University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
PLoS One. 2022 Oct 14;17(10):e0276207. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276207. eCollection 2022.
In some situations, e.g., when filling out lottery tickets, it can be advantageous to select random locations. However, people usually have difficulties with this, because they are biased by preferences for certain regions, such as the center of an area. According to ideas from art theory, the preferred regions reflect the hidden structure of perceptual forces within an area. In the present study, these structures were investigated and modeled under different conditions for areas with square and rectangular shape. The general task was to sequentially place a number of dots at random locations in an area by clicking with the computer mouse at corresponding positions on the screen. Whereas in a single-dot condition each dot had to be placed in an empty area, the previously placed dots remained visible in a multiple-dots condition. In three experiments it was found that dots were preferentially placed at the center, the diagonals, and the principal axes. This preference was more pronounced in the single than in the multiple-dot condition. Moreover, sequential analyses revealed that dot placing was not only planned in advance, but that the participants also agreed to some extent in their sequential selections, which produced surprisingly similar sequential spatial patterns across participants, at least for the first dots. Altogether, the results indicate that people have great difficulties with the random selection of locations. Their selections are strongly affected by the attraction of specific regions, by previous selections, and by sequential habits.
在某些情况下，例如填写彩票时，随机选择地点可能是有利的。然而，人们通常对此感到困难，因为他们会受到对某些区域的偏好的影响，例如区域的中心。根据艺术理论的观点，偏好的区域反映了区域内感知力的隐藏结构。在本研究中，在不同的条件下对具有正方形和矩形形状的区域进行了这些结构的调查和建模。一般任务是通过在屏幕上相应位置点击鼠标，在区域内随机位置逐个放置点。在单点条件下，每个点都必须放置在空区域中，而在多点条件下，先前放置的点仍然可见。在三个实验中发现，点优先放置在中心、对角线和主轴上。这种偏好在单点条件下比多点条件下更为明显。此外，顺序分析表明，点的放置不仅是预先计划的，而且参与者在他们的顺序选择上也在一定程度上达成了一致，这产生了令人惊讶的相似的顺序空间模式，至少对于前几个点来说是如此。总的来说，结果表明人们在随机选择地点方面有很大的困难。他们的选择受到特定区域的吸引力、先前的选择以及顺序习惯的强烈影响。
