Reserve price and competing bids: Reference points for product evaluations in online auctions?

With an increasing number of products sold in online auctions, the effect of reference points on consumers' product valuations has received much attention in the literature. Two potentially relevant factors affecting bidders' preferences are the sellers' reserve price and the competing bids by other bidders. The current evidence regarding these reference points is mixed. We argue that a focus on studying bids prevents a clear identification of reference point effects. Directly observing product valuations, in two experiments, we find that willingness to pay in online auctions is affected by both reserve prices and competing bids, supporting the constructed values paradigm. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prism adaptation changes the subjective proprioceptive localization of the hands

Prism adaptation involves a proprioceptive, a visual and a motor component. As the existing paradigms are not able to distinguish between these three components, the contribution of the proprioceptive component remains unclear. In the current study, a proprioceptive judgement task, in the absence of motor responses, was used to investigate how prism adaptation would specifically influences the felt position of the hands in healthy participants. The task was administered before and after adaptation to left and right displacing prisms using either the left or the right hand during the adaptation procedure. The results appeared to suggest that the prisms induced a drift in the felt position of the hands, although the after‐effect depended on the combination of the pointing hand and the visual deviation induced by prisms. The results are interpreted as in line with the hypothesis of an asymmetrical neural architecture of somatosensory processing. Moreover, the passive proprioception of the hand position revealed different effects of proprioceptive re‐alignment compared to active pointing straight ahead: different mechanisms about how visuo‐proprioceptive discrepancy is resolved were hypothesized.     

Elucidating the Functional Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Psychometric Intelligence: A Fixed-Links Modeling Approach for Experimental Repeated-Measures Designs

Numerous studies reported a strong link between working memory capacity (WMC) and fluid intelligence (Gf), although views differ in respect to how close these two constructs are related to each other. In the present study, we used a WMC task with five levels of task demands to assess the relationship between WMC and Gf by means of a new methodological approach referred to as fixed-links modeling. Fixed-links models belong to the family of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and are of particular interest for experimental, repeated-measures designs. With this technique, processes systematically varying across task conditions can be disentangled from processes unaffected by the experimental manipulation. Proceeding from the assumption that experimental manipulation in a WMC task leads to increasing demands on WMC, the processes systematically varying across task conditions can be assumed to be WMC-specific. Processes not varying across task conditions, on the other hand, are probably independent of WMC. Fixed-links models allow for representing these two kinds of processes by two independent latent variables. In contrast to traditional CFA where a common latent variable is derived from the different task conditions, fixed-links models facilitate a more precise or purified representation of the WMC-related processes of interest. By using fixed-links modeling to analyze data of 200 participants, we identified a non-experimental latent variable, representing processes that remained constant irrespective of the WMC task conditions, and an experimental latent variable which reflected processes that varied as a function of experimental manipulation. This latter variable represents the increasing demands on WMC and, hence, was considered a purified measure of WMC controlled for the constant processes. Fixed-links modeling showed that both the purified measure of WMC (β = .48) as well as the constant processes involved in the task (β = .45) were related to Gf. Taken together, these two latent variables explained the same portion of variance of Gf as a single latent variable obtained by traditional CFA (β = .65) indicating that traditional CFA causes an overestimation of the effective relationship between WMC and Gf. Thus, fixed-links modeling provides a feasible method for a more valid investigation of the functional relationship between specific constructs.     

Reduced audiovisual integration in synesthesia – evidence from bimodal speech perception

Recent research suggests synesthesia as a result of a hypersensitive multimodal binding mechanism. To address the question whether multimodal integration is altered in synesthetes in general, grapheme‐colour and auditory‐visual synesthetes were investigated using speech‐related stimulation in two behavioural experiments. First, we used the McGurk illusion to test the strength and number of illusory perceptions in synesthesia. In a second step, we analysed the gain in speech perception coming from seen articulatory movements under acoustically noisy conditions. We used disyllabic nouns as stimulation and varied signal‐to‐noise ratio of the auditory stream presented concurrently to a matching video of the speaker. We hypothesized that if synesthesia is due to a general hyperbinding mechanism this group of subjects should be more susceptible to McGurk illusions and profit more from the visual information during audiovisual speech perception. The results indicate that there are differences between synesthetes and controls concerning multisensory integration – but in the opposite direction as hypothesized. Synesthetes showed a reduced number of illusions and had a reduced gain in comprehension by viewing matching articulatory movements in comparison to control subjects. Our results indicate that rather than having a hypersensitive binding mechanism, synesthetes show weaker integration of vision and audition.     

In search of the internal structure of the processes underlying interval timing in the sub-second and the second range: A confirmatory factor analysis approach

One of the earliest accounts of duration perception by Karl von Vierordt implied a common process underlying the timing of intervals in the sub-second and the second range. To date, there are two major explanatory approaches for the timing of brief intervals: the Common Timing Hypothesis and the Distinct Timing Hypothesis. While the common timing hypothesis also proceeds from a unitary timing process, the distinct timing hypothesis suggests two dissociable, independent mechanisms for the timing of intervals in the sub-second and the second range, respectively. In the present paper, we introduce confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to elucidate the internal structure of interval timing in the sub-second and the second range. Our results indicate that the assumption of two mechanisms underlying the processing of intervals in the second and the sub-second range might be more appropriate than the assumption of a unitary timing mechanism. In contrast to the basic assumption of the distinct timing hypothesis, however, these two timing mechanisms are closely associated with each other and share 77% of common variance. This finding suggests either a strong functional relationship between the two timing mechanisms or a hierarchically organized internal structure. Findings are discussed in the light of existing psychophysical and neurophysiological data.     

How Not to Read Philosophical Investigations: McDowell and Goldfarb on Wittgenstein on Understanding

In a recent article, John McDowell has criticised Warren Goldfarb for attributing an anti‐realist conception of linguistic understanding to Wittgenstein. 1 I argue that McDowell is right to reject Goldfarb's anti‐ realism, but does so for the wrong reasons. I show that both Goldfarb's and McDowell's interpretations are vitiated by the fact that they do not pay attention to Wittgenstein's positive claims about understanding, in particular his claim that understanding is a kind of ability. The cause of this oversight lies in their endorsement of an excessively anti‐systematic or “therapeutic” reading of Wittgenstein.     

Sexist Behavior Undermines Women’s Performance in a Job Application Situation

Can sexist behavior in a job application context threaten women and cause them to underperform on a subsequent cognitive ability test? In a simulated job interview, 46 women and 46 men -- undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Heidelberg, Germany -- were confronted with either sexist (dominant and physically close) behavior by a male interviewer or non-sexist (friendly and neutral) behavior by the same confederate. Participants then solved math items and language-related items from a German standard intelligence test. In accordance with our hypothesis, the results indicated that female participants in the sexist condition performed significantly worse on the mathematical test than female participants in the control condition. The performance of female participants on the language-related test and male participants on both the math and language-related tests did not differ by experimental condition. After the sexist job interview, women’s impaired performance, occurring on the math items only (i.e., specific to the domain in which women are negatively stereotyped), suggests an influence of psychological and interpersonal processes on seemingly objective test outcomes.     

Regulatory job stressors and their within-person relationships with ego depletion: The roles of state anxiety,self-control effort,and job autonomy

Our research aimed at disentangling the underlying processes of the adverse relationship between regulatory job stressors and ego depletion. Specifically, we analyzed whether state anxiety and self-control effort would mediate the within-person relationships of time pressure, planning and decision-making, and emotional dissonance with ego depletion. In addition, we also tested potential attenuating effects of situational job autonomy on the adverse effects of regulatory job stressors on state anxiety, self-control effort, and ego depletion. Based on an experience sampling design, we gathered a sample of 97 eldercare workers who provided data on 721 experience-sampling occasions. Multilevel moderated serial mediation analyses revealed that time pressure and emotional dissonance, but not planning and decision-making, exerted significant serial indirect effects on ego depletion via state anxiety and self-control effort. Finally, we found conditional serial indirect effects of all three regulatory job stressors on ego depletion as a function of job autonomy. Theoretical implications for scholarly understanding of coping with regulatory job stressors are discussed.     

The anaphase promoting complex is required for memory function in mice

Learning and memory processes critically involve the orchestrated regulation of de novo protein synthesis. On the other hand it has become clear that regulated protein degradation also plays a major role in neuronal plasticity and learning behavior. One of the key pathways mediating protein degradation is proteosomal protein destruction. The anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that targets proteins for proteosomal degradation by the 26S proteasome. While the APC/C is essential for cell cycle progression it is also expressed in postmitotic neurons where it has been implicated with axonal outgrowth and neuronal survival. In this study we addressed the role of APC/C in learning and memory function by generating mice that lack the essential subunit APC2 from excitatory neurons of the adult forebrain. Those animals are viable but exhibit a severe impairment in the ability to extinct fear memories, a process critical for the treatment of anxiety diseases such as phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder. Since deregulated protein degradation and APC/C activity has been implicated with neurodegeneration we also analyzed the effect of Apc2 deletion in a mouse model for Alzheimer's disease. In our experimental setting loss of APC2 form principle forebrain neurons did not affect the course of pathology in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model. In conclusion, our data provides genetic evidence that APC/C activity in the adult forebrain is required for cognitive function.