The effects of valence‐based and discrete emotional states on aesthetic response

There is increasing recognition that consumer aesthetics—the responses of consumers to the aesthetic or appearance aspects of products—has become an important area of marketing in recent years. Consumer aesthetic responses to a product are a source of pleasure for the consumer. Previous research into the aesthetic responses to products has often emphasized exterior factors and visual design, but studies have seldom considered the psychological aesthetic experience of consumers, and in particular their emotional state. This study attempts to bridge this gap by examining the link between consumers’ emotions and their aesthetic response to a product. Thus, the major goal of this study was to determine how valence‐based and discrete emotional states influence choice. In Studies 1 and 2, positive and negative emotions were manipulated to implement two different induction techniques and explore the effect of emotions on participants’ choices in two separate experiments. The results of both experiments confirmed the predictions, indicating that aesthetic responses and purchase intention are functions of emotional valence, such that both are stronger for people in a positive emotional state than for those in a negative emotional state. Study 2 also used a neutral affective state to establish the robustness of this observed effect of incidental affect. The results of Study 3 demonstrate that aesthetic response and purchase intention are not only a function of affect valence, but also are affected by the certainty appraisal associated with specific affective states. This research, therefore, contributes to the literature by offering empirical evidence that incidental affect is a determinant of aesthetic response.     

情绪记忆编码增强效应的认知神经机制

相对于中性刺激,情绪信息在记忆的准确性和细节方面都会得到显著的增强,这种增强效应在编码阶段受到情绪效价和唤醒的影响。涉及到的脑区主要包括:双侧杏仁核、海马前部、海马回和前额叶皮层。杏仁核—内侧颞叶(MTL)系统支持唤醒信息的编码增强效应,反映的是情绪对记忆自动化的影响,属于自动加工,主要受情绪唤醒的调节;前额叶网络支持消极无唤醒信息的编码增强效应,对情绪信息的加工属于控制加工,主要受情绪效价的调节。     

Involuntary attention in the absence of visual awareness

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have found a dissociation between voluntary attention and awareness. Here, we examined the relationship between involuntary attention and awareness. We presented a masked cue such that participants were unaware of the cue. This was followed by a search array, for which participants detected the presence of a shape target. Even though the cue was task irrelevant and unconscious, we observed faster reaction times when either the cue’s location or colour was congruent with shape target. We conclude an unconscious stimulus can elicit both space- and feature-based attention. These results provide further evidence for the dissociation between attention and consciousness.     

Voluntarily-generated unimanual preparation is associated with stopping success: evidence from LRP and lateralized mu ERD before the stop signal

According to the race models of the stop-signal paradigm, stopping success (successful vs. unsuccessful stopping) is attributed to the finishing times of a go and a stop process. In addition to those factors involving processing times, in the present study we sought to use electrophysiological measures to find factors involving activations that could affect stopping success. We hypothesized that voluntarily-generated unimanual preparation would be a factor. To assess voluntarily-generated unimanual preparation in the stop-signal paradigm, we used a selective-stopping task without any precue. The selective-stopping task also allowed us to assess reaction times (RTs) even when stopping was successful. We demonstrated shorter RTs in signal-respond (i.e. unsuccessful stopping) than in signal-inhibit (successful stopping) trials, as is predicted by the race models. More importantly, we also demonstrated different pre-signal lateralized readiness potentials between the two types of trials and larger lateralized mu ERD in signal-respond than in signal-inhibit trials, suggesting that voluntarily-generated unimanual preparation affects stopping success. In addition to what is described in the race models of the stop-signal paradigm, the present results therefore demonstrated measures of pre-signal activations that could influence stopping success.     

Promoting “Healthy Futures” to Reduce Risk Behaviors in Urban Youth: A Randomized Controlled Trial

There is increasing evidence of the interconnection between educational and health outcomes. Unfortunately wide disparities exist by both socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity in educational and vocational success. This study sought to promote urban youths’ career readiness as a way to reduce involvement in risk behaviors. Two hundred primarily African‐American youth (ages 14–21) were recruited from a pediatric primary care clinic. Youth randomized to the intervention received three motivational interviewing sessions focused around expectations and planning for the future. Baseline and 6‐month follow‐up assessments included measures of career readiness and risk behavior involvement (i.e., physical fighting, alcohol and marijuana use). At 6‐months, youth randomized to the intervention condition showed increased confidence in their ability to perform the behaviors needed to reach their college/career goals. Additionally, youth randomized to the intervention arm showed decreased fighting behavior (adjusted rate ratio: .27) and marijuana use (adjusted rate ratio: .61). Assisting urban youth in thinking and planning about their future holds promise as a way to reduce their involvement in risk behaviors. This study also demonstrated that motivational interviewing could be used to promote positive behaviors (i.e., career readiness).     

Teachers’ high maintenance behaviour as perceived by university students in Taiwan,and their coping strategies

Using a questionnaire survey, this study probed into interpersonal cues and characteristics of teachers’ high maintenance behaviors perceived by university students and their coping strategies, and then analyzed the relationship between their perceived high maintenance behaviors and the dimensions of their coping strategies. The Scale of Teachers’ High maintenance Behaviors and the Scale of Coping with Teachers’ High maintenance Behaviors were used as the measurement tools. The subjects were 248 university students, of which 59.3 % were male and 40.7 % were female. According to the research results, the subjects mostly suggested that they define teachers as being high maintenance after getting along with them for one to two weeks and communicating with them using 6–20 sentences. The subjects also suggested that the ranking of the behavioral characteristics of the most significant high maintenance behaviors of teachers is: being old-fashioned, followed by rule followers, idealization, and irresponsible opinions. According to the scores, the ranking of the subjects’ coping strategies for high maintenance behaviors of teachers is obedience and endurance, followed by gentle resistance, compromise, and obvious unhappiness. There is a significant correlation between teachers’ high maintenance behaviors perceived by university students and the dimensions of their coping strategies. It was found that teachers’ high maintenance behaviors perceived by university students could significantly predict the dimensions of coping strategies. Based on the above, this study proposed some suggestions and provided a discussion for university teachers and future studies.     

Identity Distress During the Era of Globalization: A Cross-National Comparative Study of India,China, and the United States

In recent decades, globalization has become a growing concern for developing countries. Eastern countries in particular, who have traditionally adhered to group-focused interests and the development of an interpersonal sense of identity, have endured sweeping changes as Western values, opinions, and attitudes begin to pervade its younger generations. With the ease of connection that technological advances such as the Internet provides, late adolescents and emerging adults must negotiate between adopting an identity that is based on the traditional viewpoints of their local culture and adopting an identity that is consistent with the values of a global culture. In this study, the identity distress reported by 422 late-adolescent college students in India, China, and the United States was compared as it relates to the endorsement of individualistic and collectivistic value systems. Identity distress was found to significantly vary by country, with participants from China and India scoring significantly higher than those in the United States. Collectivism was associated with less identity distress in India and more distress in China. Reasons for this disparity are explored and questions for future research are discussed.     

Educators' implicit perspectives on wisdom: A comparison between interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives

This research aimed to investigate educators' implicit perspectives on wisdom in order to compare interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives and to help identify similarities or differences between these two theoretical perspectives. A total of 56 educators in Taiwan were interviewed individually. We utilised the grounded theory method to analyse the qualitative data. Results showed that both interpersonal and intrapersonal perspectives converged on four core components of wisdom: intrapsychic integration, actions in service of problem solving and ideal implementation, positive results and feedback and adjustments. The interpersonal perspective referred to external characteristics, and admiration and influence, whereas the intrapersonal perspective included greater detail about intrapsychic integration and action strategies than did the interpersonal perspective. We close with a discussion both of how wisdom appears to span across different fields and how the present results might feed into the teaching of wisdom in schools.     

Differential Effects of Personality Traits and Environmental Predictors on Reproductive and Creative Imagination

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to analyze the effects of both personality and environmental variables on the imagination of video/film major university students; and (2) to test the mediator effect resulting from the variable of social climate. The results of this study supported both indicators of imaginative capabilities and environmental influences. The hypothesis of the study—that the variable of social climate mediates the effects of personality/environmental predictors and both types of imagination—was partially supported. The structural model also showed that most personality traits have direct effects on imagination, whereas most environmental predictors have indirect effects. Practical applications of this study were suggested, future inquiries were discussed, and limitations were acknowledged.