standard vs. feigning conditions. Participants and methods: TOMM-C with eye-tracking recording was performed by 60 healthy individuals (31 with standard instruction - SI; and 29 were instructed to feign memory impairment: 21 Naïve Simulators - NS and 8 Coached Simulators - CS) and 14 patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and memory complaints performed. Number of correct responses, response time, number of fixations, and fixation time in old vs. new stimuli were recorded. Nonparametric tests were applied for group comparison. Results: NS produced fewer correct responses and had longer response times in comparison to SI on all three trials. SI showed more fixations and longer fixation time on previously presented stimuli (i.e., familiarity preference) specially on Trial 1, whereas NS had more fixations and longer fixation time on new stimuli (i.e., novelty preference) specially in the Retention trial. MS patients produced longer response time and had a different fixation pattern than SI subjects. No behavioral or oculomotor difference was observed between NS and CS. Conclusion: Healthy simulators have a distinct behavioral and eye-fixation response pattern, reflecting a novelty preference. Oculomotor measures may be useful to detect exaggeration or fabrication of cognitive dysfunction. Though, its application in clinical populations may be limited.

Face naming and recollection represent key memory deficits in developmental prosopagnosia.

Previous studies have found that face perception deficits do not fully account for the severity of face recognition deficits in developmental prosopagnosia (DP). Researchers have begun identifying deficient memory mechanisms such as impaired face recollection, but these findings require replication, and further characterization of additional memory deficits is necessary. Our goals were to replicate prior findings of face recollection impairment in DP and extend these findings to assess different types of face associative memory. We had 69 DPs and 99 controls perform a face perception battery as well as three face memory tasks: 1) Old/New task with confidence ratings to calculate recollection and familiarity using ROC analysis, 2) Face/Scene task to examine remember-know judgments and contextual memory for faces, and 3) Face-Name/Occupation task to assess the ability to learn semantic associations with faces. Compared to controls, DPs showed poorer recollection and familiarity across both Old/New and Face/Scene tasks as well as reduced scene accuracy for correct faces. Of these differences, only Old/New recollection remained significant after controlling for group differences in face perception abilities. In the Face-Name/Occupation task, after controlling for face perception, DPs showed poorer recall of names than controls but performed similarly in recalling occupations. Finally, we found that DPs with major, mild, and no face perception deficits showed consistent impairments in Old/New recollection and face-naming, and larger perceptual deficits were associated with larger memory deficits. Together, these results provide several mechanistic insights into the nature of memory deficits in DPs and have diagnostic and treatment implications.

Chinese College Students' Stigmatization towards People with Mental Illness: Familiarity, Perceived Dangerousness, Fear, and Social Distance.

BACKGROUND: Attribution models have been examined in Western countries. However, little is known about the applicability of the attitude-emotion-behavior model within Chinese culture. This study aimed to examine the association between familiarity, perceived dangerousness, fear, and social distance towards persons with mental illness (PMI) in the Chinese context. METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted from October to November 2022 in mainland China. A total of 1493 college students completed a questionnaire evaluating familiarity, perception of dangerousness, fear, and social distance regarding PMI. Path analysis was employed to validate the model proposed in this study. RESULTS: Participants expressed moderate to high levels of stigma towards PMI. Familiarity was negatively associated with social distance (p < 0.01). Participants who perceived PMI as dangerous were more prone to exhibit a reaction of fear (p < 0.001), consequently leading to social distance (p < 0.01). However, the mediating effect of perceived dangerousness and fear on the relationship between familiarity and social distance was not significant (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide support for Corrigan's attributional model of stigma in the Chinese context. Contact-based interventions for stigma reduction should emphasize multiple elements of contact, including the quality of contact, rather than familiarity.

Virtual Assessment of Physical Activity-Related Built Environment in Soweto, South Africa: What Is the Role of Contextual Familiarity?

Understanding how urban environments shape physical activity is critical in rapidly urbanizing countries such as South Africa. We assessed the reliability of virtual audits for characterizing urban features related to physical activity in Soweto, South Africa. We used the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes Global tool to characterize pedestrian-related features from Google Street View images in four neighborhoods of Soweto. Neighborhoods were selected to represent different levels of deprivation. Inter-rater reliability was analyzed according to the rater's familiarity with the local area. The results show a higher inter-rater reliability was observed among auditors with greater contextual familiarity. Many measurements however generated inconclusive results due to either low variability in the raters' responses or the absence of the features in the streets. It is evident from our findings that virtual audits are efficient tools that can be used to assess the built environment. However, to ensure meaningful use of these tools in diverse settings, we recommend that auditors comprise of people with contextual familiarity.

Development of an algorithm for analysis of routes: Case studies using novice and older drivers.

INTRODUCTION: This study addresses the lack of methods to quantify driver familiarity with roadways, which poses a higher risk of crashes. METHOD: We present a new approach to assessing driving route diversity and familiarity using data from the DrivingApp, a smartphone-based research tool that collects trip-level information, including driving exposure and global positioning system (GPS) data, from young novice drivers (15-19 years old) to older drivers (67-78 years old). Using these data, we developed a GPS data-based algorithm to analyze the uniqueness of driving routes. The algorithm creates same route trip (SRT) arrays by comparing each trip of an identified user, employing statistically determined thresholds for GPS coordinate proximity and trip overlap. The optimal thresholds were established using a General Linear Model (GLM) to examine distance, and repeated observations. The Adjusted Breadth-First Search method is applied to the SRT arrays to prevent double counting or trip omission. The resulting list is classified as geographically distinct routes, or unique routes (URs). RESULTS: Manual comparison of algorithm output with geographical maps yielded an overall precision of 0.93 and accuracy of 0.91. The algorithm produces two main outputs: a measure of driving diversity (number of URs) and a measure of route-based familiarity derived from the Rescorla-Wagner model. To evaluate the utility of these measures, a Gaussian mixture model clustering algorithm was used on the young novice driver dataset, revealing two distinct groups: the low-frequency driving group with lower route familiarity when having higher route diversity, whereas the high-frequency driving group with the opposite pattern. In the older driver group, there was a significant correlation found between the number of URs and Geriatric Depression Score, or walking gait speed. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: These findings suggest that route diversity and familiarity could complement existing measures to understand driving safety and how driving behavior is related to physical and psychological outcomes.

Oxytocin effects on socially transmitted food preferences are moderated by familiarity between rats.

RATIONALE: In the socially transmitted food preference (STFP) paradigm, rats change their preference for food rewards after socially interacting with a conspecific who has been fed with the originally non-preferred food. Here, we asked if oxytocin (OXT), a neuropeptide known for its role in social affiliation and social behavior, plays a role in STFP. Since OXT's influences on social behavior can be familiarity-dependent, we further asked if OXT effects on STFP are moderated by the familiarity between rats. OBJECTIVES: Does OXT modulate rats' socially transmitted food choices in a familiarity-dependent way. METHODS: We systemically injected either vehicle, low-dose (0.25 mg/kg) of OXT, or large-dose (1.0 mg/kg) of OXT before social interaction with either a familiar cagemate (in-group) or an unfamiliar conspecific from a different cage (out-group). RESULTS: We found an intergroup bias in STFP: vehicle-treated rats showed larger socially transmitted changes in food preference in the out-group than the in-group condition. OXT modulated STFP in a familiarity-dependent way: OXT prevented the increase in the consumption of the non-preferred food in the out-group, and decreased the consumption of the preferred food in the in-group. These effects were dose-dependent and observed under acute OXT action, but also on the subsequent day when acute OXT effects dissipated, suggesting long-lasting social learning effects of OXT. Additional analyses suggest that the familiarity and dose-dependent effects of OXT on STFP cannot be attributed to OXT's anorexic actions or differences in the duration of the social interactions. CONCLUSIONS: OXT modulates STFP in a familiarity-dependent way.

Classification of Known and Unknown Study Items in a Memory Task Using Single-Trial Event-Related Potentials and Convolutional Neural Networks.

This study examines the feasibility of using event-related potentials (ERPs) obtained from electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings as biomarkers for long-term memory item classification. Previous studies have identified old/new effects in memory paradigms associated with explicit long-term memory and familiarity. Recent advancements in convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have enabled the classification of ERP trials under different conditions and the identification of features related to neural processes at the single-trial level. We employed this approach to compare three CNN models with distinct architectures using experimental data. Participants (N = 25) performed an association memory task while recording ERPs that were used for training and validation of the CNN models. The EEGNET-based model achieved the most reliable performance in terms of precision, recall, and specificity compared with the shallow and deep convolutional approaches. The classification accuracy of this model reached 62% for known items and 66% for unknown items. Good overall accuracy requires a trade-off between recall and specificity and depends on the architecture of the model and the dataset size. These results suggest the possibility of integrating ERP and CNN into online learning tools and identifying the underlying processes related to long-term memorization.

Prior familiarity enhances recognition memory of faces, not just images of faces, when accompanied by conceptual information.

A recent paper reported that recognition discriminability was improved for faces that were familiarized prior to study, but only if that familiarization protocol included conceptual information, like a name (Akan & Benjamin, Journal of Memory and Language, 131, 104,433, 2023). In those experiments, familiarity with each facial identity was gained through exposures to the same facial image prior to study, and memory for each facial identity was tested using the same images across study and test. That design characteristic has a serious constraint on generality, since it is possible that prior conceptual information enhances memory for images (of faces), but not for the representation of the face itself. Here we evaluated whether this finding generalizes to a paradigm in which each exposure of a face is a novel image. In two experiments, faces were familiarized with orienting tasks that induced more perceptual or more conceptual processing prior to study and test phases. Results from recognition tests replicated the results from Akan and Benjamin (2023): (1) Discriminability was enhanced when prior familiarity involved conceptual processing but not when it involved perceptual processing, and (2) familiarity gained through either perceptual or conceptual processing led to an increase in both correct and false identifications. This successful replication in a design with exclusively novel images indicates that the discriminability advantage provided by conceptual familiarity goes beyond memory for facial images and applies to memory for faces. These findings have implications in practical contexts, such as eyewitness identification situations involving suspects who are previously known or familiar to the witness.

Impact of Pre-Adolescent Substance Familiarity on Subsequent Use: Longitudinal Analysis of Risk by Latent Classes in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Sample.

BACKGROUND: Predicting substance use in adolescence is a difficult yet important task in developing effective prevention. We aim to extend previous findings on the linear associations between familiarity with (knowledge of) substances in childhood and subsequent substance use in adolescence through a latent class analysis (LCA) to create risk profiles based on substance familiarity. METHOD: Using the ABCD Study® sample, we conducted an LCA using 18 binary substance familiarity variables (n = 11,694 substance-naïve youth). Complementary analyses investigated the relationship between LCA groups and (1) longitudinal use, (2) use initiation, and (3) early use. RESULTS: The optimal LCA resulted in a four-class solution: Naïve, Common, Uncommon, and Rare, with each group increasing in both the number and rarity of known substances. Analysis 1 revealed an increased risk in use over time among both the Uncommon and Rare groups (ORs = 2.08 and 5.55, respectively, p's < 0.001) compared to the Common group. Analysis 2 observed a decreased risk for initiation between the Naïve and Common groups (OR = 0.61, p = 0.009); however, the Uncommon and Rare groups were at an increased risk compared to the Common group (ORs = 2.08 and 3.42, respectively, p's < 0.001). Analysis 3 found an increased risk of early use between the Common and Uncommon groups (OR = 1.92, p < 0.001) with a similar trend between the Common and Rare groups (OR = 1.90, p = 0.06). CONCLUSION: These results highlight distinct risk profiles for adolescent substance use based on substance familiarity in middle childhood. Current work could be applied as an early screening tool for clinicians to identify those at risk for adolescent substance use.

Beyond balance: The role of the Vestibular system in action recognition.

Background: Action recognition is a fundamental aspect of human interaction. This process is mediated by the activation of shared sensorimotor representations during action execution and observation. Although complex movements involving balance or head and trunk rotations require vestibular signals for effective execution, their role in the recognition of others' actions is still unknown. Objective: To investigate the causal involvement of the vestibular system in the discrimination of actions performed by others and whether this is influenced by motor familiarity. Methods: In a single-blind design involving 25 healthy participants, Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) was administered during an Action Discrimination Task (ADT), in which videos of actions categorized as vestibular/non-vestibular and familiar/unfamiliar were presented. Following each video, participants were required to identify the climax of the previously viewed action between two image options, using a two-alternative forced choice paradigm. The ADT was performed in active and sham GVS conditions, with left or right anodal montages. Response Times (RTs), Accuracy, and subjective motor familiarity were recorded for each action category. Results: In sham GVS condition, an overall familiarity effect was observed, where RTs for familiar actions were faster than RTs for unfamiliar ones, regardless of vestibular engagement (p < .001; ηp 2 = .80). Conversely, under active GVS, a selective interference of the identification of vestibular familiar actions was observed compared to sham. Specifically, GVS prolonged RTs for recognizing familiar vestibular actions (p = .004, d = .59) while concurrently enhancing visual sensitivity (d') for the same actions (p = .03, r = .21). Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the contribution of the vestibular system to action recognition. GVS disrupted the sensorimotor representation of vestibular actions and led to increased reliance on an alternative processing system focused on visual analysis of limb positions. This dissociation provides valuable insights for future investigations into the complex relationship between vestibular signals and cognitive processes involved in action identification, essential for developing innovative GVS interventions, particularly for individuals with sensorimotor or vestibular disorders.

The Antecedents of Positive Emotion and Continuous Usage of In-Flight Meals with Respect to Food Quality Using Structural Equation Modeling.

This work aimed to explore the food quality attributes of in-flight meals and to examine the antecedents of positive emotion and continuous usage of these meals. As a subdimension, this study uses multiple attributes: menu diversity, familiarity, temperature, nutrition, and presentation. Another purpose of this work is to examine the moderating effect of menu diversity on the relationship between nutrition and continuance usage. A survey via clickworker was used to collect the data for this work. There were 317 valid observations for statistical inference. This study used a structural equation model to test the hypotheses, and the Hayes process model macro 1 was adopted to test the moderating effect. The results showed that all independent variables other than familiarity significantly accounted for positive emotion. Moreover, all of these attributes had a positive impact on continuous usage. This work unveiled a significant moderating effect of menu diversity on the relationship between nutrition and continuance usage. This research elucidates the literature by clarifying the influential attributes of emotion and continuous usage intention in the domain of in-flight meal products and discussing practical implications.

Norms for 718 Persian Words in Emotional Dimensions, Animacy, and Familiarity.

Research frequently uses words as stimuli to assess cognitive and psychological processes. However, various attributes of these words, such as their semantic and emotional aspects, could potentially confound study results if not properly controlled. This study aims to establish a reliable foundation for the semantic and emotional aspects of words for research in Persian. To this end, the present study provided norms for 718 Persian nouns in arousal, valence, familiarity, and animacy dimensions. The words were selected from a previous English dataset (Warriner et al. in Behav Res Methods 45(4):1191-1207, 2013), translated into Persian, and rated by a total of 463 native Persian-speaking participants. The ratings were obtained through an online questionnaire using a 9-point Likert scale for emotional dimensions (i.e., valence and arousal) and a 5-point Likert scale for semantic dimensions (i.e., familiarity and animacy). The reliability of the ratings was measured using the split-half method, and the result indicated a high consistency of ratings in all dimensions. To assess the relationship between the emotional and semantic dimensions, Pearson correlation coefficient was conducted. Gender differences were investigated through the Mann-Whitney U test, and significant differences were observed in all dimensions. These results are compared with findings from previous studies that were conducted in various languages.

Do pet dogs reciprocate the receipt of food from familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics?

Reciprocity is one of the most prominent explanations for the evolution of stable cooperation. Although reciprocity has been studied for decades in numerous animal species and behavioural contexts, its underlying proximate mechanisms remain unclear. Domestic dogs provide a useful model species for the study of proximate mechanisms, though there are currently inconsistent findings regarding dogs' propensity to reciprocate. Here, we investigated whether, after minimal training, pet dogs would press a button, which remotely controlled a food dispenser, to deliver food to an enclosure occupied by a helpful conspecific that had provided them with food or an unhelpful conspecific that had not provided them with food. We included an asocial control condition in which the enclosure was unoccupied and a social facilitation control in which the food delivery mechanism was non-functional. Whether subjects were familiar with the helpful and unhelpful conspecifics was also varied. In addition, to investigate potential mechanisms underlying reciprocity, we measured subjects salivary oxytocin concentration before and after they experienced the helpful and unhelpful acts. There was no effect of the previous helpfulness or the familiarity of the partner on the number of times subjects pressed the button. However, there was also no effect of the presence of a partner or the operationality of the food delivery mechanism on the number of button presses, indicating that subjects were not pressing the button to provision the partner. Moreover, the experience of the helpful or unhelpful act did not influence subjects' salivary oxytocin concentration. Variation in findings of reciprocity across studies appears to correspond with differing training protocols. Subjects' understanding of the task in the current study may have been constrained by the limited training received. Additional tests to verify subjects' understanding of such tasks are warranted in future studies.

Opioid-environment interaction: Contrasting effects of morphine administered in a novel versus familiar environment on acute and repeated morphine induced behavioral effects and on acute morphine ERK activation in reward associated brain areas.

We report that environmental context can have a major impact on morphine locomotor behavior and ERK effects. We manipulated environmental context in terms of an environmental novelty/ familiarity dimension and measured morphine behavioral effects in both acute and chronic morphine treatment protocols. Wistar rats (n=7 per group) were injected with morphine 10 mg/kg or vehicle (s.c.), and immediately placed into an arena for 5 min, and locomotor activity was measured after one or 5 days. The morphine treatments were initiated either when the environment was novel or began after the rats had been familiarized with the arena by being given 5 daily nondrug tests in the arena. The results showed that acute and chronic morphine effects were strongly modified by whether the environment was novel or familiar. Acute morphine administered in a novel environment increased ERK activity more substantially in several brain areas, particularly in reward-associated areas such as the VTA in comparison to when morphine was given in a familiar environment. Repeated morphine treatments initiated in a novel environment induced a strong locomotor sensitization, whereas repeated morphine treatments initiated in a familiar environment did not induce a locomotor stimulant effect but rather a drug discriminative stimulus dis-habituation effect. The marked differential effects of environmental novelty/familiarity and ongoing dopamine activity on acute and chronic morphine treatments may be of potential clinical relevance for opioid drug addiction.

The temporal dynamics of familiar face recognition: Event-related brain potentials reveal the efficient activation of facial identity representations.

While it is widely known that humans are typically highly accurate at recognizing familiar faces, it is less clear how efficiently recognition is achieved. In a series of three experiments, we used event-related brain potentials (ERP) in a repetition priming paradigm to examine the efficiency of familiar face recognition. Specifically, we varied the presentation time of the prime stimulus between 500 ms and 33 ms (Experiments 1 and 2), and additionally used backward masks (Experiment 3) to prevent the potential occurrence of visual aftereffects. Crucially, to test for the recognition of facial identity rather than a specific picture, we used different images of the same facial identities in repetition conditions. We observed clear ERP repetition priming effects between 300 and 500 ms after target onset at all prime durations, which suggests that the prime stimulus was sufficiently well processed to allow for facilitated recognition of the target in all conditions. This finding held true even in severely restricted viewing conditions including very brief prime durations and backward masks. We conclude that the facial recognition system is both highly effective and efficient, thus allowing for our impressive ability to recognise the faces that we know.

A library for innovative category exemplars (ALICE) database: Streamlining research with printable 3D novel objects.

This paper introduces A Library for Innovative Category Exemplars (ALICE) database, a resource that enhances research efficiency in cognitive and developmental studies by providing printable 3D objects representing 30 novel categories. Our research consists of three experiments to validate the novelty and complexity of the objects in ALICE. Experiment 1 assessed the novelty of objects through adult participants' subjective familiarity ratings and agreement on object naming and descriptions. The results confirm the general novelty of the objects. Experiment 2 employed multidimensional scaling (MDS) to analyze perceived similarities between objects, revealing a three-dimensional structure based solely on shape, indicative of their complexity. Experiment 3 used two clustering techniques to categorize objects: k-means clustering for creating nonoverlapping global categories, and hierarchical clustering for allowing global categories that overlap and have a hierarchical structure. Through stability tests, we verified the robustness of each clustering method and observed a moderate to good consensus between them, affirming the strength of our dual approach in effectively and accurately delineating meaningful object categories. By offering easy access to customizable novel stimuli, ALICE provides a practical solution to the challenges of creating novel physical objects for experimental purposes.

Does kinship with the silverback matter? Intragroup social relationships of immature wild western lowland gorillas after social upheaval.

In primates living in one-male groups, the sole resident male is often an important social partner for group immatures. For such groups, however, replacement of the male and subsequent disruptions of their relationships are almost inevitable. Here, we described social relationships of immature wild western lowland gorillas within a habituated group, where two natal and eight immigrant immatures lived with the resident silverback. We recorded 5 m proximities among group members as an indicator of social closeness. We found that natal immatures spent more time within 5 m of the silverback than immigrant ones. The social closeness between the silverback and the younger immigrant immatures sharply increased after 1 year, but these values were still below those of the natal immatures. Regarding the development of independence from the mother, we found no significant difference between natal and immigrant immatures. The socially preferred nonmother mature for natal immatures was the silverback, whereas many immigrant immatures preferred a paternal adult sister who had previously co-resided with them in a previous group. Our results suggest that familiarity may be an important determinant of the social closeness between the silverback and immatures, but 1 year of co-residence might be too short to construct sufficient familiarity. The paternal sister may have played a pivotal role in the assimilation of immigrant immatures into the non-natal group. Nonetheless, it is not negligible that the silverback and immigrant immatures formed day-to-day close proximities. His tolerance toward co-residence with immigrant immatures can be considered a reproductive tactic.

Humans' extreme face recognition abilities challenge the well-established familiarity effect.

Classification performance is better for learned than unlearned stimuli. This was also reported for faces, where identity matching of unfamiliar faces is worse than for familiar faces. This familiarity advantage led to the conclusion that variability across appearances of the same identity is partly idiosyncratic and cannot be generalized from familiar to unfamiliar identities. Recent advances in machine vision challenge this claim by showing that the performance for untrained (unfamiliar) identities reached the level of trained identities as the number of identities that the algorithm is trained with increases. We therefore asked whether humans who reportedly can identify a vast number of identities, such as super recognizers, may close the gap between familiar and unfamiliar face classification. Consistent with this prediction, super recognizers classified unfamiliar faces just as well as typical participants who are familiar with the same faces, on a task that generates a sizable familiarity effect in controls. Additionally, prosopagnosics' performance for familiar faces was as bad as that of typical participants who were unfamiliar with the same faces, indicating that they struggle to learn even identity-specific information. Overall, these findings demonstrate that by studying the extreme ends of a system's ability we can gain novel insights into its actual capabilities.

Consumers' familiarity level shapes motives and contexts for preparing and consuming dishes.

Consumers' familiarity with foods influences their expectations and experiences upon consumption. Familiarity has mostly been assessed using perceived familiarity when studying single foods. However, foods are often combined to create dishes, complex compositions eaten at various mealtimes. Hence, this paper aimed to study if and how the level of consumers' dish familiarity shapes their motives and preferred contexts for home cooking and consuming three dishes: one traditional dish, one adopted ethnic dish, and one mainly unavailable and unknown ethnic dish. First, we describe the operationalization of familiarity into the qualitative "consumer's dish familiarity index" (CDFI) used to determine participants' familiarity level to the dishes. CDFI includes four indicators (perceived availability, consumer's knowledge, preparation, and consumption). In-depth interviews (n = 27) were conducted with Dutch and Chilean women, as the countries have contrasting levels of immigration and globalization, which are expected to shape their inhabitants' familiarity level with ethnic dishes. Most experienced consumers (high familiarity) mentioned more dishes and individual-related motives to prepare and consume a traditional or an adopted ethnic dish. Social- and individual-related motives were salient when a dish was unknown and/or not previously consumed. Consumers' familiarity level also guided their preferred social context and location when consuming the dishes. A dish barely available will likely be first consumed in a restaurant to try a new dish that is perceived as appetizing to eat. Results showed that convenience, wanting to eat comfort foods, and showing affection to others are important motivators to facilitate the adoption of dishes to be home cooked. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This paper provides a novel approach to assess consumer familiarity to dishes. The qualitative consumer's dish familiarity index (CDFI) can be used in future investigations to assess and classify consumers into different dish familiarity levels by using four indicators. The outcomes of this study suggest consumers' familiarity level could serve as a reference for designing and/or improving (ethnic) foods and creating marketing campaigns to introduce them into (foreign) countries.

Familiarity with non-famous faces increases "person misidentification".

People sometimes mistakenly identify an unknown person they encounter as a known person. Previous studies have elucidated this phenomenon and revealed that it is a common experience. However, no experimental study has identified factors associated with its occurrence. We termed this relatively under-examined phenomenon as "person misidentification" and examined its factors. Specifically, we focused on (1) establishing experimental procedures to detect person misidentification in a laboratory context and (2) investigating the mechanism by which visual familiarity with the encountered unknown faces contributes to person misidentification. The results indicated that the developed procedure measured 247 misidentifications in 72 of 106 participants in all experiments. Although the effect of familiarity on person misidentification was not observed in Experiment 1, this effect was detected in Experiment 2, where the manipulation of familiarity was enhanced and confirmed. Concretely, unknown faces with familiarity enhanced by subliminal exposure were more frequently misidentified as another known person. This indicates that familiarity with an encountered face contributes to and induces person misidentification. In addition, the results demonstrated that similarities, especially in terms of hairstyle, between the encountered face and the misidentified known person might be related to its occurrence. These results have rich implications and expand the literature on face processing.