Malleable Mental Accounting: The Effect of Flexibility on the Justification of Attractive Spending and Consumption Decisions

Mental accounts are often characterized as self‐control devices that consumers employ to prevent excess spending and consumption. However, under certain conditions of ambiguity, the mental accounting process is malleable; that is, consumers have flexibility in assigning expenses to different mental accounts. We demonstrate how consumers flexibly classify expenses, or construct accounts, to justify spending. An expense that can be assigned to more than one account (i.e., an ambiguous expense) is more likely to be incurred than an unambiguous expense that is constrained either by existing budgets or by previously constructed accounts. We explore the justification processes that underlie these results and their implications for mental accounts as self‐control devices.     

心理账户的非替代性及其运算规则

心理账户理论(Mental accounting Theory)由萨勒(Thaler)教授提出,他认为：小到个体、家庭,大到企业集团,都有或明确或潜在的心理账户系统。心理账户有两个最本质的特征：一是非替代性;二是具有不同于经济学的特定运算规则。本文分析了心理帐户非替代性的三种表现,从值函数,得与失的编码规则和参照点效应探讨了心理帐户的特定运算规则。这对解释人的非理性经济行为有重要价值。     

Contiguity and contingency in action-effect learning

According to the two-stage model of voluntary action, the ability to perform voluntary action is acquired in two sequential steps. Firstly, associations are acquired between representations of movements and of the effects that frequently follow them. Secondly, the anticipation or perception of an acquired action effect primes the movement that has been learnt to produce this effect; the acquired action-effect associations thus mediate the selection of actions that are most appropriate to achieve an intended action goal. If action-effect learning has an associative basis, it should be influenced by factors that are known to affect instrumental learning, such as the temporal contiguity and the probabilistic contingency of movement and effect. In two experiments, the contiguity or the contingency between key presses and subsequent tones was manipulated in various ways. As expected, both factors affected the acquisition of action-effect relations as assessed by the potency of action effects to prime the corresponding action in a later behavioral test. In particular, evidence of action-effect associations was obtained only if the effect of the action was delayed for no more than 1 s, if the effect appeared more often in the presence than in the absence of the action, or if action and effect were entirely uncorrelated but the effect appeared very often. These findings support the assumption that the control of voluntary actions is based on action-effect representations that are acquired by associative learning mechanisms.     

Contiguity and contingency in instrumental conditioning

There have been several attempts to construct molar theories of conditioning on the empirical basis that response-reinforcement contingency is important in determining conditioning. Such theories claim to explain behavior in terms of molar level processes which transcend the molecular level and, therefore, are not reducible to molecular processes or their interaction. These molar theories are critically examined and found to be seriously flawed because they fail to account for the effects of delaying reinforcement (degree of contiguity). Observed molar level relations, such as the matching law, do not require a molar theory, but may be more usefully considered as a product of molecular processes.     

心理会计与推理选择研究的新进展

心理会计与推理选择是行为决策理论的两个重要领域,本文主要综述它们在消费者偏好建构中的作用。研究表明,心理会计的原则常常调节对奢侈品的购买与消费;在这一调节过程中,推理可能发挥重要作用。本文还评述,在建构消费偏好的过程中,消费者有时选择最充分的理由,而不是选择最佳的选项;在其它一些情况下,消费者聚焦理由可能导致购买决策与消费体验之间的矛盾,以及偏好的非传递性。     

Contiguity and conditioned reinforcement in probabilistic choice

In a baseline condition, pigeons chose between an alternative that always provided food following a 30-s delay (100% reinforcement) and an alternative that provided food half of the time and blackout half of the time following 30-s delays (50% reinforcement). The different outcomes were signaled by different-colored keylights. On average, each alternative was chosen approximately equally often, replicating the finding of suboptimal choice in probabilistic reinforcement procedures. The efficacy of the delay stimuli (keylights) as conditioned reinforcers was assessed in other conditions by interposing a 5-s gap (keylights darkened) between the choice response and one or more of the delay stimuli. The strength of conditioned reinforcement was measured by the decrease in choice of an alternative when the alternative contained a gap. Preference for the 50% alternative decreased in conditions in which the gap preceded either all delay stimuli, both delay stimuli for the 50% alternative, or the food stimulus for the 50% alternative, but preference was not consistently affected in conditions in which the gap preceded only the 100% delay stimulus or the blackout stimulus for the 50% alternative. These results support the notion that conditioned reinforcement underlies the finding of suboptimal preference in probabilistic reinforcement procedures, and that the signal for food on the 50% reinforcement alternative functions as a stronger conditioned reinforcer than the signal for food on the 100% reinforcement alternative. In addition, the results fail to provide evidence that the signal for blackout functions as a conditioned punisher.     

心理账户：理论与应用启示

“心理账户”是人们在心理上对结果（尤其是经济结果）的编码、分类和估价的过程,它揭示了人们在进行（资金）财富决策时的心理认知过程。心理账户的理论成果主要集中在“非替代性”的本质特征以及特殊的心理运算规则,心理账户在各个应用领域的研究成果主要包括：价格感知;行为资产组合理论;行为生命周期理论以及消费预算的研究。未来将在多元化研究方法的基础上,开展跨文化研究,对心理账户的内在心理机制和认知规律深入探讨     

Adaptive Responses and the Contiguity Principle

Dynamic motivational traits identified by Cattell were factor analytically examined to determine more general underlying factors. Cattell's Motivational Analysis Test, which measures 10 dynamic structures was administered to 247 subjects. The intercorrelations of the dynamics were factor analyzed. Six general motivational factors were found: Long Term Growth and Satisfaction vs. Short Term Attainments with Frustrations, Social vs. Selfish Values, Masculinity vs. Femininity, People Orientation, Egocentric vs. Materialistic Orientation, Relaxed Materialism vs. Frustrated Insecurity. The factors represented an individual's general motivational orientation.     

心理账户的作用机制与儿童认知发展

心理账户是普遍存在于个体心理中的一套或者多套记账体系。这种体系往往是以非预期的形式存在,并对个体的行为决策产生潜在的影响。由于心理账户的存在,使得个体在行为决策时往往无意识地偏离正常的价值判断或者计算法则,从而做出非理性的决策。心理账户的非替代性作用机制可以解释儿童心理理论、价值判断、情感决策以及自我控制等认知能力的发展。     

Contiguity and the causal theory of memory

In Memory: A Philosophical Study, Bernecker argues for an account of contiguity. This Contiguity View is meant to solve relearning and prompting, wayward causation problems plaguing the causal theory of memory. I argue that Bernecker’s Contiguity View fails in this task. Contiguity is too weak to prevent relearning and too strong to allow prompting. These failures illustrate a problem inherent in accounts of memory causation. Relearning and prompting are both causal relations, wayward only with respect to our interest in specifying remembering’s requirements. Solving them requires saying more about remembering, not causation. I conclude by sketching such an account.     

Principles of Occupational Therapy Group Outcome Assessment in Mental Health

In today's penurious health care climate, occupational therapists must scrutinize their practice and substantiate their interventions in order to remain viable service providers. This article proposes a method of occupational therapy outcomes assessment in mental health care that is rooted in client-centered functional outcomes. Since little consensus exists on which instruments are most effective, this article begins with an outline of broadly accepted principles for assessment of patient outcomes in mental health. Next, we describe a practical method for selecting outcomes measures in interdisciplinary settings. Finally, we offer pragmatic solutions to address barriers to outcome assessment.     

Accounting for Time Preference in Management Decisions: An Application to Invasive Species

Managers of invasive species seek to prevent and mitigate their impact, which vary in the time horizon over which they are realized. Likewise, stakeholders vary in the time horizons they consider relevant. Agricultural impacts might reasonably be considered over two or three decades, although ecologists typically consider environmental impacts over much longer time frames. Although time preference plays a critical role in decision making, it has largely been ignored in multicriteria analyses. In this study, we examine how time has been treated in previous decision analyses of invasive species management, focusing on the differences between multicriteria and economic cost–benefit analyses. We then outline a method for incorporating time preference information into multicriteria decision analyses to ensure that criteria weights remain a faithful representation of the decision maker's preferences. To illustrate how time preference can be elicited for invasive species problems involving both monetary and nonmonetary consequences, we describe a small empirical study we conducted with a small group of experts and managers. By outlining a way to consider time preference information in multicriteria analyses of invasive species management, we hope to facilitate better decision making that is reflective of the decision maker's true preferences. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

组织公正管理——基于心理帐户的视角

组织公正管理对组织意义重大,心理契约的提出给我们动态的管理组织公正提供了指导,心理帐户的提出使我们对组织公正的评判过程有了进一步的了解.其中经济帐户主要与交易型心理契约关联,而情感帐户主要与关系型心理契约关联.并最终影响公平感.     

Contiguity and the outcome density bias in action-outcome contingency judgements

In cause-outcome contingency judgement tasks, judgements often reflect the actual contingency but are also influenced by the overall probability of the outcome, P(O). Action-outcome instrumental learning tasks can foster a pattern in which judgements of positive contingencies become less positive as P(O) increases. Variable contiguity between the action and the outcome may produce this bias. Experiment 1 recorded judgements of positive contingencies that were largely uninfluenced by P(O) using an immediate contiguity procedure. Experiment 2 directly compared variable versus constant contiguity. The predicted interaction between contiguity and P(O) was observed for positive contingencies. These results stress the sensitivity of the causal learning mechanism to temporal contiguity.     

心理账户和薪酬激励的实验研究

心理账户是人们在心理上对结果,尤其是经济结果的编码,分类和估价的过程,它反映了人们在进行资金财富决策过程中的心理认知过程。心理账户有着有别于经济账户的运算法则。实验研究发现,改变薪酬的预期参照点,可以改变人们对同一结果的认知评价,从而达到不同的激励效果;低金额奖酬时人们倾向于选择物品,而高金额奖酬是人们倾向与选择现金。     

心理账户基本特征的影响因素

心理账户是指个体对经济行为进行编辑、分类、预算以及评估的过程。心理账户中的基本特征主要包括享乐主义编辑、非替代性和局部账户。这些特征又受到一些因素的影响, 如享乐主义编辑受事件框架和个体差异的影响, 非替代性和预算控制受模糊性的影响, 局部账户受价值原始水平、语义联系程度和评价方法的影响。未来对心理账户的研究需要进一步探讨心理账户特征的普遍性、心理账户的机制及其文化差异。     

Contiguity and contingency in the acquisition and maintenance of an operant

Three experiments compared the effects of nondifferential and differential reinforcement of response location on a circular dimension. Rats were required to operate a vertical joystick to produce food. When food was delivered immediately after responses, but independent of response location, the spatial concentration of responding was low and no progressive changes were observed. Traditional and percentile schedules of differential reinforcement for response location produced highly reliable acquisition of spatially concentrated responding. Once concentrated responding had been established, nondifferential reinforcement was sufficient to maintain it in some subjects. Since only the differential reinforcement schedules established a contingency with respect to response location, it was concluded that this relationship was necessary for acquisition, but that response-reinforcer contiguity may be sufficient for maintenance. This conclusion is consistent with the view that operant conditioning is a contiguity-based process, but that contingencies are required to produce reliable contiguity between reinforcers and particular responses.