Therese Dries-Tönnies, Axel Platz and Nathalie Blanc, Université Montpellier, France and Siemens AG
Nowadays, most of us are facing and handling a multitude of visually mediated tasks. However, our cognitive strategies are not necessarily the most adapted for each situation: The present research is demonstrating that visual aspects independent of tasks’ nature and outside of our awareness can bias our strategic inclination. Indeed, color and form characteristics are involved in activating either a vigilant prevention cognition or a flexible promotion cognition. These strategic inclinations have been demonstrated to either impair or favor task handling depending on tasks’ creative or accuracy oriented nature. Overall, we highlight potential sources of bias regarding people’s cognitive regulation and how a targeted usage will allow taking advantage out of this phenomenon.