Subjects perceived touch sensations as arising from a table (or a rubber hand) when both the table (or the rubber hand) and their own real hand were repeatedly tapped and stroked in synchrony with the real hand hidden from view. If the table or rubber hand was then 'injured', subjects displayed a strong skin conductance response (SCR) even though nothing was done to the real hand. Sensations could even be projected to anatomically impossible locations. The illusion was much less vivid, as indicated by subjective reports and SCR, if the real hand was simultaneously visible during stroking, or if the real hand was hidden but touched asynchronously. The fact that the illusion could be significantly diminished when the real hand was simultaneously visible suggests that the illusion and associated SCRs were due to perceptual assimilation of the table (or rubber hand) into one's body image rather than associative conditioning. These experiments demonstrate the malleability of body image and the brain's remarkable capacity for detecting statistical correlations in the sensory input.

Real-time information feedback delivered via technology has been reported to produce up to 20 percent declines in residential energy consumption.There are however large differences in estimates of the effect of real-time feedback technologies on energy use. In this study, we conduct a field experiment to obtain an estimate of the impact of a real-time feedback technology. Access to feedback leads to an average reduction in household electricity consumption of 5.7 percent. Significant declines persist for up to four weeks. In examining time of day reduction effects, we find that the largest reductions were observed initially at all times of the day but as time passes, morning and evening intervals show larger reductions. We find no convincing evidence that household characteristics explain heterogeneity in our treatment effects; we examine demographics, housing characteristics and psychological variables.

This paper aims to address two timely energy problems. First, significant low-cost energy reductions can be made in the residential and commercial sectors, but these savings have not been achievable to date. Second, billions of dollars are being spent to install smart meters, yet the energy saving and financial benefits of this infrastructure -without careful consideration of the human element -will not reach its full potential. We believe that we can address these problems by strategically marrying them, using disaggregation. Disaggregation refers to a set of statistical approaches for extracting end-use and/or appliance level data from an aggregate, or wholebuilding, energy signal. In this paper, we explain how appliance level data affords numerous benefits, and why using the algorithms in conjunction with smart meters is the most cost-effective and scalable solution for getting this data. We review disaggregation algorithms and their requirements, and evaluate the extent to which smart meters can meet those requirements. Research, technology, and policy recommendations are also outlined.

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Research on household energy conservation often categorizes targeted behaviours by their behavioural attributes (e.g., savings, cost, frequency). The most common distinction in the literature divides behaviours as follows: (1) low-impact, low-cost, repetitive behaviours that result in a loss of comfort or curtailment behaviours and (2) high-impact, high-cost, infrequent behaviours that result in no loss of amenities or efficiency behaviours. However, such categorizations have often been ad hoc and two-dimensional (e.g., low-impact vs. high-impact, low-cost vs. high-cost). In contrast, we systematically assess a large range of household energysaving behaviours (N=261) across nine attributes-energy savings, cost, frequency of performance, required skill level, observability, locus of decision, household function, home topography, and appliance topography. By clustering behaviours according to these attributes, we discern four clusters of energy-saving behaviours: family style, call an expert, household management and weekend project. We discuss the implications of these clusters for intervention design.

Research suggests that vivid and personalized interventions influence proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors. Through the use of immersive virtual environment technology, people can experience vivid environmental scenarios that are personalized to the individual. An experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of vivid and/or personal messages on energy savings behavior related to hot water use. Participants experienced a virtual shower in which they received feedback (varying in vividness and/or personalization) on the amount of energy used to heat and transport the virtual water. Participants’ hot water use during hand washing in the physical world was tracked before and after treatment. Participants exposed to vivid messages used cooler water compared with not vivid messages. There was no significant effect for personal messages and no interaction effect. The results suggest that technology that leverages vividness may be effective in promoting proenvironmental behaviors.

Several decision-making models predict that it should be possible to affect real binary choices by manipulating the relative amount of visual attention that decision-makers pay to the two alternatives. We present the results of three behavioral experiments testing this prediction. Visual attention is controlled by manipulating the amount of time subjects fixate on the two items. The manipulation has a differential impact on appetitive and aversive items. Appetitive items are 6 to 11% more likely to be chosen in the long fixation condition. In contrast, aversive items are 7% less likely to be chosen in the long fixation condition. The effect is present for primary goods, such as foods, and for higher-order durable goods, such as posters.

Patient PH developed retinitis pigmentosa in childhood and progressively lost his vision until he became completely blind at 40 years old. At age 42, he started experiencing vivid 'synesthesia'; tactile stimuli on the hand evoked a vivid visual sensation of 'movement', 'expansion' or 'jumping'. Intriguingly, the synesthesia was much more vivid when the hand was in front of the face rather than behind. The effect is unlikely to be confabulatory since touch thresholds (Semmes Monofilaments) were normal and identical for hand in front versus hand behind the head, while 'thresholds' for evoked visual sensations were significantly higher for the 'behind' condition. Also, the critical fusion frequency for the tactile sensation was much higher than the visually evoked ones. We propose three explanations. (i) 'Remapping' or 'cross-talk'. As a result of de-afferentation, sensory input to the somatosensory pathways (e.g. insular cortex) also innervates extrastriate visual areas. (ii) When a person is touched, there may be spontaneously evoked tactile associative 'memories' that would not normally evoke actual visual qualia because of competing 'spontaneous activity' from the visual pathways. However, upon de-afferentation, the associations may be experienced as synesthesia.(iii) After de-afferentation, the 'back projections' to somatosensory areas from visual areas may be strengthened.