Taiwanese members' report of verbal interactions and their relations to demographic variables in the group counseling process

The purpose was to examine differences in verbal interactions during the group counseling process and the relationship between perceived verbal interactions and members' demographic variables. 42 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to one of four counseling groups. Based on the Hill Interaction Matrix, Quadrant 4 verbal interactions, consisting of Speculative and Confrontative verbal behaviors in Personal and Relationship levels, were perceived significantly more often at the closing stage than at the initial stage. Furthermore, the perceived verbal interactions were related to the demographic variables of sex, educational level, and group experience, but not acquaintanceship. The findings suggested that the higher ratings of perceived Speculative and Confrontative verbal behaviors and the lower ratings of Assertive and Silence verbal interactions must be interpreted cautiously from a cross-cultural perspective, especially in Asian cultures.     

The GROOP effect: groups mimic group actions

Research on perception–action links has focused on an interpersonal level, demonstrating effects of observing individual actions on performance. The present study investigated perception–action matching at an inter-group level. Pairs of participants responded to hand movements that were performed by two individuals who used one hand each or they responded to hand movements performed by an individual who used both hands. Apart from the difference in the number of observed agents, the observed hand movements were identical. If co-actors form action plans that specify the actions to be performed jointly, then participants should have a stronger tendency to mimic group actions than individual actions. Confirming this prediction, the results showed larger mimicry effects when groups responded to group actions than when groups responded to otherwise identical individual actions. This suggests that representations of joint tasks modulate automatic perception–action links and facilitate mimicry at an inter-group level.     

When does feeling of fluency matter?: how abstract and concrete thinking influence fluency effects

It has been widely documented that fluency (ease of information processing) increases positive evaluation. We proposed and demonstrated in three studies that this was not the case when people construed objects abstractly rather than concretely. Specifically, we found that priming people to think abstractly mitigated the effect of fluency on subsequent evaluative judgments (Studies 1 and 2). However, when feelings such as fluency were understood to be signals of value, fluency increased liking in people primed to think abstractly (Study 3). These results suggest that abstract thinking helps distinguish central decision inputs from less important incidental inputs, whereas concrete thinking does not make such a distinction. Thus, abstract thinking can augment or attenuate fluency effects, depending on whether fluency is considered important or incidental information, respectively.     

Advisory working alliance, perceived English proficiency, and acculturative stress

The aim of this study was to examine the moderators of (a) general or cross-cultural advisory working alliances and (b) perceived English proficiency on the association between acculturative stress and psychological distress. A total of 143 East Asian international students completed an online survey. Results from a hierarchical regression indicated significant three-way interactions of (a) General Advisory Working Alliances × Perceived English Proficiency × Acculturative Stress on Psychological Distress and (b) Cross-Cultural Advisory Working Alliances × Perceived English Proficiency × Acculturative Stress on Psychological Distress. Specifically, the present results indicated that acculturative stress was significantly associated with psychological distress only when students perceived lower English proficiency and had a stronger general or cross-cultural advisory working alliance. However, acculturative stress was not significantly related to psychological distress when these students perceived lower English proficiency and had a weaker advisory working alliance (i.e., general or cross-cultural). In addition, acculturative stress was also not significantly related to psychological distress when these students perceived higher English proficiency and had a stronger or weaker advisory working alliance (i.e., general or cross-cultural).     

Overpredicting and Underprofiting in Pricing Decisions

This research examines sellers' price‐setting behavior and discovers a naturally occurring mismatch between sellers and buyers: Sellers who make a price decision often consider alternative prices and engage in the joint evaluation mode, whereas buyers who make a purchase decision see only the finally set price and are in the single evaluation mode. This mismatch in evaluation modes leads sellers to overpredict buyers' price sensitivity and underprice their products. However, these effects apply only to products unfamiliar to buyers and without salient reference prices and can be alleviated if sellers are encouraged to mimic single evaluation when making pricing decisions. These propositions are empirically tested and verified. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparisons and advertising: the route from comparisons to effective advertising

In this study, we investigate what conditions cause subjects to make comparisons and the comparison patterns that influence effective advertising. People make social or temporal-past or temporal-future comparisons, or may not make any comparisons when facing a choice of purchase situation. Unlike past research, we investigate four comparison patterns, and propose a general comparison model that leads to greater advertising effectiveness.     

An enlarging hole on the palm illusion and a theory of the moon on the horizon

An illustration that both the palm illusion and the moon's illusory size on the horizon are explained by the context which provides a contrast created by perceptual constancy.     

Overt vs covert problem solving, transfer effects, and programming sequence: I: Inverted triangles

129 college students were individually requested to successively turn 2 of 3 upright triangles upside-down. Triangle consists of 3 rows of coins: 1 on top, 2 in the middle, and 3 at the bottom. Only 2 coins may be relocated. Triangle B has 4 rows with 4 coins at the bottom. Only 3 coins may be moved. Triangle C is arranged in 5 rows with 5 coins at the bottom. Only 5 coins are allowed to change places. Analysis shows (a) Problem A is the easiest, B in between, and C the hardest. (b) Overt manipulation is more efficient than a covert method. (c) Transfer in all cases is positive, the amount increasing with difficulty of the preceding problem. (d) From easy to difficult problems is more economical than the opposite sequence as measured by the total time required to solve both problems. The advantage is a little greater under the overt than the covert condition.