Why Do We Like the iPhone? The Role of Evaluative Conditioning in Attitude Formation

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is the change in liking due to the paring of an affectively meaningful and a neutral stimulus. Starting with the exemplary question of why we like the iPhone, this article provides an overview of past and present research and gives an outlook to future research on this topic. We outline four different theoretical EC accounts and discuss how each account is consistent with current empirical evidence.     

Using stimulus control procedures to teach indoor rock climbing to children with autism

The present study evaluated an intervention package for teaching route following to two children with autism at an indoor rock‐climbing gym. The intervention consisted of multiple within‐stimulus fading procedures in combination with errorless learning procedures, positive reinforcement, an error correction procedure, and conditional discrimination training technologies. The results demonstrated that both participants learned to climb at least 10 ft/3 m on specified routes. Furthermore, both participants learned to climb an entire 22‐ft/6.7‐m wall for at least one of three different routes without any errors in a regular rock‐climbing gym setting. The acquisition of this skill provides children with autism with an additional option for leisure participation with others. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One but not the same: Evaluative conditioning with mixed-valence USs

In evaluative conditioning (EC), the pairing of a positively or negatively valenced stimulus (US) with another neutral stimulus (CS) leads to a corresponding change in liking of the CS. EC research so far has concentrated on using unambiguously positive or negative USs. However, attitude objects often possess multiple features that can be positive and negative at the same time. The present research addresses the question of how EC is affected by using such mixed-valence stimuli as USs. In two studies, USs of mixed valence (i.e., positive behavior and membership in a negative group or vice versa) were paired with affectively neutral CSs. Interestingly, results showed that the mixed-valence USs were evaluated according to the valence of the behavioral information. In contrast, the evaluation of associated CSs was more strongly influenced by the valence of the group information that was presented about the USs. Possible explanations as well as implications for EC research are discussed.     

Multisensory Assessment of Acoustic Comfort Aboard Metros: a Virtual Reality Study

In this study, a multisensory methodology is used to assess acoustic comfort aboard different real‐world metros by means of subjective annoyance and cognitive performance measures. Two experimental conditions were compared: unimodal versus bimodal. Immersive virtual reality was used to simulate journeys aboard metro coaches. Participants performed four tasks (Rey Test, Verbal Fluency, Backward Counting and Auditory Words Discrimination) while listening to metro sounds (unimodal condition) or while listening to metro sounds within a virtual metro coach (bimodal condition). At the end of each journey, participants reported their degree of noise annoyance. The results showed that cognitive performances were worse in the bimodal than in the unimodal condition. Moreover, the bimodal condition affected negatively the capacity to discriminate words and to count backward. However, reported noise annoyance was higher in the unimodal than bimodal condition. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Age-related differences in deception

Young and older participants judged the veracity of young and older speakers' opinions about topical issues. All participants found it easier to judge when an older adult was lying relative to a young adult, and older adults were worse than young adults at telling when speakers were telling the truth versus lying. Neither young nor older adults were advantaged when judging a speaker from the same age group. Overall, older adults were more transparent as liars and were worse at detecting lies, with older adults' worse emotion recognition fully mediating the relation between age group and lie detection failures.     

Individual reactions to a multisensory immersive virtual environment: the impact of a wind farm on individuals

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a wind farm on individuals by means of an audio-visual methodology that tried to simulate biologically plausible individual-environment interactions. To disentangle the effects of auditory and visual components on cognitive performances and subjective evaluations, unimodal (Audio or Video) and bimodal (Audio + Video) approaches were compared. Participants were assigned to three experimental conditions that reproduced a wind farm by means of an immersive virtual reality system: bimodal condition, reproducing scenarios with both acoustic and visual stimuli; unimodal visual condition, with only visual stimuli; unimodal auditory condition, with only auditory stimuli. While immersed in the virtual scenarios, participants performed tasks assessing verbal fluency, short-term verbal memory, backward counting, and distance estimations (egocentric: how far is the turbine from you?; allocentric: how far is the turbine from the target?). Afterwards, participants reported their degree of visual and noise annoyance. The results revealed that the presence of a visual scenario as compared to the only availability of auditory stimuli may exert a negative effect on resource-demanding cognitive tasks but a positive effect on perceived noise annoyance. This supports the idea that humans perceive the environment holistically and that auditory and visual features are processed in close interaction.     

Charity Begins at Home: Cultural Differences in Social Discounting and Generosity

People often consider how their actions influence others when making decisions. However, we are not equally generous to everyone alike. Our willingness to share resources declines as a function of social distance between the decision maker and the recipient. This function is likely to be influenced by culture, but research on behavioral decision making is still lacking empirical evidence. In Western societies, individuals generally perceive themselves as autonomous and independent from others, whereas the distinction between self and close others is less sharply defined by Eastern individuals where relationships and group membership are more centralized. Therefore, the social discount function should reflect this difference in the distinction of self and others by a reduced decline in generosity over close social distances. A social decision‐making task was adapted to the intercultural context, and data were collected in Germany and China. For seven different social distances, we estimated how much money German and Chinese subjects were willing to forego to give a certain reward to another person. A hyperbolic model was fitted to the data. We found that other‐regarding generosity declines as a function of social distance independent of cultural identity. However, German subjects showed a marked drop in generosity across close social distances, which was significantly less pronounced in Chinese participants. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Declarative knowledge and professional vision in teacher education: Effect of courses in teaching and learning

Background. Teachers’ professional vision includes the ability to apply general pedagogical knowledge about components of effective teaching and learning to reason about significant features of classroom practice. It requires teachers to (a) describe, (b) explain, and (c) predict classroom situations. Although the acquisition of underling knowledge can be considered as a key element of university‐based teacher education programmes, to date, there has been little empirical research on teacher candidates’ development of professional vision. Aims. This study aims to improve understanding of how different university‐based courses in teaching and learning impact the development of professional vision. Sample. Participants were teacher candidates (N= 53) attending the same teacher education programme at a German university. They were enrolled in one of three different compulsory courses in teaching and learning, lasting one semester. Methods. In a pre‐test–post‐test design, participants’ declarative knowledge about teaching and learning was measured with a test, professional vision with the online tool Observer. Analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance were conducted. Results. Teacher candidates in all three courses showed significant gains both in declarative knowledge and professional vision. Patterns of results differed depending on the course attended. A video‐based course with a focus on effective teaching resulted in highest gains in prediction of the consequences of observed events for student learning processes, which is the highest level of knowledge transfer. Conclusion. The development of professional vision is a strongly knowledge‐guided process. In line with their content and aims, university‐based courses can enhance teaching‐relevant knowledge for teacher candidates.     

Inhibitory Control and Moral Emotions: Relations to Reparation in Early and Middle Childhood

ABSTRACT. This study examined links between inhibitory control, moral emotions (sympathy and guilt), and reparative behavior in an ethnically diverse sample of 4- and 8-year-olds (N = 162). Caregivers reported their children's reparative behavior, inhibitory control, and moral emotions through a questionnaire, and children reported their guilt feelings in response to a series of vignettes depicting moral transgressions. A hypothesized meditation model was tested with inhibitory control relating to reparative behavior through sympathy and guilt. In support of this model, results revealed that high levels of inhibitory control were associated with high levels of reparative behavior through high levels of sympathy and guilt. However, the mediation of inhibitory control to reparation through guilt was significant for 4-year-olds only. Results are discussed in relation to the temperamental, regulatory, and affective-moral precursors of reparative behavior in early and middle childhood.     

An Intervention Strategy to Managing Diversity: Discerning Conventions

The article presents a strategy to minimize disadvantages and maximize advantages of diversity in multinational groups. Members of multinational groups require the skill to recognize cultural differences between group members if they want to deal with intercultural misunderstandings and realize high quality and originality in work. They must discern differences in behavioural standards which may cause mis- and non-understandings during group discussions, and they must determine different ways of defining problems and solving them. Different theoretical assumptions are made concerning the conceptualization of cultural differences as conventions. In multinational groups communication and task conventions can be distinguished. The different communication conventions cause interpersonal misunderstandings. Participants of a training programme learn to use an algorithm for discerning cultural differences. It includes detecting mis- and non-understandings, making conventions explicit, and negotiating conventions. The aim of making task conventions explicit is to obtain a larger number of alternatives to interpret a problem, to solve it, and to evaluate it. The algorithm of discerning conventions is learned with the technique of leading questions Fisher, 1980; Vygotsky, 1978, which is demonstrated to a group of participants which work together on a real task.