The effect of choice on intentional and incidental memory

Recent studies have revealed that memory performance is better when participants have the opportunity to make a choice regarding the experimental task (choice condition) than when they do not have such a choice (fixed condition). These studies, however, used intentional memory tasks, leaving open the question whether the choice effect also applies to incidental memory. In the current study, we first repeated the choice effect on the 24-h delayed intentional memory performance (experiment 1). Next, using an incidental paradigm in which participants were asked to judge the category of the items instead of intentionally memorizing them, we observed the choice effect on judgment during encoding and memory performance in a 24-h delayed surprise test (experiment 2). Participants judged more accurately and quickly and had better recognition memory for items in the choice condition than for items in the fixed condition. These results are discussed in terms of the role of choice in both intentional and incidental memory.

Influence of Morphological Attributes of Cowpea Genotypes on Oviposition of Pulse Beetle (Callasobruchus maculatus F.)

Background: Cowpea is an excellent host for Callasobruchus maculatus (F.). These beetles cause havoc in stored cowpea. They have the habit of cementing their eggs to the surface of the host seeds. Hence, the present study was aimed to the find the influence of morphological characters of cowpea varieties/genotypes on oviposition of the pulse beetle. Methods: The ovipositional preference of C. maculatus on 14 cowpea varieties/genotypes was studied under the free choice condition and the data thus obtained were correlated with the morphological characters like seed shape, colour and texture. Result: Each variety/genotype had a significant effect on egg laying by C. maculatus. Significantly least oviposition was noticed in GC 3 (35.33 eggs), having a rough testa texture and greater number of eggs were found on GC 1612 (117.33 eggs) having smooth texture. The pulse beetle preferred smooth textured seeds for egg laying irrespective of its shape and colour. This was again confirmed by one of the genotypes GC 1702, which belongs to the Holstein group based on the eye pattern of the cowpea, in this genotype the pulse beetle preferred to lay eggs on the smooth brown portion surrounding the hilum than the wrinkled white portion.

Studying the prominence effect amid the COVID-19 crisis: implications for public health policy decision-making.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought with it crucial policy- and decision-making situations, especially when making judgments between financial and health concerns. One particularly relevant decision-making phenomenon is the prominence effect, where decision-makers base their decisions on the most prominent attribute of the object at hand (e.g., health concerns) rather than weigh all the attributes together. This bias diminishes when the decision-making mode inhibits heuristic processes. In this study, we tested the prominence of health vs. financial concerns across two decision-making modes - choice (prone to heuristics) and matching (mitigates heuristics) - during the peak of the COVID-19 in the UK using Tversky et al.’s classic experimental paradigm. We added to the classic experimental design a priming condition. Participants were presented with two casualty-minimization programs, differing in lives saved and costs: program X would save 100 lives at the cost of 55-million-pound sterling, whereas program Y would save 30 lives at the cost of 12-million-pound sterling. Half of the participants were required to choose between the programs (choice condition). The other half were not given the cost of program X and were asked to determine what the cost should be to make it as equally attractive as the program Y. Participants in both groups were primed for either: a) financial concerns; b) health concerns; or c) control (no priming). Results showed that in the choice condition, unless primed for financial concerns, health concerns are more prominent. In the matching condition, on the other hand, the prominence of health concerns did not affect decision-makers, as they all “preferred” the cheaper option. These results add further support to the practical relevance of using the proper decision-making modes in times of consequential crises where multiple concerns, interests, and parties are involved.

When is more really more? The effect of brands on choice overload in adolescents

Purpose Research on choice overload with adult participants has shown that the presence of a brand significantly mitigates the phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether these findings can be expanded to a population of adolescents, where it has already been shown that choice overload occurs in a similar way as adults. Design/methodology/approach Studies 1 and 2 aim to test whether the presence of a brand name mitigates the adverse consequences of choice overload in adolescents. In line with prior research on choice overload, in both studies, the authors compared between-subjects differences in the levels of reported dissatisfaction, difficulty and regret in a choice condition where adolescents chose among either 6 or 24 options associated with brand names and in another choice condition where adolescents chose among the same 6 or 24 options but not associated with brand names. Findings This paper presents evidence from two studies that when facing either a large or a small amount of choice options that are associated with brand names, choice overload disappears among adolescents. Conversely, when no brands are associated to the choice options, adolescents report choice overload, that is a greater dissatisfaction, difficulties and regret with larger (versus smaller) assortments. Practical implications Prior research on choice overload has led to recommendations that marketers and other choice architects should simply reduce choice options or assortments to improve consumers’ satisfaction. However, our finding suggests that this recommendation may be invalidated when brands are present, at least for certain age groups. Adolescents cope indeed very well with large assortments of branded products. Originality/value The research adds to the existing understanding of choice overload, demonstrating that the brand is a moderator of the phenomenon for adolescents, who currently represent a large portion of the market. A second important contribution of this work is that it extends prior research on choice overload to real-world consumer scenarios, where consumers choose among products with a brand, rather than among products described only by technical characteristics or nutritional values, as in classical studies on choice overload.

Studying the prominence effect amid the COVID-19 crisis: implications for public health policy decision-making.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought with it crucial policy- and decision-making situations, especially when making judgments between economic and health concerns. One particularly relevant decision-making phenomenon is the prominence effect, where decision-makers base their decisions on the most prominent attribute of the object at hand (e.g., health concerns) rather than weigh all the attributes together. This bias diminishes when the decision-making mode inhibits heuristic processes. In this study, we tested the prominence of health vs. economic concerns across two decision-making modes - choice (prone to heuristics) and matching (mitigates heuristics) - during the peak of the COVID-19 in the UK using Tversky et al.’s classic experimental paradigm. We added to the classic experimental design a priming condition. Participants were presented with two casualty-minimization programs, differing in lives saved and costs: program X would save 100 lives at the cost of 55-million-pound sterling, whereas program Y would save 30 lives at the cost of 12-million-pound sterling. Half of the participants were required to choose between the programs (choice condition). The other half were not given the cost of program X and were asked to determine what the cost should be to make it as equally attractive as the program Y. Participants in both groups were primed for either: a) economic concerns; b) health concerns; or c) control (no priming). Results showed that in the choice condition, unless primed for economic concerns, health concerns are more prominent. In the matching condition, on the other hand, the prominence of health concerns did not affect decision-makers, as they all “preferred” the cheaper option. These results add further support to the practical relevance of using the proper decision-making modes in times of consequential crises where multiple concerns, interests, and parties are involved.

Studying the prominence effect amid the COVID-19 crisis: implications for public health policy decision-making.

Background: The novel COVID-19 has brought upon crucial policy- and decision-making situations, especially when making judgments between economic and healthconcerns. One particularly relevant decision-making phenomenon is the prominenceeffect, where decision-makers base their decisions on the most prominent attribute ofthe object at hand (e.g., health concerns) rather than weigh all the attributes together.This bias diminishes when the decision-making mode inhibits heuristic processes. Inthis study, we tested the prominence of health vs. economic concerns across twodecision-making modes - choice (prone to heuristics) and matching (mitigatesheuristics) - during the peak of the COVID-19 in the UK using Tversky et al.’s classicexperimental paradigm. We added to the classic experimental design a primingcondition. Methods and Findings: Four hundred twenty participants from the UK wererecruited via a crowd-working platform. They were presented with two casualty-minimization programs, differing in lives saved and costs: program X would save 100lives at the cost of 55-million-pound sterling, whereas program Y would save 30 lives atthe cost of 12-million-pound sterling. Half of the participants were required to choosebetween the programs (choice condition). The other half were not given the cost ofprogram X and were asked to determine what the cost should be to make it as equallyattractive as the program Y. Participants in both groups were primed for either: a)economic concerns; b) health concerns; or c) control (no priming). Results showed thatin the choice condition, unless primed for economic concerns, health concerns aremore prominent (only under economic priming was there a significant preference forprogram Y, p<0.001). In the matching condition, on the other hand, the prominence ofhealth concerns did not affect decision-makers, as they all “preferred” the cheaperoption. Conclusions: These results add further support to the practical relevance ofusing the proper decision-making modes in times of consequential crises wheremultiple concerns, interests, and parties are involve

Chemogenetic modulation and single-photon calcium imaging in anterior cingulate cortex reveal a mechanism for effort-based decisions

ABSTRACTThe anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is implicated in effort exertion and choices based on effort cost, but it is still unclear how it mediates this cost-benefit evaluation. Here, male rats were trained to exert effort for a high-value reward (sucrose pellets) in a progressive ratio lever pressing task. Trained rats were then tested in two conditions: a no-choice condition where lever pressing for sucrose was the only available food option, and a choice condition where a low-value reward (lab chow) was freely available as an alternative to pressing for sucrose. Disruption of ACC—via either chemogenetic inhibition or excitation—reduced lever pressing in the choice, but not in the no-choice, condition. We next looked for value coding cells in ACC during effortful behavior and reward consumption phases during choice and no-choice conditions. For this, we utilized in vivo miniaturized fluorescence microscopy to reliably track responses of the same cells and compare how ACC neurons respond during the same effortful behavior where there was a choice versus when there was no-choice. We found that lever-press and sucrose-evoked responses were significantly weaker during choice compared to no-choice sessions, which may have rendered them more susceptible to chemogenetic disruption. Taken together, findings from our interference experiments and neural recordings suggest that a mechanism by which ACC mediates effortful decisions is in the discrimination of the utility of available options. ACC regulates these choices by providing a stable population code for the relative value of different options.Significance StatementThe anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is implicated in effort-based decision making. Here, we used chemogenetics and in vivo calcium imaging to explore its mechanism. Rats were trained to lever press for a high-value reward and tested in two conditions: a no-choice condition where lever pressing for the high-value reward was the only option, and a choice condition where a low-value reward was also available. Inhibition or excitation of ACC reduced effort toward the high value option, but only in the choice condition. Neural responses in ACC were weaker in the choice compared to the no-choice condition. A mechanism by which ACC regulates effortful decisions is in providing a stable population code for the discrimination of the utility of available options.

Effects of task and corpus-derived association scores on the online processing of collocations

In the following self-paced reading study, we assess the cognitive realism of six widely used corpus-derived measures of association strength between words (collocated modifier–noun combinations likevast majority): MI, MI3, Dice coefficient,T-score,Z-score, and log-likelihood. The ability of these collocation metrics to predict reading times is tested against predictors of lexical processing cost that are widely established in the psycholinguistic and usage-based literature, respectively: forward/backward transition probability and bigram frequency. In addition, the experiment includes the treatment variable oftask: it is split into two blocks which only differ in the format of interleaved comprehension questions (multiple choice vs. typed free response). Results show that the traditional corpus-linguistic metrics are outperformed by both backward transition probability and bigram frequency. Moreover, the multiple-choice condition elicits faster overall reading times than the typed condition, and the two winning metrics show stronger facilitation on the critical word (i.e. the noun in the bigrams) in the multiple-choice condition. In the typed condition, we find an effect that is weaker and, in the case of bigram frequency, longer lasting, continuing into the first spillover word. We argue that insufficient attention to task effects might have obscured the cognitive correlates of association scores in earlier research.

Betraying passion: Harmonious passion, obsessive passion, and attitudes following counter-attitudinal advocacy

This research tested if attitude change following counter-attitudinal advocacy (a) applies when people endorse positions that conflict with a passionate activity, and (b) depends on levels of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP; Vallerand, 2015). Undergraduates (N = 81) who were passionate about various sport/exercise activities were either asked (high-choice condition) or required (low-choice condition) to oppose the construction of a new recreational facility on campus. Participants in the high-choice condition reported lower levels of passion for their passionate activity and less support for the recreational facility compared to those in the low-choice condition. However, decreases in passion were only evident when passion involved high levels of OP and low levels of HP, whereas decreases in support for the recreational facility were only evident when passion involved high levels of both OP and HP. These results contribute to our understanding of how passion dimensions combine to predict self-protective responses.