Gender differences in the pricing of professional services: Implications for income and customer relationships

This study extends our understanding of the effects of gender on both pricing behavior and owner income by examining both relationships in an experimental simulation involving owners of veterinary practices. Consistent with prior research, women owners are found to employ “compassionate pricing” more than men, even when the same services are offered. The process by which gender influences price, however is found to depend in part on one’s relationship orientation. Specifically, women are found to have a higher relationship orientation than men and relationship orientation is found to directly bias women’s transactional pricing towards more compassionate pricing. The relationship between role orientation, pricing, and income, however, is rather complex. While lower prices have a negative relationship with owner income, relationship orientation is found to have a positive direct influence on income. As a result, the influence of relationship orientation on income is found to be both negative, due to lower prices, and positive, due possibly to the resulting customer loyalty.     

Simulation à la Goldman: pretend and collapse

Theories of mind draw on processes that represent mental states and their computational connections; simulation, in addition, draws on processes that replicate (Heal 1986) a sequence of mental states. Moreover, mental simulation can be triggered by input from imagination instead of real perceptions. To avoid confusion between mental states concerning reality and those created in simulation, imagined contents must be quarantined. Goldman bypasses this problem by giving pretend states a special role to play in simulation (Goldman 2006). We argue that this path leads to the resurgence of the threat of collapse (Davies 1994), diluting the principled distinction between simulation and theory use. Exploration of a related method of real-mental states operating in a pretend mode leads to a factually untenable model. Our main goal here is to raise this problem as a challenge for Goldman’s reconfigured simulation theory. Only at the end we will briefly sketch a possible alternative way of quarantine that preserves the replicative element of simulation and avoids collapse. Figure 1 provides a guide to our argument. Fig. 1 Structure of argument

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Mixed effects modeling of Morris water maze data: Advantages and cautionary notes

Morris water maze data are most commonly analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance in which daily test sessions are analyzed as an unordered categorical variable. This approach, however, may lack power, relies heavily on post hoc tests of daily performance that can complicate interpretation, and does not target the nonlinear trends evidenced in learning data. The present project used Monte Carlo simulation to compare the relative strengths of the traditional approach with both linear and nonlinear mixed effects modeling that identifies the learning function for each animal and condition. Both trend-based mixed effects modeling approaches showed much greater sensitivity to identifying real effects, and the nonlinear approach provided uniformly better fits of learning trends. The common practice of removing a rat from the maze after 90 s, however, proved more problematic for the nonlinear approach and produced an underestimate of y-axis intercepts.     

Computing the uncomputable; or,The discrete charm of second-order simulacra

We examine a case in which non-computable behavior in a model is revealed by computer simulation. This is possible due to differing notions of computability for sets in a continuous space. The argument originally given for the validity of the simulation involves a simpler simulation of the simulation, still further simulations thereof, and a universality conjecture. There are difficulties with that argument, but there are other, heuristic arguments supporting the qualitative results. It is urged, using this example, that absolute validation, while highly desirable, is overvalued. Simulations also provide valuable insights that we cannot yet (if ever) prove.     

Mirror neurons and embodied simulation in the development of archetypes and self-agency

Abstract :  In this paper I explore the role of mirror neurons and motor intentionality in the development of self-agency. I suggest that this will also give us a firmer basis for an emergent view of archetypes, as key components in the development trajectory of self-agency, from its foundation in bodily action to its mature expression in mentalization and a conscious awareness of intentionality. I offer some ideas about the implications of these issues of self-agency for our clinical work with patients whose developmental trajectory of self-agency has been partially inhibited, so that their communications have a coercive effect. I discuss the possibility that this kind of clinical phenomenon may relate to Gallese and Lakoff's hypothesis that abstract thought and imagination are forms of simulated action, and that the same sensory-motor circuits that control action also control imagination, concept formation and understanding, but with a crucial development, that of an inhibition of the connections between secondary pre-motor cortical areas and the primary motor cortex. I shall speculate that in the earlier developmental stages of self-agency, the separation of secondary from primary motor areas is not complete, so that imagination and thought are not entirely independent of physical action.     

具身认知观对语言理解的新诠释——心理模拟:语言理解的一种手段

具身认知观(Embodied Cognition)试图对心-身-世界之间的交互方式给予系统的理论说明,主张:"认知是一种高度具身的、情景化的活动"(Micheal L.Anderson,2004);认知是从身体与环境的相互作用中产生的,依赖于某种类型的经验。从具身认知观来看,心理模拟是语言理解的一种手段,通过再入情景(re-situating)来实现。本文根据上述逻辑考察了词、句、语篇不同信息加工层面的实验研究进展,证实了人们在语言加工过程中感知、肌肉运动以及其他的经验印痕被激活,支持了语言理解是运动感觉以及其他相关经验的心理模拟过程。这种语言理解的心理模拟需要人们再入情景,与已有的听读说写的语言经验发生共鸣,从而为语言理解提供了新的诠释,丰富和发展了认知语言学的理论与实践。     

The Effect of Intra- and Intergroup Leadership on Group Goal Attainment in a North-South Gaming Simulation

This research investigated the role of leadership functions in a context of intergroup negotiation by using a simulation game of inter-regional conflict and cooperation (SIRC²). As a part of their social psychology course, 151 undergraduate students participated. It was hypothesized that there are four leadership factors in an intergroup context: in-group performance, in-group maintenance, out-group negotiation performance, and out-group relation maintenance. According to a factor analysis, however, the functions of in-group performance and out-group performance merged into the same category and could not be differentiated independently. Moreover, this research provided evidence that opportunities for intergroup communication and the amount of resources available to each group can facilitate these leadership functions. This study also found links between leadership functions and group outcomes. In a group with members who were homogeneous and facing common survival problems, the in-group/out-group performance function facilitated the achievement of the group goal. On the other hand, in a group with members with different roles, and who were self-sufficient for survival, the in-group maintenance function facilitated the achievement of the group goal. Moreover, in the intergroup context, the out-group relationship maintenance function was also important for group goal attainment. These results were interpreted using the path–goal theory and Fiedler's contingency theory.     

A conservative inverse normal test procedure for combining p-values in integrative research

The use ofp-values in combining the results of independent studies often involves studies that are potentially aberrant either in quality or in actual values. A robust data analysis suggests the use of a statistic that takes these aberrations into account by trimming some of the largest and smallestp-values. We present a trimmed statistic based on an inverse cumulative normal transformation of the orderedp-values, together with a simple and convenient method for approximating the distribution and first two moments of this statistic.The author thanks Ingram Olkin, David Rogosa, Jim Hodges and two anonymous reviewers for providing many useful comments and suggestions.     

TEACHING RETARDED WOMEN A CLOTHING SELECTION SKILL USING COMMUNITY NORMS

Five institutionalized retarded women were taught a clothing selection skill to coincide with popular fashion. Normative data concerning popular styles of color-coordinated clothing were collected through observations of women's apparel in a local community. Using a puzzle simulation of a woman with alternative pieces of colored clothing, color coordination training was conducted using modelling, instructions, practice, praise, and feedback to teach popular selections of color combinations. A generalization training component with actual clothing was also included. Training was accompanied by large increases in percentage of popular color selections with the puzzle and actual clothing. The increases maintained over a seven- to 14-week followup period. Time efficiency measures supported the use of the simulation procedure as opposed to total reliance on actual clothing. The results underscore the utility of local norms in community preparation programs and the efficacy of instructional procedures for severely and profoundly retarded persons as part of their participation in the deinstitutionalization movement.