Effects of subcultural differences on country and product evaluations

Most cross‐cultural studies on country of origin or product‐country image (PCI) effects have implicitly assumed that national markets are composed of homogeneous consumers. Although many investigations in this field are described as cross‐cultural, most are in fact cross‐national. The overarching hypothesis of the present research is that PCI effects may vary across subcultures within a country. The results indicate that subcultural differences exist in the evaluation of culturally affiliated countries and their products. Cognitive responses converged to show that consumers' perceived linkages significantly influence the weight given to the country of origin in product evaluations. Several implications for managers and academic researchers are discussed. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Self-reported adjustment of teenagers at soccer training centers: the Soccer Trainee Adjustment Scale

The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire to measure adjustment of teenagers at soccer training centers, particularly newcomers. The Soccer Trainee Adjustment Scale was adapted from the Institutional Integration Scale and assesses the trainee's adjustment to operating and social activities. The scale was tested on a sample of 136 trainees from four soccer centers. Exploratory analysis indicated that the 13 items formed five factors: peer adjustment, boarding supervisor adjustment, soccer adjustment, scholastic adjustment, and boarding adjustment. These factors had internal consistency reliability ranging from .76 to .94.     

Influence of suggestion in the DRM paradigm: what state of consciousness is associated with false memory?

We assessed the effect of suggestion on the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm and associated it with the Remember–Know–Guess paradigm. Undergraduate students were given either lists of semantically related words or texts containing these words. After the recall task, if participants did not produce the critical lure, the experimenter suggested that the word had been present, using either a question (moderate suggestion) or an assertion (strong suggestion); these conditions were compared to a condition without suggestion. Afterwards, participants took a recognition test. The results showed that strong suggestions lead to more false recognitions than other conditions and the state of consciousness associated with false recognitions tends to be a feeling of knowing rather than remembering, regardless of the verbal version (list or text). Therefore moderate suggestions did not lead to more false recognitions compare to no suggestion. We discuss the impact of suggestion on consciousness associated with false memories.     

Downsizing obesity: On Ancel Keys,the origins of BMI,and the neglect of excess weight as a health hazard in the United States from the 1950s to 1970s

In 1972 Body Mass Index, BMI was put forth by physiologist Ancel Keys in his analysis of Seven Countries Study heart disease epidemiological data as the best available measure of obesity. This work culminated more than 20 years of effort by Keys to discredit the accepted measure of obesity, weight relative to height, along with a major public health campaign in the United States to fight heart disease through weight control. Here, I retrace his campaign to replace weight as a measure of obesity and analyze its methodology and relationship to the broader research field of heart disease epidemiology. I also explore why the epidemiological community accepted BMI despite Keys's failure to demonstrate that either it or adiposity (body fat content), were superior as predictors of heart disease—one of the Seven Countries Study's central aims.     

Extracellular amino acid levels in the paraventricular nucleus and the central amygdala in high- and low-anxiety dams rats during maternal aggression: regulation by oxytocin

Brain oxytocin (OT) regulates aspects of emotionality and stress coping including maternal behavior and maternal aggression. Maternal aggression correlates with the amount of OT released within the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the central amygdala (CeA). OT, a key neurotransmitter or neuromodulator, is likely to modulate other neurotransmitter systems. Here, we investigated the dynamic changes in extracellular concentrations of the amino acids aspartate, glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), serine, histidine, arginine and taurine in the PVN and CeA in lactating rats bred for high (HAB) and low (LAB) anxiety-related behavior under basal conditions and during maternal aggression. Further, to determine whether local OT is involved in the regulation of amino acid release we infused a selective OT receptor antagonist (OTA) via local retrodialysis. Within the CeA, HAB and LAB dams differed in the basal release of glutamate and arginine. Infusion of a selective OTA increased the concentrations of glutamate and aspartate in LAB dams and GABA in HAB dams. In OTA-treated HAB and LAB dams taurine levels increased during maternal aggression. Within the PVN, the highly-aggressive HAB dams showed a more pronounced increase in aspartate and serine levels; the latter being attenuated by local OTA administration. However, OTA did not affect the level of any amino acid in the LAB dams. Thus, the extracellular concentrations of selected amino acids differed between lactating HAB and LAB dams under both basal conditions and following maternal aggression. The effects of OT within the CeA and PVN on maternal aggressive behavior might be related to its regulation of local amino acid release.     

A study in the cognition of individuals' identity: solving the problem of singular cognition in object and agent tracking

This article compares the ability to track individuals lacking mental states with the ability to track intentional agents. It explains why reference to individuals raises the problem of explaining how cognitive agents track unique individuals and in what sense reference is based on procedures of perceptual-motor and epistemic tracking. We suggest applying the notion of singular-files from theories in perception and semantics to the problem of tracking intentional agents. In order to elucidate the nature of agent-files, three views of the relation between object- and agent-tracking are distinguished: the Independence, Deflationary and Organism-Dependence Views. The correct view is argued to be the latter, which states that perceptual and epistemic tracking of a unique human organism requires tracking both its spatio-temporal object-properties and its agent-properties.     

How are Strouhal number, drag, and efficiency adjusted in high level underwater monofin-swimming?

Strouhal number (St) corresponds to a wake parameter based on the tail kinematics of swimming animals according to St=A.f/U, where f is the stroke frequency, A is the fin-beat peak-to-peak amplitude, and U is the forward speed. St number is a trade-off between amplitude and frequency that generates a forward velocity. This parameter may therefore be affected by swimming technique, which can be evaluated through active drag (AD) and Froude efficiency (eta(F)). The aim of our study was therefore to (1) investigate the range of AD and eta(F) values for high level monofin-swimmers, (2) explore the range of St numbers, and (3) examine to what extent this latter non-dimensional parameter may affect AD and eta(F). To this end, experiments have been conducted on 12 international level monofin-swimmers. St number, eta(F) (calculated according to the elongated-body theory), and AD (computed with velocity perturbation method) were calculated at the same time for an underwater fin-swimming trial, at maximal speed. Lowest values of St numbers (St=0.34) corresponded to fin-swimmers with highest velocities (R=-.77, p<.05), highest efficiencies (R=-.86, p<.001), and lowest active drag (R=.91, p<.001). On the one hand, AD was increased with vertical motion of the fin (R=.84, p<.001), which increased cross-sectional area (R=.78, p<.05). On the other hand, efficiencies showed a tendency to peak at eta(F)=0.82 in a narrow range of St numbers close to 0.4. This St range corresponded to the upper limit of the 0.25-0.4 range usually claimed for maximum efficiency of marine and flying animals. Such results suggest that increasing efficiency and reducing drag improves performance per se (regardless how these parameters are related with St number).     

Mortality salience and the desire for offspring

Research on terror management theory (TMT) illustrates that following mortality salience (MS) people defend their cultural worldviews and bolster self-esteem to transcend death. Recently, research additionally showed that MS increased self-reports of the number of children desired in Dutch men but not in Dutch women. We conducted three studies to further investigate the role of desire for offspring in terror management. In Study 1, we conceptually replicated previous findings for Germany and found increased desire for offspring following MS in both men and women. Extending prior research Study 2 revealed that following MS not only was the accessibility of death-related thoughts increased, but also the accessibility of thoughts related to offspring. Finally, Study 3 suggested that the MS effect on ingroup bias was eliminated under conditions of offspring salience. Relating these findings to TMT, anticipated or actual offspring is discussed as a buffer against existential anxiety.