The Spreading of Alternatives: Is it the Perceived Choice or Actual Choice that Changes our Preference?

After making a difficult choice, the preference rating of a chosen alternative tends to increase, and the rating of the rejected one tends to decrease. Such a change of preference is called spreading of alternatives. It is unclear whether it is the choice itself, or the choice one believes one has made that leads to preference change. Using a facial attractiveness task, we addressed this question by setting up an experiment to measure how the actual choice and perceived choice changed the preference. In the current study, participants first rated the attractiveness of female faces, and then made a choice between two faces that they had rated the same, after which, they re‐rated the female faces. Notably, in the re‐rating session, participants were given either veridical, false, or no feedback about their prior choice. This way, we were able to measure the functions of actual choice and perceived choice in rating changes. Results showed that both actual action and perceived action exert significant influence in shaping preference. The veridical feedback enhanced the spreading of alternatives effect whereas the false feedback weakened this effect, indicating that preference can be modulated by explicit manipulation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

抑制控制在被动与主动语码切换中的作用

本研究探讨被动与主动语码切换过程中的语码切换代价及抑制控制的作用。该实验以阿拉伯数字为实验材料,随机选取高校汉-英双语大学生为被试,要求被试完成数字命名任务。结果表明,被动语码切换过程存在语码切换代价且代价对称,这一现象既可以用特定语言选择假说解释,也可以用抑制控制模型来解释,但未能直接支持抑制控制真正参与被动语码切换,有待进一步研究; 主动语码切换过程中,目标语言为汉语时存在语码切换代价,而目标语言为英语时不存在语码切换代价,可能是抑制控制机制与词汇选择策略共同参与的结果。