Reversal learning in gonadectomized marmosets with and without hormone replacement: are males more sensitive to punishment?

This study examined sex differences in executive function in middle-aged gonadectomized marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) with or without hormonal replacement. We tested ten castrated male (mean age 5.5 years) marmosets treated with testosterone cypionate (T, n = 5) or vehicle (n = 5) on Reversal Learning, which contributes to cognitive flexibility, and the Delayed Response task, measuring working memory. Their performance was compared to that of 11 ovariectomized females (mean age = 3.7 years) treated with Silastic capsules filled with 17-β estradiol (E2, n = 6) or empty capsules (n = 5), previously tested on the same tasks (Lacreuse et al. in J Neuroendocrinol 26:296–309, 2014. doi: 10.1111/jne.12147). Behavioral observations were conducted daily. Females exhibited more locomotor behaviors than males. Males and females did not differ in the number of trials taken to reach criterion on the reversals, but males had significantly longer response latencies, regardless of hormone replacement. They also had a greater number of refusals than females. Additionally, both control and T-treated males, but not females, had slower responses on incorrect trials, suggesting that males were making errors due to distraction, lack of motivation or uncertainty. Furthermore, although both males and females had slower responding following an incorrect compared to a correct trial, the sex difference in response latencies was disproportionally large following an incorrect trial. No sex difference was found in the Delayed Response task. Overall, slower response latencies in males than females during Reversal Learning, especially during and following an incorrect trial, may reflect greater sensitivity to punishment (omission of reward) and greater performance monitoring in males, compared to females. Because these differences occurred in gonadectomized animals and regardless of hormone replacement, they may be organized early in life.     

Choice confidence in the webrooming purchase process: The impact of online positive reviews and the motivation to touch

The webrooming purchase process (i.e. searching for information online and then buying the product offline) is the most extended cross‐channel shopping behaviour. With the aim of offering a better understanding of this behaviour, this research relies on information processing and uncertainty reduction theories to propose that consumers use the online information to make the offline purchase with a higher degree of confidence. We examine the effects of a previous online interaction with a product on the preferences and decision at the physical store, as well as on the outcomes of the experience. In this path to purchase, we analyse how positive online customer reviews, as a specific form of electronic word of mouth, help the consumer to improve their experience, given their great potential to reduce the consumer's uncertainty in a purchase situation. In addition, the role of the motivation to touch the product is examined. The results of two studies show that the combination of an online search and an offline purchase improves the consumers' purchase experience in pre‐choice variables (i.e. purchase intentions), choice and post‐choice variables (i.e. search‐process satisfaction and choice confidence). Moreover, reading a positive online customer review influences choice confidence, and all the variables considered in the research when it is received at the physical store. Finally, the results stress the importance of the motivation to touch when studying multichannel shopping behaviour, given its direct and moderating effects on the webrooming purchase process. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Criminal law,multicultural jurisdictions and cultural evidence

This article investigates whether providing minority groups with power over criminal law can create injustices that target lesbians, gays and bisexuals within those groups. In order to carry out the task of evaluating to what extent providing power over criminal law to minority groups can result in negative consequences for lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals, this paper assesses the work of Ayelet Shachar. I contend that her model leaves lesbians, gays and bisexuals within minorities vulnerable because her division of jurisdictions collapses when put into practice; additionally, her principles do not provide normative guidance for avoiding jurisdictions that criminalise homosexuality, and that protect lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals from violence. This rejection of transformative accommodation, however, does not mean that cultural evidence is irrelevant for criminal procedures. Rather, I assert that cultural evidence is relevant for trials and including it does not jeopardise the interests of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals.     

Clarity of Personal Values and Committed Action: Development of a Shorter Engaged Living Scale

The Engaged Living Scale (ELS) is a measure of the process of engaged living, defined by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as the evaluation and performance of valued life activities. This 16-item measure was recently created and has been validated in middle-aged and chronic pain samples. The aim of the present study was to validate the ELS-16 in a young-adult sample and additionally to develop a shorter ELS. This study was conducted using different samples of Portuguese young-adult college students. The dimensionality of the ELS-16 (which was translated to Portuguese from the original Dutch) was tested through a CFA. The adequacy of the shorter ELS (ELS-9) was also tested through a CFA. The scales’ internal reliability and other psychometric qualities were additionally analysed. Results from the CFA suggested that the model benefits from the establishment of correlations between pairs of error terms of items with similar contents. These results led to the decision to shorten the measure by excluding the item of each pair with the lowest communalities. The ELS-9 was then created and its CFA results revealed good to excellent adjustment values and goodness-of-fit indices. Results also showed that the ELS-16 and the ELS-9 present adequate to good psychometric properties. The present study thus shows that these instruments seem to be reliable measures of engaged living and to perform adequately in young-adult college students, with the ELS-9 being a new contribution to health research and allowing faster administrations.     

Idiosyncratic Deals and Helping Behavior: The Moderating Role of I-deal Opportunity for Co-workers

Purpose

This study draws from social comparison theory to explore why and under which circumstances individuals receiving idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are likely to help their co-workers.

Design

Data were collected with an alumni association of engineers. Participants completed two questionnaires (N = 182 at Time 2).

Findings

We find that the relationship between i-deals and helping behavior is not direct, but is mediated by organizational-based self-esteem. This relationship is stronger when i-deal recipients believe that their co-workers do not have the opportunity to get i-deals for themselves.

Implications

I-deal recipients are expected to help their colleagues because helping colleagues is consistent with the positive self developed thanks to i-deals. When co-workers have the opportunity to get i-deals for themselves, social comparison between the i-deal recipient and colleagues is likely to be more salient, which strengthen the indirect relationship between i-deal and helping behavior.

Originality

This study tests i-deals from the vantage point of social comparison theory rather than from the perspective of social exchange. We thereby provide a richer account of the complexities involved in helping behavior. By exploring contextual variables that are likely to trigger social comparisons, we also expect to better understand the circumstances under which i-deals are likely to be associated with helping behavior.

     

The spatiotopic representation of visual objects across time

Each eye movement introduces changes in the retinal location of objects. How a stable spatiotopic representation emerges from such variable input is an important question for the study of vision. Researchers have classically probed human observers' performance in a task requiring a location judgment about an object presented at different locations across a saccade. Correct performance on this task requires realigning or remapping retinal locations to compensate for the saccade. A recent study showed that performance improved with longer presaccadic viewing time, suggesting that accurate spatiotopic representations take time to build up. The first goal of the study was to replicate that finding. Two experiments, one an exact replication and the second a modified version, failed to replicate improved performance with longer presaccadic viewing time. The second goal of this study was to examine the role of attention in constructing spatiotopic representations, as theoretical and neurophysiological accounts of remapping have proposed that only attended targets are remapped. A third experiment thus manipulated attention with a spatial cueing paradigm and compared transsaccadic location performance of attended versus unattended targets. No difference in spatiotopic performance was found between attended and unattended targets. Although only negative results are reported, they might nevertheless suggest that spatiotopic representations are relatively stable over time.     

Everyday‐like memory for objects in ageing and Alzheimer's disease assessed in a visually complex environment: The role of executive functioning and episodic memory

To investigate everyday memory, more and more studies rely on virtual‐reality applications to bridge the gap between in situ approaches and laboratory settings. In this vein, the present study was designed to assess everyday‐like memory from the virtual reality‐based Human Object Memory for Everyday Scenes (HOMES) test (Sauzéon et al., 2012 , Exp. Psychol., 59, 99) in ageing and in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Two aims motivated this study: the first was to assess multiple processes of episodic memory (EM) functioning embedded within contexts closely related to real life in ageing and AD using the multi‐trial free‐recall paradigm, and the second aim was to evaluate the mediating effects of executive functioning (EF), EM, and subjective memory complaints (SMCs) on age differences in the HOMES measures and in AD. To this end, the HOMES test and neurocognitive tests of EF and EM were administered to 23 younger adults, 23 older adults, and 16 patients with AD. The results were: firstly, compared to young adults, elderly adults presented only free‐recall decline that almost disappeared in recognition condition whereas AD patients exhibited a poor clustering, learning, and recognition performance, and also a high amount of false recognition; secondly, age differences as well as AD related deficits on the HOMES test were mediated by both memory and EF measure while those observed on false memory indices were only mediated by EM measure; thirdly, the HOMES indices are related to SMCs even when episodic or EF measures are controlled. Overall, the results supported the fact that the VR‐based memory test is an appropriate device to capture age‐related differences as well as the AD effect with respect to both in situ and laboratory settings.     

Is the study about spontaneous attention to exact quantity based on studies of spontaneous focusing on numerosity?

Li and Baroody present a study in which they investigate toddlers’ spontaneous attention to exact quantity without acknowledging how previous studies of spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) are related to their concept and methods. In this commentary requested by the European Journal of Developmental Psychology, we argue that the concept and the methods of spontaneous attention to exact quantity in the study of Li and Baroody clearly arise from previous research on SFON, as the authors have previously noted in their paper published in 2008. It is highly questionable whether their approach can be theoretically or methodologically dissociated from the previous research on SFON tendency to the extent that it is necessary to use an alternative name for the concept in their study.     

Studies on spontaneous attention to number (SAN) are based on spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON)

Li and Baroody presented a study in which they investigate children’ spontaneous attention to exact quantity without acknowledging how previous studies of spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) are related to their concept and methods. The authors’ reaction to our pointing this out makes it is clear that SFON research has had foundational role in the development of Baroody and his colleagues spontaneous attention to number (SAN) idea. Thus the authors must acknowledge the SFON literature as the substantial part of their theoretical and methodological construct. The latest definition of SAN states this undeniably. “SAN is the attentional process that underlies exact number recognition initiated by the mathematical thinking triggered by SFON (e.g., attention to “threeness” directed by conceptual knowledge of “three” activated by SFON).” Furthermore, in their response, Dr Baroody and Dr Li admit that “An awareness of the SFON literature did help us explicitly recognize that, given the ambiguous instructions that do not explicitly direct a child’s attention to number, both the nonverbal production and matching tasks were useful in assessing unguided or spontaneous attention to a number.” It is surprising that in their response to the European Journal of Educational Psychology, the authors maintain their claim that they have cited the SFON literature adequately in their study about SAN.     

Testing the age related differentiation hypothesis through the Wechsler’s scales

According to the age differentiation hypothesis (ADH), g becomes increasingly invested in specific abilities with age: with increasing age, g should account for a decreasing proportion of the variance in any particular cognitive test. However, there is no conclusive evidence concerning this important topic. Data from the Italian, Spanish, and American standardisation samples of the WPPSI and the WISC-R were analysed in the present study for testing the ADH. No changes in the proportion of variance associated with g in the 4–16 age range were found. This pattern does not change depending on the country. Therefore, the ADH is rejected: g seems to be very stable across age, and, thus, it seems to be an equally important component of intelligence test performance from early childhood to late adolescence.