Category ratio: A search for an optimal solution to reduce choice overload

This paper endeavors to find an optimal solution to alleviate the harmful consequences of choice overload using assortment categorization. Past research on assortment categorization has primarily studied the type of category labels. Only a few studies focused on the number of category labels, and the extant research is inconclusive on the right number of labels. This paper argues that the number of options under each label is more important in reducing choice overload than the number of labels. We call the number of options under each label “category ratio”. We integrate the research from four streams to recommend an optimal range of category ratio. In a field and a lab experiment, we tested the optimal category ratio as an intervention in the reduction of choice overload. The results of both experiments found a significant reduction in choice overload for the optimal category ratio. In experiment 3, we manipulated the category ratio to test whether the optimal category ratio is better than the non-optimal category ratio. The results of experiment 3 found that consumers experienced more satisfaction for the optimal category ratio than both uncategorized assortment and non-optimal category ratio. Past research has found that fewer labels and uninformative categorization are not helpful in the choice process. This paper finds that a few labels are beneficial only when the category ratio is within the proposed optimal range. Uninformative labels also reduced choice overload when categorized using the optimal category ratio.     

Incidental memory for format of presentation of number stimuli: Evidence from monolinguals and bilinguals

Are numerical stimuli represented in an abstract code or is information about surface format preserved in memory? Three experiments bearing on this issue are reported. All used an incidental recall procedure. Two experiments examined memory for numeral versus word format in monolinguals and the third examined memory for words in the first versus second language of Spanish-English bilinguals. Across all studies, memory for format of number presentation was above chance and was as high as 76% under certain conditions. Implications for number representation are discussed.     

Do orthographic cues aid language recognition? A laterality study with French-English bilinguals

Sixteen French-English late bilinguals performed a speeded language recognition task on lateralized words that were either marked or unmarked for language on the basis of digram frequency. Response latencies were faster to orthographically marked than unmarked words, particularly in the second language (English). Furthermore, L2 marked words were responded to faster than L1 marked words. These effects were especially prominent for words presented in the left visual field. It is suggested that subjects made use of different strategies in performing the task of language recognition task, with a perceptual search strategy deployed to identify orthographically marked words, resulting in an L2 advantage for such words, and a lexical search strategy deployed for unmarked words, resulting in an L1 advantage for such words.     

Mother-infant interaction: effects of a home intervention and ongoing maternal drug use

Examined the effects of a home-based intervention on mother-infant interaction among drug-using women and their infants. At 2 weeks postpartum, mothers and infants were randomly assigned to either an intervention (n = 84) or a control (n = 87) group. Control families received brief monthly tracking visits, and intervention families received weekly visits by trained lay visitors. Mother-infant interaction was evaluated at 6 months through observation of feeding. Although there were no direct effects of the intervention, in the control group, mothers who continued to use drugs were less responsive to their babies than mothers who were drug free. In the intervention group, drug use was not associated with maternal responsiveness. Weekly home-based intervention may be a protective strategy for children of drug-using women because it disrupts the relation between ongoing maternal drug use and low maternal responsiveness.     

“Why Am I so Anxious?” A Study of Attention Bias in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Previous research investigating attentional bias has produced intriguingly equivocal results. The present large-scale study explored attentional bias in subjects diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and in a control group (n = 80) using the Emotional Stroop Test. Results clearly indicated poorer performances across the board amongst patients diagnosed with OCD compared to the control group, particularly in the case of anxiety-related stimuli. This paper discusses, in the light of current models of attentional bias towards threat in anxiety disorders, the processes whereby attentional bias towards anxiety stimuli might play a vital role in the causation and maintenance of OCD.     

Proverb preferences across cultures: Dialecticality or poeticality?

Peng and Nisbett (1999) claimed that members of Asian cultures show a greater preference than Euro-Americans for proverbs expressing paradox (so-called dialectical proverbs; e.g.,Too humble is half proud). The present research sought to replicate this claim with the same set of stimuli used in Peng and Nisbett’s Experiment 2 and a new set of dialectical and nondialectical proverbs that were screened to be comparably pleasing in phrasing. Whereas the proverbs were rated as more familiar and (in Set 1) more poetic by Chinese than by American participants, no group differences were found in relation to proverb dialecticality. Both the Chinese and Americans in our study rated the dialectical proverbs from Peng and Nisbett’s study as more likable, higher in wisdom, and higher in poeticality than the nondialectical proverbs. For Set 2, both groups found the dialectical proverbs to be as likable, wise, and poetic as the nondialectical proverbs. When poeticality was covaried out, dialectical proverbs were liked better than nondialectical proverbs across both stimulus sets by the Chinese and the Americans alike, and when wisdom was covaried out, the effect of dialecticality was reduced in both sets and groups. Our findings indicate that caution should be taken in ascribing differences in proverb preferences solely to cultural differences in reasoning.     

Health and Aging: A Perspective from the Far East

Singapore is an urban, highly industrialized country in South East Asia. By 2030, one-fifth of the population is projected to be composed of citizens aged above 65 years. Research on aging has largely focused on the effects of deteriorating physical ability on daily functioning capabilities (Iwarsson & Isacsson, 1997; Warr, 1995). More recently, the role of self-perceived usefulness, competence and control on well-being in the elderly have been investigated (Heberlein, Licht & Licht, 1999; Ranzjin, Keeves, Luszcz, & Feather, 1998). In other fields, activity and involvement have been identified as effective coping devices (Nair, 1989; Shalit, 1988). The present study compared the conceptual understanding of the esteem and well-being of the elderly on the dimensions of activity, involvement, and control, as viewed by an undergraduate sample (n = 60) and a cross-section of seniors (n = 71). Three separate factor analyses reflected interesting variations in the conceptual frameworks.     

A neural network approach to identifying adolescent adjustment.

This study examined the relationship between the quality of adjustment in adolescents and a set of psychiatric diagnoses, personality traits, parental bonding, and social support variables. One hundred fifty adolescents were administered the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory, the Parental Bonding Questionnaire, the Social Support Questionnaire, and the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents. A neural network approach was then utilized, and it was found that several of the variables (e.g., Major Depressive Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Societal Conformity) had a significant role in classifying adolescents into three groups: maladjusted, nominally adjusted, and well-adjusted.