Human values,utilitarian benefits and identification: the case of meat

The present studies explored the associations among food's utilitarian benefits, the human values symbolised by meat, individuals' endorsement of those values, and individuals' meat identification, attitudes and consumption. A preliminary study revealed that participants perceived that meat, particularly red meat, symbolises the endorsement of inequality and hierarchy values more than other basic foods. Studies 1 and 2 found that the endorsement of inequality and hierarchy formed the basis to the meat attitudes and consumption of high meat identifiers. Study 2 found that the meat attitudes of high meat identifiers were also founded, though to a lesser extent, in the endorsement of Conservation and rejection of Openness values. Study 1 also showed that food's nutritional benefits did not form the basis of meat consumption among high meat identifiers. Moreover, Study 3 found that informing individuals (in the treatment group) of the nutritional deficiencies of meat did not alter the meat attitudes of high meat identifiers, meat identification per se, or the meat attitudes of individuals who have a predisposition to attend to the symbolic meanings of products. In contrast, the negative nutritional information did produce unfavourable meat attitudes among low meat identifiers and those who have a predisposition to attend to the utilitarian features of products. The formation of meat identification is discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

职中和高中学生的自我概念与内外参照模型

通过自我概念量表,对职业高中和普通高中一年级学生进行问卷调查,用多因素多元方差分析比较了这两类学生自我概念的差异;对学科成绩与学科自我概念做了分组相关分析,并做了,比较。结果表明：(1)职中生的自我概念显著低于高中生。(2)职中生与高中生的学科自我概念与学科成绩之间的关系有同有异,但都符合内外参照模型。     

Cultural Effects on English Language Teachers’ Judgments of Metaphoric Creativity: A Mixed‐Methods Approach

This study explored cultural influences on English language teachers’ judgments of English metaphors created by Taiwanese learners of English. Based on a mixed‐methods approach, it delved into the rating severity and implicit evaluation criteria of two cultural groups of teachers: Taiwanese and Americans. Ten Taiwanese teachers and 10 American teachers evaluated 120 novel metaphoric expressions using the Consensual Assessment Technique (Amabile, 1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of creativity. They further filled out a creativity evaluation survey, which was designed to bring to light what qualities within the metaphors influenced their judgments of metaphoric creativity. With the teachers’ ratings being analyzed by means of many‐facet Rasch measurement, this study first indicated that the American teachers were more severe raters than the Taiwanese teachers, but no significant difference was found between them. Analysis of the evaluation survey further demonstrated that both cultural groups shared largely similar evaluation criteria; yet, two contrasts emerged between them. Specifically, the American teachers seemed to favor metaphors that expressed the creator's thoughts; by contrast, the Taiwanese teachers preferred metaphors that relied on readers’ imagination to work out the meanings. These findings shed light on implications for teaching creativity in English L2 classrooms and assessing learners’ creative language artifacts in an English L2 context.     

Framing effects of per‐person versus aggregate prices in group meals

This research draws on regulatory focus theory and applies it to the context of price framing in group meals. Specifically, it examines the possibility that a per‐person framing of price (an aggregate price) may activate a promotion focus (prevention focus) in consumers. The results of five experiments show that participants (a) generated more promotion‐relevant (vs. prevention‐relevant) thoughts, (b) were more inclined to consume the group meal when a persistent focus on promotion (vs. prevention) was exhibited, (c) rated promotion‐focused (vs. prevention‐focused) messages more favorably, and (d) reported a higher intention to opt for an offer where the chance of obtaining a positive goal was enhanced, in response to a per‐person price rather than an aggregate price. Mediation analyses provide additional evidence for the notion that pursuit of promotion goals (prevention goals), which relate to obtaining value (avoiding loss) primed by a per‐person price (an aggregate price), had the effect of regulating one's choices. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed, followed by recommendations for future research.     

Pigeons presented with sequences of light flashes use behavior to count but not to time

On randomly ordered trials, pigeons were presented with either a blue or a white key that flashed red for 200 ms at a fast (2 flashes/s), medium (1 flash/s), or slow (0.5 flashes/s) rate. The blue key signaled a fixed-interval (FI) schedule in which the first response after 20 s was reinforced, and the white key signaled a fixed-number (FN) schedule in which the first response after 20 flashes was reinforced. In Experiments 1 and 2, pigeons showed depressed responding to the flash on FI-cued trials and accelerated responding to the flash on FN-cued trials. When the response key was periodically blacked out in Experiments 3 and 4, counting but not timing was eliminated.     

Incommensurability and inconsistency of languages

Incommensurable theories are said to be both incompatible and incomparable. This is paradoxical, because, being incompatible, these theories must have the same subject-matter, yet incomparability implies that their subject-matter is different. This paper's proposed resolution of the paradox makes use of the distinction between internal subject-matter and external subject-matter for languages (frameworks) as outlined by W. Sellars. Incommensurability arises when two languages share the same external subject-matter but differ in internal subject-matter. When they share the same external subject-matter, they can be inconsistent (hence incompatible), and yet incomparable (because they are about distinct internal subject-matter). A substantial part of the paper is devoted to the technical development of the notion of inconsistency as a relationship between languages in contrast to the traditional notion of inconsistency between statements.An earlier abridged version of this paper was read to the 1983 Annual Conference of New Zealand Division of the Australasian Association of Philosophy. I owe my gratitude to various people for their criticisms, especially to Andrew Holster.     

Improving Motor Performance During Initial Skills Acquisition Through Regulatory Fit: An Experimental Study Based on Ball Throwing Task and Small Financial Reward

Regulatory focus theory (RFT) suggests that performance will be enhanced when there is a match between individual characteristics and environmental cues. Given that the application of RFT in the context of motor performance has been rarely examined, a ball-throwing task with small financial reward was conducted to test the theory. A total of 51 undergraduate students participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to either the promotion- or prevention-oriented task (which were different in terms of how the reward was instructed to be given). Results indicated that students performed better on ball throwing when the given instruction fit their relatively dominant regulatory focus. This finding supports the expectations of RFT. Implications and limitations were discussed.