Same destination,different paths: When and how does observing others' choices and reasoning alter confidence in our own choices?

Seeing others make the same decision we do does not always increase choice confidence or tell the whole story of social influence when consumers expect to have to publically discuss their choice and reasoning. Instead, consumers' confidence in their publically stated choices can be diminished if observed others make the same choice but justify the choice using different reasoning. This effect occurs because confidence in one's own reasoning is thrown into doubt, rather than due to a desire to affiliate with the observed other. These effects are eliminated in both private choice contexts and in rejection versus selection tasks.     

Evidence for Age-related Changes to Temporal Attention and Memory from the Choice Time Production Task

ABSTRACT

The effect of aging on interval timing was examined using a choice time production task, which required participants to choose a key response based on the location of the stimulus, but to delay responding until after a learned time interval. Experiment 1 varied attentional demands of the response choice portion of the task by varying difficulty of stimulus–response mapping. Choice difficulty affected temporal accuracy equally in both age groups, but older participants' response latencies were more variable under more difficult response choice conditions. Experiment 2 tested the contribution of long-term memory to differences in choice time production between age groups over 3 days of testing. Direction of errors in time production between the two age groups diverged over the 3 sessions, but variability did not differ. Results from each experiment separately show age-related changes to attention and memory in temporal processing using different measures and manipulations in the same task.     

Choosing what I want or keeping what I should: The effect of decision strategy on choice consistency

We examine decision-makers’ consistency vis-à-vis their own priorities in a multi-choice task, using either an inclusion or exclusion strategy to reduce a set of alternatives. Four studies demonstrate that people’s decisions are more consistent with their priorities when using an exclusion vs. an inclusion strategy to screen alternatives. Moreover, this effect was stronger for less knowledgeable than for more knowledgeable decision-makers. We examined two possible mechanisms behind this phenomenon. First, we suggest that the process of thinking about the positive aspects of the alternatives (associated with inclusion) encourages the decision-maker to more favorably evaluate options initially given low marks, resulting in less consistency with preferences. We also show that under exclusion, people tend to select the alternatives that they think they should choose, while under inclusion they tend to choose options that are more in line with what they would like to have but which may be perceived as luxuries.     

Preference for gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) in current users

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a drug with significant abuse potential. The present study aimed to assess the relative value of escalating doses of GHB to current GHB users via the Multiple Choice Procedure (MCP), and to validate that the dose rated highest with the MCP would be self-administered at a greater rate than placebo. Participants were 5 current GHB users who were not currently trying to stop using GHB. To examine the value of escalating doses of GHB, the following doses of GHB were used: 0 (placebo), 12.5, 25, 37.5, and 50 mg/kg. Participants typically assigned higher doses of GHB had higher crossover points on the MCP. During choice sessions, participants made repeated choices between administering GHB, placebo or nothing. All participants selected GHB exclusively (5 out of 5 instances) except for one participant who selected GHB on 4 out of 5 instances, thus 96% (i.e., 24/25) of choices were for active GHB. Based on these data, GHB appears likely to function as a dose-dependent reinforcer for humans based on our sample.     

Making decisions about now and later: Development of future-oriented self-control

This study explored factors underlying preschoolers’ ability to make future-oriented choices. In a delay-of-gratification choice task, quantity and visibility of the reward was systematically varied. Participants included 90 typically developing children aged 2–4 years. Children made more choices to delay gratification as the quantity of the reward increased from 1 to 4 stickers, but covering the reward did not have an effect. The study extends previous findings on delay of gratification choice tasks in suggesting a developmental pattern beginning with an early appearing “hot” motivational system. Having children think about the present self versus the future self presumably activates a second “cool” representational system. Age differences in the development of this system and its integration with the motivational system may be at the heart of the “U” shaped function observed in the present work, one in which simpler abilities underlying self-control develop in parallel and integrate to produce more complex behaviour. The study thus contributes to our understanding of the development of future-oriented self-control, a milestone central to socialization and the definition of the self.     

铁过度负荷与疾病

铁是机体微量元素中含量最多的一种,是血红蛋白、肌红蛋白、细胞色素系统、呼吸链的主要复合物、过氧物酶和过氧化氢酶等的重要组成部分,广泛参与机体生理功能和生化反应,缺铁可导致贫血等疾病。体内铁过多,称为铁过度负荷。随着医疗条件改善、生活水平提高,源于生理性因素、病理性因素和外源性铁剂应用(治疗性应用、预防性应用),铁过度负荷相关疾病日益增多。铁过度负荷可对内分泌代谢、心血管、神经系统、肾脏、肝脏等系统器官产生损害,导致多种疾病或使疾病加重。目前铁过度负荷相关疾病的治疗措施主要有放血疗法和药物治疗。放血疗法,只可作于短期治疗。去铁胺作为目前较为有效的去铁剂,由于价格昂贵,不能广泛应用于临床。铁过度负荷对人体的影响和相关疾病尚未外起医学界的重视。深入研究以铁过度负荷为主要和次要病因相关疾病,探索正确补铁措施,是预防铁过度负荷相关疾病、增进人体健康的重要措施,也是临床面临床的新课题。     

Fuzzy-trace theory and framing effects in choice: Gist extraction,truncation, and conversion

In the first section of this paper, we analyze classic framing effects according to principles of fuzzy-trace theory. The key principle of the theory is that reasoning prefers to operate on simple gist, as opposed to exact details. Then, we introduce new data in three experiments designed to test this fuzzy-processing assumption. In the first experiment, framing effects were conserved when numerical information was omitted from standard problems, arguing against a critical role for numerical processing. In the second experiment, evidence is presented that some subjects simplified framing problems by mentally truncating linguistically redundant complements in gambles. Experimentally deleting parts of gambles mimiced such effects, and choices varied depending on the information that remained explicit. In the third experiment, truncation effects were also demonstrated for mixed-frame problems, in which one option is positive and the other is negative. The data disconfirmed a ‘halo’ hypothesis that subjects merely selected the positive option over the negative one. Instead, choices were accounted for by conversion, that is, transforming problems into uniformly positive representations to avoid the complexity of negation. In all three experiments, choices could be explained as a consequence of radically simplifying decision information.     

Global Progress II: Evolutionary Mechanisms and their Side-effects

This paper attempts to update the 18th century concept of progress by an evolutionary theoretical framework, while replying to some of the contemporary critiques. Progress, understood as increase in fitness (or its proxy, quality of life) necessarily accompanies evolution by natural selection. In socio-cultural evolution, this mechanism is reinforced by growth of knowledge and virtuous cycles, but can be accompanied by negative side-effects such as overshooting and parasitism. The most pressing of the contemporary side-effects, such as pollution and the increased pace of life, are discussed, but it is concluded that they can be tackled without really endangering global progress. The anxiety that they engender is unfortunately amplified by a bad news bias in the media, leading to an inappropriately pessimistic view of the situation by the public.     

Some probabilistic models of best, worst, and best-worst choices

Over the past decade or so, a choice design in which a person is asked to select both the best and the worst option in an available set of options has been gaining favor over more traditional designs, such as where the person is asked, for instance, to: select the best option; select the worst option; rank the options; or rate the options. In this paper, we develop theoretical results for three overlapping classes of probabilistic models for best, worst, and best-worst choices, with the models in each class proposing specific ways in which such choices might be related. The models in these three classes are called random ranking and random utility, joint and sequential, and ratio scale. We include some models that belong to more than one class, with the best known being the maximum-difference (maxdiff) model, summarize estimation issues related to the models, and formulate a number of open theoretical problems.