Web metrics: measuring patterns in online shopping

The Web has become a primary source of product information for online consumers. As such, basic questions regarding how consumers approach the search process need to be understood and measured if marketers and website developers are to identify patterns or trends in consumer information search strategies. To observe and measure changes in consumer search behaviour, it is necessary to establish benchmarks that can, at a later date, be compared with subsequent observation measurements. This study recorded the search activities of 37 subjects as they searched for information regarding the purchase of two products: one where they had expert product knowledge and one where they had novice product knowledge. Significance was found for particular site types used and, more importantly, in patterns of site type usage. The methodology and benchmarks offer researchers a means of tracking changes in consumer search behaviour on the Web. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Two modes of confidence rating: An effect of episodic information of participant's own past responses in a repeated-question paradigm

Abstract: General knowledge questions with two answer alternatives were employed in experimental session 1; in session 2, the same questions were presented together with participants' own session-1 responses. In order to examine whether or not the episodic information of participant's own responses would suppress standard confidence-rating mode in session 2, rates of answer- and confidence-changes between sessions were analyzed. In session 2, participants were able to change the confidence value to another, if they thought the initial value inadequate. They then had a chance to change the answer to the other and rated their confidence in the new answer. The major results were as follows: (a) Between-session answer change rate was very low; (b) Between-session answer change rate was not a monotonic decreasing function of confidence; (c) However, the rate depended on confidence change from session 1 to before-answer-change rating. These results clearly contrasted with a previous study ( Saito, 1998 ) in which episodic information of participant's own session 1 answers and confidence values was not presented. It was argued that the episodic information triggered another mode of confidence rating or a decision inertia effect.     

Global and local evaluations of public speaking performance in social anxiety

Differences in the relative use of global and local information (seeing the forest vs. the trees) may explain why people with social anxiety often do not benefit from corrective feedback, even though they pay close attention to details in social situations. In the current study, participants high (n = 43) or low (n = 47) in social anxiety symptoms gave a series of brief speeches, and then self-rated their speaking performance on items reflecting global and local performance indicators (self-assessment) and also received standardized performance feedback from an experimenter. Participants then completed a questionnaire asking how they thought the experimenter would rate their performance based on the feedback provided (experimenter assessment). Participants completed the self- and experimenter assessments again after 3 days, in addition to a measure of postevent processing (repetitive negative thinking) about their speech performance. Results showed that, as hypothesized, the High SA group rated their performance more negatively than the Low SA group. Moreover, the High SA group's ratings of global aspects of their performance became relatively more negative over time, compared to their ratings of local aspects and the Low SA group's ratings. As expected, postevent processing mediated the relationship between social anxiety group status and worsening global performance evaluations. These findings point to a pattern of progressively more negative global evaluations over time for persons high in social anxiety.     

Informative Aboutness

Pretheoretically, (B) ‘all believers are immortal’ is about all believers, but (1) B is not about any unbeliever. Similarly, (M) ‘all mortals are unbelievers’ is not about any immortal, but (2) M is about all mortals. But B and M are logically equivalent universal generalizations, so arguably they are about exactly the same objects; by (2), they are about those mortals who are unbelievers, contradicting (1). If one responds by giving up (1), is there still a sense in which B treats unbelievers differently from believers? I argue that there is. B is uninformative about unbelievers but informative about believers, in the following sense: for any object o, the information that B provides only about o—namely, ‘o is a believer only if o is immortal’—is entailed (and thus rendered redundant) by ‘o is an unbeliever’ but not by ‘o is a believer’.     

On the Philosophy of Bitcoin/Blockchain Technology: Is it a Chaotic,Complex System?

The philosophy of blockchain technology is concerned, among other things, with blockchain ontology, how it might be characterised, how it is being created, implemented, and adopted, how it operates in the world, and how it evolves over time. This paper concentrates on whether Bitcoin/blockchain can be considered a complex system and, if so, whether it is a chaotic one. Beyond mere academic curiosity, a positive response would raise concerns about the likelihood of Bitcoin/blockchain entering a 2010‐Flash‐Crash‐type of chaotic regime, with catastrophic consequences for financial systems based on it. The paper starts by highlighting the relevant details of the Bitcoin/blockchain ecosystem formed by the blockchain itself, bitcoin end users (payers and payees), capital gains seekers, miners, full nodes maintainers, and developers, and their interactions. Then the Information Theory of Complex Systems is briefly discussed for later use. Finally, the blockchain is investigated with the help of Crutchfield's Statistical Complexity measure. The low non‐null statistical complexity value obtained suggests that the blockchain may be considered algorithmically complicated but hardly a complex system and unlikely to enter a chaotic regime.     

Health‐relevant personality is associated with sensitivity to sound (hyperacusis)

Hyperacusis, over‐sensitivity to sounds, causes distress and disability and the etiology is not fully understood. The study aims to explore possible associations between health‐relevant personality traits and hyperacusis. Hyperacusis was assessed using the Hyperacusis Questionnaire (HQ), and clinical uncomfortable loudness levels (ULL). Personality was measured with the Health‐relevant Personality (HP5i) Inventory. The study sample was 348 (140 men and 208 women; age 23–71 years). Moderate correlations were found between the personality trait negative affectivity (NA; a facet of neuroticism) and dimensions of the HQ and weak correlations were found with the ULLs. Hedonic capacity (a facet of extraversion) was significantly correlated with the HQ but not with the ULLs. Impulsivity (a facet of conscientiousness) was correlated with the HQ and the ULLs. A significant difference in mean values was found in all hyperacusis measures and different levels of NA – those with higher levels displayed more severe signs of hyperacusis. A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that higher levels of NA increases the odds of having hyperacusis on average 4.6 times for men and 2.4 times for women. These findings imply that health‐relevant personality traits should be considered in the diagnosis and treatment of hyperacusis.     

Personality predicts mortality risk: An integrative data analysis of 15 international longitudinal studies

This study examined the Big Five personality traits as predictors of mortality risk, and smoking as a mediator of that association. Replication was built into the fabric of our design: we used a Coordinated Analysis with 15 international datasets, representing 44,094 participants. We found that high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness were consistent predictors of mortality across studies. Smoking had a small mediating effect for neuroticism. Country and baseline age explained variation in effects: studies with older baseline age showed a pattern of protective effects (HR < 1.00) for openness, and U.S. studies showed a pattern of protective effects for extraversion. This study demonstrated coordinated analysis as a powerful approach to enhance replicability and reproducibility, especially for aging-related longitudinal research.     

Balancing Effort and Information Transmission During Language Acquisition: Evidence From Word Order and Case Marking

Across languages of the world, some grammatical patterns have been argued to be more common than expected by chance. These are sometimes referred to as (statistical) language universals. One such universal is the correlation between constituent order freedom and the presence of a case system in a language. Here, we explore whether this correlation can be explained by a bias to balance production effort and informativity of cues to grammatical function. Two groups of learners were presented with miniature artificial languages containing optional case marking and either flexible or fixed constituent order. Learners of the flexible order language used case marking significantly more often. This result parallels the typological correlation between constituent order flexibility and the presence of case marking in a language and provides a possible explanation for the historical development of Old English to Modern English, from flexible constituent order with case marking to relatively fixed order without case marking. In addition, learners of the flexible order language conditioned case marking on constituent order, using more case marking with the cross‐linguistically less frequent order, again mirroring typological data. These results suggest that some cross‐linguistic generalizations originate in functionally motivated biases operating during language learning.     

Changes in physical activity among coronary and hypertensive patients: A longitudinal study using the Health Action Process Approach

Objectives: Physical activity (PA) is a key factor in cardiovascular disease prevention. Through the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA), the present study investigated the process of change in PA in coronary patients (CPs) and hypertensive patients (HPs).

Design: Longitudinal survey study with two follow-up assessments at 6 and 12 months on 188 CPs and 169 HPs.

Main outcome measures: Intensity and frequency of PA.

Results: A multi-sample analysis indicated the equivalence of almost all the HAPA social cognitive patterns for both patient populations. A latent growth curve model showed strong interrelations among intercepts and slopes of PA, planning and maintenance self-efficacy, but change in planning was not associated with change in PA. Moreover, increase in PA was associated with the value of planning and maintenance self-efficacy reached at the last follow-up

Conclusions: These findings shed light on mechanisms often neglected by the HAPA literature, suggesting reciprocal relationships between PA and its predictors that could define a plausible virtuous circle within the HAPA volitional phase. Moreover, the HAPA social cognitive patterns are essentially identical for patients who had a coronary event (i.e. CPs) and individuals who are at high risk for a coronary event (i.e. HPs).