Tasks determine what is learned in visual statistical learning

Visual statistical learning (VSL), the unsupervised learning of statistical contingencies across time and space, may play a key role in efficient and predictive encoding of the perceptual world. How VSL capabilities vary as a function of ongoing task demands is still poorly understood. VSL is modulated by selective attention and faces interference from some secondary tasks, but there is little evidence that the types of contingencies learned in VSL are sensitive to task demands. We found a powerful effect of task on what is learned in VSL. Participants first completed a visual familiarization task requiring judgments of face gender (female/male) or scene location (interior/exterior). Statistical regularities were embedded between stimulus pairs. During a surprise recognition phase, participants showed less recognition for pairs that had required a change in response key (e.g., female followed by male) or task (e.g., female followed by indoor) during familiarization. When familiarization required detection of “flicker” or “jiggle” events unrelated to image content, there was weaker, but uniform, VSL across pair types. These results suggest that simple task manipulations play a strong role in modulating the distribution of learning over different pair combinations. Such variations may arise from task and response conflict or because the manner in which images are processed is altered.     

Exploring thematic influences on theme park visitors' satisfaction: An empirical study on Disneyland China

This study aims to explore thematic influences on theme park visitors' satisfaction through user-generated data. To this end, we first used an unsupervised machine learning method, structural topic modeling, and analyzed 112,000 reviews post by visitors to Shanghai Disney Resort from June 16, 2016 to March 4, 2022. Our findings are of great significance for reflecting consumer behavior through user-generated data. Specifically, we find that visitors' satisfaction is highly related to service in the theme park and their playing feeling, and early tourists pay more attention to the experience of specific playing items while later tourists focus on the overall playing experience. In addition, an empirical study is conducted by treating the ratings associated with each review as dependent variable and each topic represented by comments as independent variables, which shows that the relationship between the customer reviews and ratings by tourists becomes less pronounced over time. In other words, as time goes, customers review can reflect their subjective feelings or experience, but the rating is not. We discover the “dynamics” of user-generated data over time and gain a better understanding of the aspects and concerns of visitors' satisfaction over time. The findings of the study contribute to the literature on tourism, service, and consumer behavior while also providing valuable practical implications.     

Neuromarketing and consumer behavior: A bibliometric analysis

Neuromarketing is the field of studying neural signals to comprehend consumer behavior, which can help improve marketing strategies. In the recent past, scholars have conducted research to enhance the conceptual understanding of neuromarketing by applying bibliometric analysis. However, most studies either had a myopic view or considered a few articles. As a result, existing literature fails to provide a nuanced understanding of neuromarketing. The present research addresses this lacuna using a bibliometric analysis of 383 research articles across different domains from the Scopus database. The research covers the most influential authors, articles, top journals, most prominent countries, and institutions in the neuromarketing field. Next, keyword co-occurrence analysis reveals major themes such as decision-making in consumers, marketing and consumer behavior, advertisement, non-invasive techniques in advertisement effectiveness, ERP and brand extension, brand and fMRI. Finally, analyzing the six thematic areas gives valuable insights into the current research. The study also provides research areas for future researchers by identifying the gaps in the present thematic areas.     

The quality of suggested memories

Alarge number of studies have demonstrated that participants could be led to report suggested events that were never witnessed (Loftus & Palmer, 1974 ). The present study attempts to explore the quality of such suggested memories. Thirty‐six participants were exposed to a live event of brief duration (20 s). They were then misled about certain aspects of the event. Memory was assessed using a forced‐choice recognition test. The participants were also required to give remember/know/guess responses, together with confidence ratings, and also to indicate how they came to remember the item. Thirty‐six per cent of the suggested memories were “know” responses, while 43% were “remember” responses. Moreover, whenever the participants had a remember experience they always recalled a wealth of visual information. With regards to the confidence level of the suggested memories, it was observed that the suggested memories were as confidently held as accurate memories. The results indicate that suggestions may become integrated with other kinds of information and that these falsely remembered memories are often accompanied with varied kinds of information; predominant among them seems to be visual imagery and past associations. For accurate memories, too, visual imagery was recalled the most, followed by other kinds of information (e.g., past associations, emotional, auditory, and inferential). The study points to the difficulties of differentiating between true recollections of actual events and false recollections of events that did not occur.     

Does Evidence-Based Medicine Apply to Psychiatry?

Evidence-based psychiatry (EBP) has arisen through the application of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to psychiatry. However, there may be aspects of psychiatric disorders and treatments that do not conform well to the assumptions of EBM. This paper reviews the ongoing debate about evidence-based psychiatry and investigates the applicability, to psychiatry, of two basic methodological features of EBM: prognostic homogeneity of clinical trial groups and quantification of trial outcomes. This paper argues that EBM may not be the best way to pursue psychiatric knowledge given the particular features of psychiatric disorders and their treatments. As a result, psychiatry may have to develop its own standards for rigour and validity. This paper concludes that EBM has had a powerful influence on how psychiatry investigates and understands mental disorders. Psychiatry could influence EBM in return, reshaping it in ways that are more clinically useful and congruent with patients’ needs.     

Within-individual variability in self-concepts and personality states: Applying density distribution and situation-behavior approaches across cultures

Within-individual variability in self-concepts and everyday personality states and affects was investigated in two experience sampling studies using density distribution and situation-behavior approaches. In all seven cultures sampled, within-individual variability was substantial and self-concept and personality state variability exhibited moderate convergence. Variability in personality and affect states was moderately predicted by perceived need satisfaction in the situations. The density distribution and situation-behavior approaches were moderately convergent in identifying the most variable individuals, but the pattern of cultural differences differed in the two methods. Contrary to cultural psychology perspectives, cultural differences in within-individual variability did not consistently correspond to cultural differences in individualism–collectivism, dialecticism, or tightness.