Author Archives: Robert John Livorio

The Ultimate Fan Experience

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The topic of this blog post is one to which many Penn State students can relate.  In this way, it may not be unique to me, but it is a new way to look at something that is very familiar to most of us.

What makes Penn State football games such an exciting experience for fans?  Why is the Penn State student section consistently ranked the best in the nation?  The most likely explanation is that people find visual interest in synchronized movements.  Dance routines would not be nearly as impressive if each member of the dance troop performed independently of the others.  People also find interest in large masses of people performing together.  Youtube videos of dancing flash mobs are most exciting when a large number of people join the routine.  I am sure you can see where this discussion is headed.

Now imagine sitting in Beaver Stadium and seeing 20,000 students cheer (and dance and scream) in unison.  In what is probably the largest and most active football student section in the country, we thrive on several psychological principles to create “The Greatest Show in College Football.”  The underlying theme between the three of them is that they make the student section appear to be a single unit, rather than thousands of individuals.

The first of these principles is “synchrony.”  Synchrony states that elements that change at the same time tend to group together.  This is best exemplified by the shakers that are handed to students after entering the stadium.  With the help of the Blue Band and the stadium speakers, students are provided a common cadence for using the shakers.  As they rise and fall together, the student section is transformed into a dynamic unit that operates in unison.

The second principle is “common fate.”  Common fate states that elements that move in the same direction will tend to be grouped together.  What better example than the wave?  This is an event that unites the entire stadium, not just the student section.  Whether it be regular wave, slow wave, or fast wave, it is so aesthetically interesting because we don’t view each person or section independently, but instead see a continuous chain of movement due to common fate.

The third and final principle is broader but still applicable.  The global superiority effect states that the properties of the whole object take precedence over the properties of the parts of the object.  The previous examples can fit into this principle as well.  Viewing a single fan during any cheer would be fairly unimpressive.  The fan experience at Penn State games is so unique because of the large scale of fan participation.  Whether you consider the student section or the entire stadium, it is the whole and not the parts that is most impressive.

Common fate, synchrony, the global superiority effect, and other grouping principles can apply to fan participation at stadiums and arenas all over the world.  Each fan base has its own traditions and cheers, but they all rely on these principles to create unique aesthetic experiences.  It is just my opinion, one shared by many, that Penn State is particularly good at creating the ultimate fan experience.

Chromatic Adaptation

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Adaptation is the ability of our perceptual system to adjust to the surroundings.  Our response to sustained stimulation decreases, indicating that our perceptual system is dynamic and depends on change to elicit a reaction.  Therefore, the longer we are surrounded by the same stimulus, the less we notice, and it essentially becomes the new normal.

Our visual system is very adept at two particular types of adaptation:  light and chromatic.  Light adaptation allows us to adjust to changes in the level of illumination in our surroundings.  For example, when viewed side by side, an illuminance difference by a factor of ten would look drastically different.  However, if taken to a classroom with only electric lighting and then taken to a different classroom with electric lighting and daylighting, you would probably classify both spaces as having suitable lighting conditions, even though the illuminance in the daylit room could be more than ten times greater in certain areas than the other classroom.  This is also a demonstration of Steven’s Power Law, with brightness being a stimulus with an “n” value less than one where the perceived increase is less than the actual increase.  The other type of visual adaptation is chromatic adaptation, and this involves our perception of color.  Every light source, including the sun, has a distinct spectral power distribution that defines the way colors appear when illuminated by that stimulus.  Chromatic adaptation is the ability of our visual system to allow us to see objects and colors similarly under various light sources, and this is the concept behind my real-world example.

To prove the visual system’s ability to adapt, my lighting professor took my class to the lighting laboratory in the engineering units.  The room is equipped with different spaces containing various light sources for experimentation.  We entered the room and our professor had a discussion with us, telling us to look around at each other and our clothing.  We then moved to one of the experimental areas that was dimly lit and shielded from the primary room by a black curtain, and we learned about the type of work that was being conducted there.  Once finished, we returned the first room.  Upon returning to the space, I looked around once again and noticed nothing out of the ordinary.  I looked at my skin, at my clothes, and at the people around me.  Only because we had been instructed to look around initially did I notice that the color red that one of my classmates was wearing looked slightly different than before.

Our professor broke the news to us that we were now sitting under completely different light sources than the ones we saw previously.  The TA had switched to an alternative set of luminaires after we had left the space.  While we had been observing the other space under dim lighting, our visual system had adapted to those lighting conditions.  Therefore, upon returning to the primary space, we once again adapted to the new, brighter environment.  At no point were we exposed to the different lighting conditions in the primary space in succession.  The most interesting part of the experiment was when the lights that were originally illuminating the room were switched back on.  The differences in color rendition were incredible.  Everything was so much more vibrant under the original stimulus, and as the professor switched back and forth, my skin looked dull, almost sickly under the second stimulus.  It was hard to believe that the conditions under the second stimulus had appeared normal to me.  However, our eyes quickly adapted to the new lighting conditions, and using chromatic adaption, the colors and objects around us became familiar and appeared normal.  However, in a side by side comparison, the two lighting environments were drastically different.  It was a great example of adaptation to the surroundings by our perceptual system and how expectations play a role in defining our sensory experiences.