The initial segment strategy: A heuristic for route selection

People often choose one route when traveling from point A to point B and a different route when traveling from point B to point A. To explain these route asymmetries, we propose that people rely on a heuristic (the initial segment strategy, or ISS) during route planning. This heuristic involves basing decisions disproportionately on the straightness of the initial segments of the routes. Asymmetries arise because the characteristics that favor selection of a particular route in one direction will usually differ from those that favor selection when traveling in the opposite direction. Results from five experiments supported these claims. In the first three experiments, we found that subjects' decisions were asymmetric and involved a preference for initially straight routes. In Experiment 4, we confirmed that the ISS is a heuristic by demonstrating that people rely on it more when under time pressure. However, people can choose the optimal route when instructed to do so. In Experiment 5, we generalized the findings by having subjects select routes on maps of college campuses. Taken together, the results indicate that the ISS can account for asymmetries in route choices on both real and artificial maps.     

Up north and down south: Implicit associations between topography and cardinal direction

Route planners show a reliable tendency to select south- relative to north-going routes between two horizontally (east/west) aligned landmarks, suggesting the application of a north-is-up heuristic (Brunyé, Mahoney, Gardony, & Taylor, 2010). The source of this north-is-up bias remains unknown, and there is no strong evidence to suggest that it is due to explicit strategy use. In four experiments, we attempt to further elucidate the source of this effect by testing whether it can be attributed to implicit associations between cardinal direction (north/south) and topography (mountainous/level terrain). Experiments 1 and 2 used an adapted Implicit Association Test and demonstrate automatically activated judgements that associate north with mountainous and south with relatively level terrain. Experiment 3 rules out the possibility that this effect is due to the local topography of New England by replicating in participants from the topographically dissimilar Midwestern United States. Finally, Experiment 4 tests the relative contribution of implicit versus explicit associations between cardinal direction and topography in predicting route-planning asymmetries; we show that implicit associations are a stronger predictor of southern route biases than explicit processes. Overall, results demonstrate that the conceptualization of space can be driven by physically unfounded implicit associations between cardinal directions and topographical features, and these associations are at least partially responsible for southern route preferences.     

Up north and down south: Implicit associations between topography and cardinal direction

Route planners show a reliable tendency to select south- relative to north-going routes between two horizontally (east/west) aligned landmarks, suggesting the application of a north-is-up heuristic (Brunyé, Mahoney, Gardony, & Taylor, 2010). The source of this north-is-up bias remains unknown, and there is no strong evidence to suggest that it is due to explicit strategy use. In four experiments, we attempt to further elucidate the source of this effect by testing whether it can be attributed to implicit associations between cardinal direction (north/south) and topography (mountainous/level terrain). Experiments 1 and 2 used an adapted Implicit Association Test and demonstrate automatically activated judgements that associate north with mountainous and south with relatively level terrain. Experiment 3 rules out the possibility that this effect is due to the local topography of New England by replicating in participants from the topographically dissimilar Midwestern United States. Finally, Experiment 4 tests the relative contribution of implicit versus explicit associations between cardinal direction and topography in predicting route-planning asymmetries; we show that implicit associations are a stronger predictor of southern route biases than explicit processes. Overall, results demonstrate that the conceptualization of space can be driven by physically unfounded implicit associations between cardinal directions and topographical features, and these associations are at least partially responsible for southern route preferences.     

Exploring the route choice decision-making process: A comparison of planned and observed routes obtained using person-based GPS

Trip decisions are complex and involve choosing the activity destination, mode and subsequently the route for travel. This paper presents detailed information on the planned and observed route choices for the home-to-work commute. Specifically, the study examines how people formulate their route plans and describe their attitudes and preferences for their selected routes. A geographic information system (GIS) records the planned route information with the route planning sequence. Observing route choice is a difficult procedure; however, through the use of the global positioning system (GPS), one can accurately record route choice. An automated activity–trip detection algorithm processes GPS data and displays results within an internet-based prompted recall diary. The diary is used to verify trip start and end times. This combination of GPS, GIS and diary responses provides great insight into the route choice decision-making process. Thirty-one individuals from Ontario, Canada participated in answering survey questions and the collection of person-based GPS data. Results indicate a preference to minimize travel time as stated by participants in deciding what route to travel. Participants also affirmed a desire to minimize the number of stop lights/signs, as well as, avoid congestion and maximize route directness. A comparison between planned and observed routes, reveals about one-fifth of participants deviated from their planned route. This study demonstrates the need for qualitative and quantitative survey methods for exploring planned and observed route choice.     

CHOICES FROM IDENTICAL OPTIONS

Abstract— Many of the decisions that people must make involve selections from arrays of identical options The studies presented explored people's preferences in two contexts choosing one Item from rows of identical items and choosing a route from a series of identical routes The first three studies examined preferences for items in particular positions Whether people were choosing a product from a grocery shelf, deciding which bathroom stall to use, or marking a box on a questionnaire, they avoided the ends and tended to make their selection from the middle For example, when there were four rows of a product in the supermarket, only 29% of the purchases were from the first and last rows, and 71% were from the middle two The last three studies examined whether a similar preference exists in picking a route when all of the available routes are the same length and require same number of turns In solving mazes, planning routes on maps, and walking around campus, people showed the pattern opposite to that found for choosing Items in rows They avoided the middle routes and tended to take either the first or the last one Overall, the last available route was the favorite The notion that these behaviors may minimize mental effort is explored     

Order Effects in Preference Judgments: Evidence for Context Dependence in the Generation of Preferences

This paper explores the cognitive processes at work in preference generation. It tests the hypothesis that the evaluation process relies on a comparative context of alternatives. Participants in two experiments reviewed pairs of options that included one superficially attractive option and another that was normatively superior in some way but superficially unattractive. Experiment 1 (N= 116) found that when the superficially attractive option was rated first, reported preferences for both options were higher than when the less attractive alternative was rated first. Experiment 2 (N= 177) replicated this order effect on preferences using six pairs of options. I obtained process measures that suggest the effect is attributable to the process by which people generate judgments of preference. Options are rated more positively to the extent that they compare favorably to other real or imagined alternatives; options are rated more negatively to the extent that they compare poorly to their alternatives. These two experiments contribute to the literature on preference generation by specifying a process by which people generate preferences.     

How does verb aspect constrain event representations?

We investigated the relative contribution of perfective and imperfective aspectual cues on situation models. In Experiment 1, participants were more likely to choose pictures showing completed events than pictures showing ongoing events when they had read perfective sentences, but chose either picture after reading imperfective sentences. In Experiment 2, only one picture was presented and participants were faster to respond to completed pictures than to ongoing pictures when they had read perfective sentences, but showed no latency differences after reading the imperfective sentences. In Experiment 3, participants were faster to read perfective sentences after having seen completed pictures rather than intermediate pictures, but there was no difference for imperfective sentences. The consistent pattern of results demonstrates that readers construct mental representations of completed events when the perfective aspect is used to describe an event. The lack of effect on imperfective sentences and pictures suggests that each reader represents an in-progress event at varying stages of completion.     

跨期选择单维占优模型的过程检验

跨期选择需要决策者在眼前与未来的损益之间做出权衡与取舍。主流跨期选择理论认为, 跨期选择是把未来价值折扣到现在, 根据折扣后的价值进行选择的过程; 而单维占优模型则认为决策者把“结果”维度上的差异和“延迟”维度上的差异进行比较(维度间差异比较), 然后根据差异更大的维度(即占优势的维度)进行决策。跨期选择众理论之争无果的原因之一或是研究者未能找到揭示其心理过程的令人信服的证据。为此, 本研究采用过程检验而非结果拟合的方法, 首创了“直观模拟天平”任务, 对维度间差异比较的大小进行测量, 从而为验证单维占优模型提供了支持性的证据。实验1A证明了维度间差异大小中介了选择结果, 被试认为“结果”维度上的差异相对于“延迟”维度上的差异越大, 越倾向于选择延迟长、结果大的选项; 反之, 被试认为“延迟”维度上的差异相对于“结果”维度上的差异越大, 越倾向于选择延迟短、结果小的选项。实验1B证明了维度间差异比较是在选择时实时(而不是在选择后)进行的。实验1C通过调整实验程序消减了共同方法偏差对结果的影响。实验2进一步证明维度间差异比较可以解释众多的跨期选择异象。通过4个实验, 本研究揭示了维度间差异比较构成了跨期选择的重要(尽管可能不是唯一)决策过程, 为支持单维占优模型提供了重要的过程验证证据。     

Effects of processing fluency on comparative performance judgments

Research has shown that performance predictions are biased by the impact of processing fluency. However, existing data are inconclusive with regard to comparative judgments of performance. In five experiments, participants in an easy condition gave more favorable comparative judgments than participants in a difficult condition. Participants judged their performance more favorably if they named colors of non-color words rather than non-matching color words (Experiment 1), if they had to generate six words of a category rather than 12 words (Experiment 2), if they had to run in place for 15 s rather than 2 min (Experiment 3), but the latter result holds only true if participants were not active in sports (Experiment 4). When 67% of the items in a recognition test were old words, participants thought that their recognition performance was better than when 33% of the items were old words, although recognition performance did not differ between groups (Experiment 5). We discuss this result in the light of recent theories about effects of processing fluency on judgments.     

Distinguishing states of awareness from confidence during retrieval: evidence from amnesia

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether recollective experience is distinguishable from confidence. In Experiment 1, we tested college participants in a within-subjects design and replicated Gardiner and Java's (1990) findings from a between-subjects design. We observed higher remember judgments for words than for nonwords, but higher know judgments for nonwords than for words. For confidence judgments, we obtained greater sure than unsure responses for both words and nonwords. In Experiment 2, we tested amnesic participants and matched control participants. Control participants produced the same pattern of results as college participants, but the results of amnesic participants diverged in an important way. For confidence judgments, the amnesic participants, like the control and college participants, made more sure than unsure judgments to both words and nonwords. But for recollective judgments, amnesic participants did not produce the crossover interaction for words and nonwords. This striking difference between the performance of memory-intact and amnesic participants demonstrates that recollective judgments and confidence that accompany retrieval are not isomorphic psychological experiences.     

Cross cultural differences in unconscious knowledge

Previous studies have indicated cross cultural differences in conscious processes, such that Asians have a global preference and Westerners a more analytical one. We investigated whether these biases also apply to unconscious knowledge. In Experiment 1, Japanese and UK participants memorized strings of large (global) letters made out of small (local) letters. The strings constituted one sequence of letters at a global level and a different sequence at a local level. Implicit learning occurred at the global and not the local level for the Japanese but equally at both levels for the English. In Experiment 2, the Japanese preference for global over local processing persisted even when structure existed only at the local but not global level. In Experiment 3, Japanese and UK participants were asked to attend to just one of the levels, global or local. Now the cultural groups performed similarly, indicating that the bias largely reflects preference rather than ability (although the data left room for residual ability differences). In Experiment 4, the greater global advantage of Japanese rather English was confirmed for strings made of Japanese kana rather than Roman letters. That is, the cultural difference is not due to familiarity of the sequence elements. In sum, we show for the first time that cultural biases strongly affect the type of unconscious knowledge people acquire.     

Aesthetic preferences in the size of images of real-world objects

Konkle and Oliva (in press, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance) found that the preferred ('canonical') visual size of a picture of an object within a frame is proportional to the logarithm of its known physical size. They used within-participants designs on several tasks, including having participants adjust the object's size to 'look best'. We examined visual size preference in 2AFC tasks with explicit aesthetic instructions to choose: "which of each pair you like best". We also used both within- and between-participants conditions to investigate the possible role of demand characteristics. In experiments 1 and 2, participants saw all possible image pairs depicting the same object at six different sizes for twelve real-world objects that varied in physical size. Significant effects of known physical size were present, regardless of whether participants made judgments about a single object (the between-participants design) or about all objects intermixed (the within-participants design). Experiment 3 showed a reduced effect when the amount of image detail present at different visual sizes was kept constant by posterizing the images. The results are discussed in terms of ecological biases on aesthetic preferences.     

Planning paths to multiple targets: memory involvement and planning heuristics in spatial problem solving

For large numbers of targets, path planning is a complex and computationally expensive task. Humans, however, usually solve such tasks quickly and efficiently. We present experiments studying human path planning performance and the cognitive processes and heuristics involved. Twenty-five places were arranged on a regular grid in a large room. Participants were repeatedly asked to solve traveling salesman problems (TSP), i.e., to find the shortest closed loop connecting a start location with multiple target locations. In Experiment 1, we tested whether humans employed the nearest neighbor (NN) strategy when solving the TSP. Results showed that subjects outperform the NN-strategy, suggesting that it is not sufficient to explain human route planning behavior. As a second possible strategy we tested a hierarchical planning heuristic in Experiment 2, demonstrating that participants first plan a coarse route on the region level that is refined during navigation. To test for the relevance of spatial working memory (SWM) and spatial long-term memory (LTM) for planning performance and the planning heuristics applied, we varied the memory demands between conditions in Experiment 2. In one condition the target locations were directly marked, such that no memory was required; a second condition required participants to memorize the target locations during path planning (SWM); in a third condition, additionally, the locations of targets had to retrieved from LTM (SWM and LTM). Results showed that navigation performance decreased with increasing memory demands while the dependence on the hierarchical planning heuristic increased.     

Perceptual integrality of sex and identity of faces: further evidence for the single-route hypothesis

According to current face-recognition models, sex (gender) and identity of faces are processed in independent routes. Using Garner's speeded-classification task, the authors provide evidence that sex and identity are processed within a single route. In 4 experiments, participants judged the sex or the familiarity of faces while the other dimension remained constant or varied randomly. The results of Experiments 1, 2, and 4 showed that participants could not selectively attend to either sex or familiarity without being influenced by the other, irrelevant dimension. Thus, identity and sex are integral dimensions. Experiment 3 provided evidence that when sex judgments are based on hairstyle heuristics, false separability can emerge. The findings support the claim that identity and sex are processed within a single route.     

Preference for free or forced choice in Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii)

Empirical investigations of humans, pigeons, rats, and monkeys have indicated that these species will select free over forced choice, even when faced with identical outcomes. However, the same has yet to be quantitatively confirmed in nonhuman great apes. This experiment is the first systematic investigation of preference for free or forced choice in great apes using a paradigm in which extraneous variables are highly controlled. Three orangutans were given a choice of one of two virtual routes, one that provided a choice and one that did not via a touchscreen computer program. Choice of either route was rewarded with the same type and quantity of food. Initial results indicated a preference for free choice across all three participants. However, in two control conditions, orangutans' preferences varied, suggesting a weaker tendency to exercise choice than species previously tested. We suggest further investigation of preference for free and forced choice in orangutans and other great apes through alternative experimental paradigms that focus on increasing the fidelity of free and forced choice options.     

Consumption Effort: The Mental Cost of Generating Utility and the Role of Consumer Energy Level in Ambitious Consumption

We propose that the essence of consumption is the mental process of generating utility from products, that this process expends consumption effort, and that consumers take consumption effort into account in their decision making. In 2 studies, we tested the hypothesis that consumption preferences become more ambitious—individuals become more inclined to choose challenging‐to‐consume products—when consumer energy levels are elevated. In Study 1, energy induced by ingesting caffeine increased participants’ tendency to choose subtitled foreign movies rather than domestic remakes of those same movies. Study 2 demonstrated the same effect with naturally occurring energy levels and with consumption experiences whose effortfulness and quality were varied independently. In choosing among sets of poems to read, participants with higher levels of energy exhibited less effort aversion but neither more nor less quality seeking. A reanalysis of Study 1 showed that the energy effect is not simply a case of consumers using more energy when they have more energy, because the energy effect disappeared when participants were made aware of the energy source, suggesting that a preference‐correction process occurred. The energy dependence of consumer preferences affords tactical opportunities for marketers, but the welfare implications for consumers are intriguingly unclear, because in both studies we found that energy increased participants’ choice of challenging consumption experiences without increasing their liking of those experiences.     

Are consonant intervals music to their ears? Spontaneous acoustic preferences in a nonhuman primate

Humans find some sounds more pleasing than others; such preferences may underlie our enjoyment of music. To gain insight into the evolutionary origins of these preferences, we explored whether they are present in other animals. We designed a novel method to measure the spontaneous sound preferences of cotton-top tamarins, a species that has been extensively tested for other perceptual abilities. Animals were placed in a V-shaped maze, and their position within the maze controlled their auditory environment. One sound was played when they were in one branch of the maze, and a different sound for the opposite branch; no food was delivered during testing. We used the proportion of time spent in each branch as a measure of preference. The first two experiments were designed as tests of our method. In Experiment 1, we used loud and soft white noise as stimuli; all animals spent most of their time on the side with soft noise. In Experiment 2, tamarins spent more time on the side playing species-specific feeding chirps than on the side playing species-specific distress calls. Together, these two experiments suggest that the method is effective, providing a spontaneous measure of preference. In Experiment 3, however, subjects showed no preference for consonant over dissonant intervals. Finally, tamarins showed no preference in Experiment 4 for a screeching sound (comparable to fingernails on a blackboard) over amplitude-matched white noise. In contrast, humans showed clear preferences for the consonant intervals of Experiment 3 and the white noise of Experiment 4 using the same stimuli and a similar method. We conclude that tamarins' preferences differ qualitatively from those of humans. The preferences that support our capacity for music may, therefore, be unique among the primates, and could be music-specific adaptations.     

Position‐based beliefs: The center‐stage effect

This paper examines the existence and consequences of consumers' position-based beliefs about product layouts. We propose that consumers believe that options placed in the center of a simultaneously presented array are the most popular. This belief translates into their choosing options placed in the center more often than those on the sides of a display: the center-stage effect (Studies 1 and 5). Results are driven by inferences of product popularity rather than higher levels of attention to products in a given position (Studies 2 and 3). The preference for middle options is accentuated when people explicitly take into account other people's preferences, increasing the need to choose a popular option (Study 3), but attenuated when layout-based information is not diagnostic (Study 4). Increasing the accessibility of own preferences for the intrinsic attributes about the products reduces the use of position-based beliefs to make judgments and attenuates the center-stage effect (Study 5). Theoretical implications for marketplace meta-cognitions, visual information processing, position effects, and the use of overall cognitive beliefs versus perceptual attention and memory-based individuating information to make judgments are discussed.     

Biases in children's and adults' moral judgments

Two experiments examined biases in children's (5/6- and 7/8-year-olds) and adults' moral judgments. Participants at all ages judged that it was worse to produce harm when harm occurred (a) through action rather than inaction (omission bias), (b) when physical contact with the victim was involved (physical contact principle), and (c) when the harm was produced as a direct means to an end rather than as an unintended but foreseeable side effect of the action (intention principle). The youngest participants, however, did not incorporate benefit when making judgments about situations in which harm to one individual resulted in benefit to five individuals. Older participants showed some preference for benefit resulting from action (commission) as opposed to inaction (omission). The findings are discussed in the context of the theory that moral judgments result, in part, from the operation of an inherent, intuitive moral faculty compared with the theory that moral judgments require development of necessary cognitive abilities.     

Multisensory temporal order judgments: when two locations are better than one

In Experiment 1, participants were presented with pairs of stimuli (one visual and the other tactile) from the left and/or right of fixation at varying stimulus onset asynchronies and were required to make unspeeded temporal order judgments (TOJs) regarding which modality was presented first. When the participants adopted an uncrossed-hands posture, just noticeable differences (JNDs) were lower (i.e., multisensory TOJs were more precise) when stimuli were presented from different positions, rather than from the same position. This spatial redundancy benefit was reduced when the participants adopted a crossed-hands posture, suggesting a failure to remap visuotactile space appropriately. In Experiment 2, JNDs were also lower when pairs of auditory and visual stimuli were presented from different positions, rather than from the same position. Taken together, these results demonstrate that people can use redundant spatial cues to facilitate their performance on multisensory TOJ tasks and suggest that previous studies may have systematically overestimated the precision with which people can make such judgments. These results highlight the intimate link between spatial and temporal factors in determining our perception of the multimodal objects and events in the world around us.