University of Twente Student Theses
Differences in the perception of modern technological products
Mundt, M. (2012) Differences in the perception of modern technological products.
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| Abstract: | People perceive products from all kinds of different viewpoints. It is important to note that some people have such special observational habits during the confrontation with an object, that it is worth the time to gain more knowledge about the properties that distinguish them from the other ones. This study has examined the perception of modern technological products and has laid its focus on gaining insights about people with a ‘Geek’-personality. The main aim was to find proof whether people exist who have this distinct ‘Geek’ way of perceiving things and whether people with this point of view are more common in a Psychology (PSY) or Computer-Science (CS) based study program. A Stroop task experiment with pictures of smartphones, laptops and tablets has been carried out to review if some participants need a longer reaction time for naming the color of a Geek labeled word. The acquired respond time for Geek words has been compared with the time needed for words that hold a Usability or Hedonistic meaning. Generally a higher reaction time indicates that the respondents where making certain associations with the shown products which were activated by the corresponding target words (Sparrow, Liu, & Wegner, 2011). The results have shown that we were not able to support the thesis that CS students consistently needed more time to respond to the Geek words than PSY students (t = 0.235, p = 0.815). Nevertheless a complex interaction effect was found that indicates that the mean reaction time for Hedonism- and Usability-terms for CS students had a much lower value compared to PSY students, whereas the mean reaction time for Geek-terms stayed almost the same. We expect future studies to be able to support this finding by using a greater sample size or a better statistical test with more power. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62410 |
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