Psychophysiological responses to appraisal dimensions in a computer game

A computer game was used to study psychophysiological reactions to emotion‐relevant events. Two dimensions proposed by Scherer (1984a, 1984b) in his appraisal theory, the intrinsic pleasantness and goal conduciveness of game events, were studied in a factorial design. The relative level at which a player performed at the moment of an event was also taken into account. A total of 33 participants played the game while cardiac activity, skin conductance, skin temperature, and muscle activity as well as emotion self‐reports were assessed. The self‐reports indicate that game events altered levels of pride, joy, anger, and surprise. Goal conduciveness had little effect on muscle activity but was associated with significant autonomic effects, including changes to interbeat interval, pulse transit time, skin conductance, and finger temperature. The manipulation of intrinsic pleasantness had little impact on physiological responses. The results show the utility of attempting to manipulate emotion‐constituent appraisals and measure their peripheral physiological signatures.     

A Comparative Analysis of the Influence of Economic Culture on East and West German Consumers' Subjective Product Meanings

Les consommateurs des économies planifiées ont développé des savoir-faire différents de ceux adoptés par les consommateurs des économies de marché. Alors que les premiers ont appris à localiser les produits, les seconds se sont exercès à comparer et à choisir entre les produits proposés. Dans le domaine alimentaire, l' ancienne Allemagne de l' Est offrait une série de produits quantitativement suffisants mais peu variés et de qualityé médiocre ou moyenne. Les produits étaient vendus dans tout le pays a des prix imposés. Désormais, la variété et la diversité des qualityés est la měme qu'à l' Ouest et l' on constate des variations de prix considérables. On a étudié les différences entre les consommateurs de l' Est et de l' Ouest en comparant des échantillons de consommateurs de Kiel et de Rostock. On a analysé leur perception des produits alimentaires (du fromage et des plats surgelés) et comment ils les rattachaient à des valeurs (à partir d' une approche moyens-fins ). Les dimensions perceptives de base, qui émanent des caractéristiques concrètes des produits, sont les měmes partout, quoique la perception soit plus précise à l' Ouest qu'à l' Est. L' analyse des valeurs fondamentales de l' existence chez les consommateurs allemands de l' Est et de l' Ouest (gřce au Schwartz Value Inventory ) a montré que ceux de l' Est se portaient sur les valeurs collectives et ceux de l' Ouest sur les valeurs individuelles. L' analyse du lien que les consommateurs établissent entre les caractéristiques concrètes des produits et les valeurs fondamentales de la vie montra qu'il y avait de légères     

Effects of directionality in deductive reasoning: II. Premise integration and conclusion evaluation

Previous research (Oberauer & Wilhelm, 2000) has shown an inherent directionality between the two terms linked in premises of typical deductive reasoning tasks. With three experiments we investigated the effect of inherent directionality on the time to integrate two premises and for the derivation of a conclusion. We varied figure (i.e., order of terms in the premises) and direction of inference (i.e., order of terms in the conclusion) in deduction tasks from various domains (propositional reasoning, syllogisms, spatial, temporal, and linear order reasoning). Effects of figure on premise reading times varied with the directionality of the relations. Effects of direction of inference reflected the same directionality for a subset of relations. We propose that two factors are jointly responsible for a large part of observed directionality effects in premise integration: the inherent directionality of relational statements and a general advantage for a given-new order of terms in the second premise. Difficulty of deriving a conclusion is affected by the directionality or relations if and only if the relation is semantically asymmetric, so that the directionality must be preserved in the integrated mental model.