The cognitive-affective nexus on mobile payment continuance intention during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study examines the antecedents of continuance intention to use mobile payment in the midst of a pandemic. In general, the cognitive-affective-conative (CAC) framework was used as the theoretical base. More specifically, the dynamic interrelationships between the cognitive and affective constructs were derived from a penta-dimensional perspective.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey yielded 307 responses from youths who were utilizing mobile payment through an online survey which were then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN).FindingsBoth positive and negative affective constructs significantly influence continuance intention and can also serve as mediators to the cognitive variables. Interestingly, price savings and referent network size were revealed to be sources of technostress. In addition, despite not having a significant direct influence, price savings should not be overlooked given its indirect significance on continuance intention.Originality/valueBased on the CAC framework, the constructs were conceptualized according to the respective dimensions to develop this study's research model. It was then used to examine their influences on the continuance intention to use mobile payment in the midst of a pandemic. Moreover, a few novel hypotheses were proposed, and the findings serve to increase the understanding of this subject matter.

Emotion-based Parameter Modulation for a Mobile Robot Planning and Control System

<p>The hypothesis that artificial emotion-like mechanisms can improve the adaptive performance of robots and intelligent systems has gained considerable support in recent years. While artificial emotions are typically employed to facilitate human-machine interaction, this thesis instead focuses on modelling emotions and affect in a non-social context. In particular, affective mechanisms are applied to the problem of mobile robot navigation. A three-layered reactive/deliberative controller is developed and implemented, resulting in several contributions to the field of mobile robot control. Rather than employing a reactive layer, a deliberative layer and an interface between them, the control problem is decomposed into three different conceptual spaces - position space, direction space and velocity space - with a distinct control layer applied to each. Existing directional and velocity space approaches such as the vector field histogram (VFH) and dynamic window methods employ different underlying mechanisms and terminology. This thesis unifies these approaches in order to compare and combine them. The weighted sum objective functions employed by some existing approaches that inspired the presented directional and velocity control layers are replaced by weighted products. This enables some hard constraints to be relaxed in favour of weighted contributions, potentially improving a system's flexibility without sacrificing safety (but coming at a cost to efficiency). An affect model is developed that conceptualises emotions and other affective interactions as modulations of cognitive processes. Unlike other models of affect-modulated cognition (e.g. Dorner and Hille, 1995), this model is designed specifically to address problems relating to mobile robot navigation. The role of affect in this model is to continuously adapt a controller's behaviour patterns in response to different environments and momentary conditions encountered by the robot. Affective constructs such as moods and emotions are represented as intensity values that arise from hard-coded interpretations of local stimuli, as well as from learned associations stored in global maps. They are expressed as modulations of control parameters and location-specific biases to path-planning. Extensive simulation experiments are conducted in procedurally-generated environments to assess the performance contributions of this model and its individual components.</p>

Emotion-based Parameter Modulation for a Mobile Robot Planning and Control System

<p>The hypothesis that artificial emotion-like mechanisms can improve the adaptive performance of robots and intelligent systems has gained considerable support in recent years. While artificial emotions are typically employed to facilitate human-machine interaction, this thesis instead focuses on modelling emotions and affect in a non-social context. In particular, affective mechanisms are applied to the problem of mobile robot navigation. A three-layered reactive/deliberative controller is developed and implemented, resulting in several contributions to the field of mobile robot control. Rather than employing a reactive layer, a deliberative layer and an interface between them, the control problem is decomposed into three different conceptual spaces - position space, direction space and velocity space - with a distinct control layer applied to each. Existing directional and velocity space approaches such as the vector field histogram (VFH) and dynamic window methods employ different underlying mechanisms and terminology. This thesis unifies these approaches in order to compare and combine them. The weighted sum objective functions employed by some existing approaches that inspired the presented directional and velocity control layers are replaced by weighted products. This enables some hard constraints to be relaxed in favour of weighted contributions, potentially improving a system's flexibility without sacrificing safety (but coming at a cost to efficiency). An affect model is developed that conceptualises emotions and other affective interactions as modulations of cognitive processes. Unlike other models of affect-modulated cognition (e.g. Dorner and Hille, 1995), this model is designed specifically to address problems relating to mobile robot navigation. The role of affect in this model is to continuously adapt a controller's behaviour patterns in response to different environments and momentary conditions encountered by the robot. Affective constructs such as moods and emotions are represented as intensity values that arise from hard-coded interpretations of local stimuli, as well as from learned associations stored in global maps. They are expressed as modulations of control parameters and location-specific biases to path-planning. Extensive simulation experiments are conducted in procedurally-generated environments to assess the performance contributions of this model and its individual components.</p>

A Few Case Studies of QRP-Driven Irreproducible Results

Examples of a dispiriting number of jaw-dropping, irreproducible scientific results are described here, emanating from disparate fields of inquiry. These examples include epidemiological studies that regularly report diametrically conflicting relationships regarding risk factors and health, completely incompetent studies conducted involving the relationship between functional magnetic resonance imaging results and psychosocial variables, and positive genetic associations with cognitive and affective constructs that do not replicate. Studies (and perhaps even some entire disciplines) such as these may have some amusement value when their results are reported in the press, but their untoward effects on science should not be underestimated. Methodological reasons for the appearance of these almost universally positive studies include the previously discussed questionable research practices, several of which are famously blended into a metaphoric scientific journey through the garden of forking paths by Andrew Gelman and Eric Loken, whose article is discussed in this chapter.

Affective Determinants of Physical Activity: A Conceptual Framework and Narrative Review

The literature on affective determinants of physical activity (PA) is growing rapidly. The present paper aims to provide greater clarity regarding the definition and distinctions among the various affect-related constructs that have been examined in relation to PA. Affective constructs are organized according to the Affect and Health Behavior Framework (AHBF), including: (1) affective response (e.g., how one feels in response to PA behavior) to PA; (2) incidental affect (e.g., how one feels throughout the day, unrelated to the target behavior); (3) affect processing (e.g., affective associations, implicit attitudes, remembered affect, anticipated affective response, and affective judgments); and (4) affectively charged motivational states (e.g., intrinsic motivation, fear, and hedonic motivation). After defining each category of affective construct, we provide examples of relevant research showing how each construct may relate to PA behavior. We conclude each section with a discussion of future directions for research.

Role of Affective Mediators in the Effects of Media Use on Proenvironmental Behavior

Much of the research on media use and environmental participation has examined the persuasive effects of media-motivated cognitive constructs on proenvironmental behavior, whereas the role of media-induced affective constructs has largely been neglected. To address this gap, this study examines how affective constructs (emotional responses and perceived knowledge) arise from media use and in what ways they contribute to environmental participation in the context of haze. Results from a web survey of 1,589 Chinese citizens suggest that traditional media use elicited more positive emotions than the use of new media, while new media use evoked more negative emotions than that of traditional media. Both traditional and new media use were positive predictors of perceived knowledge. Moreover, negative emotion, positive emotion, and perceived knowledge were all positively associated with proenvironmental behavior. The results of mediation analyses indicated that these affective constructs mediated the association between media use and proenvironmental behavior.

Voluntary Reduction of Social Interaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: Related Factors and Association with Perceived Social Support

This study aimed to determine the proportion of individuals who voluntarily reduced interaction with their family members, friends, and colleagues or classmates to avoid coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and the associations of reduced social interaction with perceived social support during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. Moreover, the related factors of voluntary reduction of social interaction were examined. We recruited participants via a Facebook advertisement. We determined the reduced social interaction, perceived social support, cognitive and affective constructs of health belief and demographic characteristics among 1954 respondents (1305 women and 649 men; mean age: 37.9 years with standard deviation 10.8 years). In total, 38.1% of respondents voluntarily reduced their social interaction with friends to avoid COVID-19 infection, 36.1% voluntarily reduced their interaction with colleagues or classmates, and 11.1% voluntarily reduced interaction with family members. Respondents who voluntarily reduced interaction with other people reported lower perceived social support than those who did not voluntarily reduce interaction. Respondents who were older and had a higher level of worry regarding contracting COVID-19 were more likely to voluntarily reduce interaction with family members, friends, and colleagues or classmates to avoid COVID-19 infection than respondents who were younger and had a lower level of worry regarding contracting COVID-19, respectively. The present study revealed that despite strict social distancing measures not being implemented in Taiwan, more than one-third of respondents voluntarily reduced their interaction with friends and colleagues or classmates. The general public should be encouraged to maintain social contacts through appropriately distanced in-person visits and telecommunication.

Heroic affect and structures of national feeling on British television: 1990s Sharpe vs. 2010s The Last Kingdom

This article uses the affective and affecting concept of the hero to trace the structures of national feeling in two British television series: Sharpe (ITV 1993‐97) and The Last Kingdom (BBC 2015‐17). Both series are adaptations of military historical fiction by the bestselling author Bernard Cornwell but were created in and for two different periods in the United Kingdom. Television drama articulates the anxieties, hopes and needs of the time when it is produced. Its multimodal medium enables complex affective arrangements of (heroic) character, plot, genre conventions and televisual style. The article shows that Sharpe and The Last Kingdom present occasions for the viewers to perceive their hero characters as affective constructs, and it asks whether the hero affect is linked to an equally affective conception of nationhood. When viewed through the lens of the heroic, the series indicate a shift in structures of national feeling between the 1990s and the 2010s. Sharpe invited its contemporary viewers to perceive the titular character as heroic, but the aesthetic arrangement in which the character predominantly appears is that of the swashbuckler genre with a focus on stirring adventure; the hero affect is dissociated from an affective concept of nationhood. By contrast, The Last Kingdom links its hero to the nation in a highly affective and affecting manner, and its aesthetic arrangement draws considerably on the conventions of epic, a genre of national significance and the aesthetics of the sublime.

Identification of Six Emergent Types Based on Cognitive and Affective Constructs that Explain Individuals’ Relationship with the Biosphere

To address the pathological human–nature nexus, psychological processes that impact this relationship need to be further understood. Individual differences related to personality, values, worldviews, affect, and beliefs are likely to influence how people relate to the natural world. However, there is a lack of empirically-based ecopsychological research exploring multiple individual attributes. Understanding individual differences enables the strategic design of planetary-focused interventions, such as advocacy, policy, and technology development. Using a theoretical model that incorporates intrinsic, affective, cognitive, and behavioral constructs, this study sought to identify and describe different types of people and their relationship with the biosphere. Seven hundred and fifty-three people completed an online quantitative questionnaire battery. Results from the cluster analyses of the cognitive and affective constructs showed that six heterogeneous types existed. Their different descriptive expressions of intrinsic, affective, cognitive, and behavioral constructs provide a deeper understanding of each type’s relationship with the biosphere.

Alignment of theoretically grounded constructs for the measurement of science and chemistry identity

Identity has been theorized to aid in student persistence within STEM disciplines. In this study, science and chemistry identity were defined as being recognized as a science or chemistry person within the classroom. To generalize the effects that identity has on student persistence, a measurable construct must be defined, operationalized, and tested in multiple settings with different populations. This project addressed the first step in the process, defining the construct and grounding it in an established theoretical framework. This qualitative project utilized a previously described physics identity framework, with sub-constructs of performance/competence, recognition, and interest, as a starting point for the alignment of students’ perceptions of identity to the broader theoretical frameworks of identity. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with students from a range of chemistry courses at Portland State University. The interviews consisted of questions pertaining to the sub-constructs of identity. Thematic analysis was used to define emerging themes within student responses. These themes were found to align with an array of affective constructs, including mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, vicarious experiences, situational interest, and mindset. These constructs will be used to develop an identity measure for chemistry education that is grounded in the broader theoretical frameworks of identity.