Valuing time: Moderate download times can improve online goal pursuit

This research examines how the length of time for which a goal is interrupted affects goal pursuit, in an online context. Goal interruption duration in the form of long download time duration has been identified as a significant impediment to electronic commerce. It is believed that a faster download time is always better to motivate web users to keep surfing. We challenge this belief. In three studies, we find that, under certain circumstances, longer rather than shorter download times motivate web users to keep surfing longer. The counterintuitive pattern of effects can be explained by web users' fit experiences (Higgins, 2000) while surfing. In particular, our findings suggest that when online surfing “feels right”, web users think that online information is right.     

Different ways of looking at unpleasant truths: How construal levels influence information search

When not knowing the negative outcome of past decision, people search for more information even when it confirms their negative suspicion. What drives this information search is the hope that the unpleasant state of “not knowing” ends when one faces the truth [Shani, Y., Tykocinski, O. E., &; Zeelenberg, M. (2008). When ignorance is not bliss: How distressing uncertainty drives the search of negative information. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29, 643–653; Shani, Y., &; Zeelenberg, M. (2007). When and why do we want to know? How experienced regret promotes post-decision information search. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20, 207–222]. Previous research suggests that adopting high- or low-level construals of a situation can increase or decrease the affective value of experiences [Metcalfe, J., &; Mischel, W. (1999). A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification: Dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106, 3–19, Mischel, W., Ayduk, O., &; Mendoza-Denton, R. (2003). Sustaining delay of gratification over time: A hot–cool systems perspective. In G. Loewenstein &; D. Read (Eds.), Time and decision: Economic and psychological perspectives on intertemporal choice (pp. 175–200). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation; Trope, Y., Gervey, B., &; Bolger, N. (2003). The role of perceived control in overcoming defensive self-evaluation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 407–419]. We propose that the need to know the potentially hurtful truths about one’s own decision increases when people adopt a low-level construal, but it decreases when people adopt a high-level construal. In five experiments, we manipulated construal levels and assessed the effects on information search and the underlying psychological process.     

Psychoanalysis in the university: A full‐time vision1

Psychoanalysis may be unique among scholarly disciplines and professions in having grown as an educational enterprise in a private part‐time setting, outside the university. Freud would have liked it to be otherwise, but in Central Europe, when it was created, university placement was not possible. In America, after World War II, the concept of the medical school department of psychiatry psychoanalytic institute was established in some psychoanalytic training centers but it could only partly overcome the educational and research inadequacies of traditional psychoanalytic training. The possibilities for a true university‐based full‐time training structure are explored.     

Aligning body and world: Stable reference frames improve young children’s search for hidden objects

This study investigated how young children’s increasingly flexible use of spatial reference frames enables accurate search for hidden objects by using a task that 3-year-olds have been shown to perform with great accuracy and 2-year-olds have been shown to perform inaccurately. Children watched as an object was rolled down a ramp, behind a panel of doors, and stopped at a barrier visible above the doors. In two experiments, we gave 2- and 2.5-year-olds a strong reference frame by increasing the relative salience and stability of the barrier. In Experiment 1, 2.5-year-olds performed at above-chance levels with the more salient barrier. In Experiment 2, we highlighted the stability of the barrier (or ramp) by maximizing the spatial extent of each reference frame across the first four training trials. Children who were given a stable barrier (and moving ramp) during these initial trials performed at above-chance levels and significantly better than children who were given a stable ramp (and moving barrier). This work highlights that factors central to spatial cognition and motor planning—aligning egocentric and object-centered reference frames—play a role in the ramp task during this transitional phase in development.     

Concurrent visual search and time reproduction with cross-talk

Previous experiments indicate that humans can reproduce a time interval while concurrently searching a visual display presented near the beginning of the reproduced interval (Fortin, C., Rousseau, R., Bourque, P. & Kirouac, E. (1993). Time estimation and concurrent nontemporal processing: Specific interference from short-term-memory demands. Perception & Psychophysics, 53, 536-548.). In the earlier experiments, reproduced intervals were either insensitive to or shortened with increasing duration of visual search, suggesting that reproduction and search proceeded concurrently but sometimes with cross-talk. Here we test concurrency of time reproduction and visual search using a different methodology than before. Assuming the underlying mental processes are in a critical path network, factors selectively influencing concurrent processes are predicted to produce certain patterns in response time means and, through recent developments, certain patterns in cumulative distribution functions. Processes in an experiment were influenced by manipulating four factors, the time interval to be produced, stimulus onset asynchrony, display size, and target presence/absence. Patterns in response times provide evidence for concurrent time reproduction and visual search. However, a prediction based on selective influence failed in a manner suggesting the presence of cross-talk produced by a filled interval illusion.     

项目突显方式对视觉搜索策略的影响

搜索策略是将视觉注意导引到目标最可能出现位置的直接认知控制。本研究采用眼动跟踪技术与视觉搜索时间——鼠标点击时间的分离技术,探讨计算机视觉界面不同项目突显方式下的搜索策略问题。结果表明：（1）有无项目突显方式、不同的突显有效性水平,被试采用了导向式和序列式两种不同的搜索策略;（2）被试采用导向式搜索策略时,被试在第一个感兴趣区域首注视点百分比小于58.3％,在视觉搜索过程中的注视点数量明显较小、扫视轨迹长度和注视时间明显较少;（3）被试采用序列式搜索策略时,被试在第一个感兴趣区域首注视点百分比大于58.3％,在视觉搜索过程中的注视点数量明显较多、扫视轨迹长度和注视时间明显较长;（4）采用导向式的视觉搜索策略能显著减少被试的视觉搜索时间,提高视觉搜索的绩效,但不能显著减少被试的鼠标点击时间;（5）因为视觉界面上突显的设置改变了用户的搜索策略,所以提高了视觉搜索绩效。     

聋人大学生心理控制源对求职行为的影响：职业成熟度的中介作用

采用中国大学生控制源测量问卷、职业成熟度量表和高校应届毕业生求职调查问卷对重庆、北京、吉林、天津4地4所高校的386名聋人大学生进行调查,旨在探讨聋人大学生心理控制源、职业成熟度与求职行为的关系,揭示职业成熟度在心理控制源与求职行为之间的中介作用机制。结果发现：（1）内控对职业成熟度和求职行为均具有显著的正向预测作用。（2）职业成熟度在内控与求职行为之间起部分中介作用。（3）职业成熟度在外控对求职行为的影响中起着“遮掩效应”。     

Information search patterns for gift purchases: a cross‐national examination of gender differences

This exploratory study examines the underlying determinants as well as the dimensionality of in‐store information searches for a Christmas clothing gift, focusing specifically on the differential effect of gender on information acquisition. A self‐administered survey, containing personality, situational and standard demographic measures, was administered to actual consumers in three Western countries, shortly after the Christmas season. Confirmatory factor analysis verified that in‐store information is indeed a multidimensional construct, composed of three distinct factors: macro information search, micro information search and salesperson help. Consistent with expectations, compared to males, females tended to acquire macro and micro information to a greater extent; males were more apt to seek the assistance of store sales personnel than females. This pattern was generally robust across the three countries. Other observed gender and/or country‐sample differences are discussed. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.     

Representation of objects and events: why do infants look so smart and toddlers look so dumb?

Research has demonstrated that very young infants can discriminate between visual events that are physically impossible versus possible. These findings suggest that infants have knowledge of physical laws concerning solidity and continuity. However, research with 2-year-olds has shown that they cannot solve simple problems involving search for a hidden object, even though these problems require the same knowledge. These apparently inconsistent findings raise questions about the interpretation of both data sets. This discrepancy may be resolved by examining differences in task demands.     

Search strategies in decision making: the success of “success”

Examination of search strategies has tended to focus on choices determined by decision makers' personal preferences among relevant cues, and not on learning cue‐criterion relationships. We present an empirical and rational analysis of cue search for environments with objective criteria. In such environments, cues can be evaluated on the basis of three properties: validity (the probability that a cue identifies the correct choice if cue values differ between alternatives); discrimination rate (the proportion of occasions on which a cue has differing values); and success (the expected proportion of correct choices when only that cue can be used). Our experiments show that though there is a high degree of individual variability, success is a key determinant of search. Furthermore, a rational analysis demonstrates why success‐directed search is the most adaptive strategy in many circumstances. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.