I Was Pleased a Moment Ago: How Pleasure Varies with Background and Foreground Reference Points

The pleasure of an outcome is often evaluated relative to salient reference points. In the background, increasing sequences of positive outcomes are more enjoyable than decreasing sequences. In the foreground, outcomes that could have been worse are often more enjoyable than those that could have been better. How does pleasure vary when both background and foreground reference points are salient? Using a repeated gambling task in which participants make a choice, learn the outcome, watch their cumulative earnings change, and rate the pleasure of the outcome, we explore this question. Pleasure depends on background and foreground reference points, but the immediate events tend to dominate. The relatively narrow focus on the most recent reference points leads to myopic pleasure. We offer a modified version of decision affect theory to account for the results and explore the implications for consumer satisfaction.     

Attention and attribute overlap in preferential choice

Attributes that are common, or overlapping, across alternatives in two-alternative forced preferential choice tasks are often non-diagnostic. In many settings, attending to and evaluating these attributes does not help the decision maker determine which of the available alternatives is the most desirable. For this reason, many existing behavioural theories propose that decision makers ignore common attributes while deliberating. Across six experiments, we find that decision makers do direct their attention selectively and ignore attributes that are not present in or associated with either of the available alternatives. However, they are as likely to attend to common attributes as they are to attend to attributes that are unique to a single alternative. These results suggest the need for novel theories of attention in preferential choice.     

中央执行负荷对成人估算策略运用的影响

随机选取128名大学生为被试, 运用选择/无选法研究范式, 考察了不同中央执行负荷对估算策略运用的影响。结果发现：(1)中央执行负荷不影响策略分布; (2)策略运用条件、中央执行负荷影响策略执行。主次一致任务, 负荷对策略执行反应时的影响随负荷强度增大而增大, 对策略执行精确度影响不大; 而对主次不一致任务, 低负荷对策略执行反应时及精确度影响都不明显; (3)策略运用条件、中央执行负荷影响策略选择。负荷强度对策略选择反应时起重要作用, 只有当次级任务负荷高时, 干扰作用才明显; (4)成人的策略选择适应性受负荷强度的影响。无负荷条件下个体策略适应性更好。     

Prospect theory analysis of guessing in multiple choice tests

The guessing of answers in multiple choice tests adds random error to the variance of the test scores, lowering their reliability. Formula scoring rules that penalize for wrong guesses are frequently used to solve this problem. This paper uses prospect theory to analyze scoring rules from a decision‐making perspective and focuses on the effects of framing on the tendency to guess. In three experiments participants were presented with hypothetical test situations and were asked to indicate the degree of certainty that they thought was required for them to answer a question. In accordance with the framing hypothesis, participants tended to guess more when they anticipated a low grade and therefore considered themselves to be in the loss domain, or when the scoring rule caused the situation to be framed as entailing potential losses. The last experiment replicated these results with a task that resembles an actual test. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparisons of women with high and low trait impulsivity using behavioral models of response-disinhibition and reward-choice

Two types of behavioral models of impulsive behavior, response-disinhibition/attentional and reward-choice response models, were used to compare women grouped by high (Impulse+, n=43) and low (Impulse−, n=43) self-reported impulsive behavior on the Eysenck I₇ Questionnaire. Two of the four different tasks tested were response-disinhibition/attentional models; these included the Immediate and Delayed Memory Task and the GoStop Task. The other two tasks were based on the reward-choice model of impulsivity and included the Single Key Impulsivity Paradigm and the Two-Choice Reward Task. Of particular interest was whether commission errors (response-disinhibition/attentional paradigms) or a preference for smaller–sooner rewards over larger–later rewards (reward-choice) would differ between the groups. Participants completed one session of each task in a single day. The most significant findings were that the Impulse+ group had: (1) elevated commission errors; (2) lower stimulus discriminability (between target and catch stimuli); and (3) poorer response inhibition to a stop signal. Responding on the response-disinhibition/attentional tasks distinguished between the impulsivity groups while the reward-choice tasks did not. These results demonstrate that women who report higher levels of trait impulsivity respond in a manner consistent with previous studies examining impulsive behavior.     

Getting Students to Choose to Do More Work: Evidence of the Effectiveness of the Interspersal Procedure

College students were exposed to two sets of mathematics assignments. For each set students were given an experimental and a control assignment. The control assignments contained 15 three-digit by two-digit target problems. The experimental assignments contained 18 similar target problems as well as six one-digit by one-digit multiplication problems interspersed after every third target problem. In the first assignment set, students were asked to work each assignment for 5 minutes. Although the experimental assignments contained more target problems, results showed that significantly more students chose the experimental assignment and rated it as less difficult and as requiring less effort to complete. In the second assignment set, students were asked to complete both assignments. Again significantly more students rated the experimental assignment as being less difficult and as requiring less effort to complete. Although more students chose the experimental assignment for homework, this difference was not significant. Discussion focuses on using the interspersal procedure to enhance students' perceptions of assignments and alter their choice behavior.     

Differences in Creative Problem‐Solving Preferences Across Occupations

FourSight theory contends that individuals show preferences for the mental operations rooted in the creative process. The four fundamental preferences measured by FourSight are Clarifiers, Ideators, Developers, and Implementers. The present study examined the extent to which certain occupations reflect a proclivity for these four creative‐process preferences. Guided by Holland's theory of vocational choice, hypothesized relationships were formulated for the link between FourSight theory and 17 occupations. For example, it was predicted that those who work in finance would show a significant bias toward the Clarifier preference. Of the 17 hypothesized relationships between FourSight and occupation, statistical analysis of the FourSight preferences for 20,784 individuals showed support for 12 predictions and partial support for two of the hypothesized relationships. These findings clearly demonstrate that particular occupations engage specific creative‐process preferences. Future investigations might wish to examine the degree to which the interaction between work and creative‐thinking preferences predicts creative performance, satisfaction, stress, and turnover.     

The nanoeconomics of concurrent choice behavior

We introduce to behavior analysis a way of analyzing choice behavior that exploits recent developments in nanoeconomics, financial economics, and econometrics. A response return, modeled on an economic return, is the log differenced count of responses allocated to each of two alternatives during a short time window, compared with that in the immediately preceding window. The response return is a new dependent variable which offers a novel and useful way of looking at operant behavior, especially at the molecular level of analysis. The response–return series is a near‐instantaneous measure of an organism's dynamic preferences for each of two alternatives. Analyzing such a series requires time‐analytic techniques, including Auto‐Regressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (ARCH) models. We illustrate these techniques by analyzing choices between combinations of arithmetic and exponential variable‐interval schedules with pigeon subjects. All response–return series were well‐fitted by one of three ARCH‐family models. The fitted models were differentially sensitive to transition versus steady‐state data samples. The particular insights that the ARCH analyses offer are improved understanding of the effects of the instantaneous effects of reinforcers and their absence, of how the distribution of reinforcers in time affects choice, and of the differences between choice in transition and at steady state.     

Evaluating the effect of delay spacing on delay discounting: carry‐over effects on steepness and the form of the discounting function

Most delay discounting studies use tasks that arrange delay progressions in which the spacing between consecutive delays becomes progressively larger. To date, little research has examined delay discounting using other progressions. The present study assessed whether the form or steepness of discounting varied across different delay progressions. Human participants completed three discounting tasks with delay progressions that varied in the time between consecutive delays: a standard (increasing duration between delays), linear (equal duration between delays), and an inverse progression (decreasing duration between delays). Steepness of discounting was generally reduced, and remained so, following experience with the inverse progression. Effects of the delay progression on the best fitting equation were order‐dependent. Overall the hyperbola model provided better fits, but the exponential model performed better with data from the inverse progression. Regardless, differences in which model fit best were often small. The finding that the best fitting model was dependent, in some cases, on the delay progression suggests that a single quantitative model of discounting may not be applicable to describe discounting across all procedural contexts. Ultimately, changes in steepness of discounting following experience with the inverse progression appeared similar to anchoring effects, whose mechanism will require further study to delineate.