IAT, consumer behaviour and the moderating role of decision-making style: An empirical study on food products

This article discusses the reasons why the study of consumer preferences requires indirect measures. Particularly, the research is focused on the use of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The main aim of the present research is to verify the usefulness of the IAT in situation of ambivalent attitudes, such as in the food domain. On the basis of the relationship between interest/motivations and visual attention, the first study explores the effect of implicit associations on consumers’ visual behaviour on food labels. Moreover, the predictive and incremental validities of the IAT over traditional self-report measures on subjects’ intention to buy were tested in the specific field of food purchases, where attitudes can be ambivalent. Finally, the role of preference for intuition or deliberation in the decision-making process as a moderator of the relationship between the IAT score and the intention to buy was assessed. The second and the third studies aim to verify the same moderation pattern in real behavioural choices between tasty/healthy foods and between different food brands. Overall, the results (1) show the effect of implicit (and not explicit) associations on the way in which consumers read the information on food packaging; (2) demonstrate that the IAT enhances the understanding of consumer preference, intention to buy, and choices among different products, especially in domains where attitudes could be ambivalent; and (3) support the moderating role of the decision-making style. Overall, the research supports the employment of the IAT in consumer research

Determinants of Choice of Finance by Coffee Farmers in Machakos County

Coffee farming in Kenya has faced numerous challenges over time ranging from land ownership to access to information, cultural beliefs and collateral challenges to acquisition of bank credit. This study aims to establish the determinants of choice of finance by coffee farmers in Machakos County Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive approach which utilized both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The study used questionnaires to collect data from a sample of ninety-six (96) respondents. Multiple regression analysis was undertaken to test the relationship between the independent variable (collateral, interest rates, bureaucracy and accessibility to financial institutions) and the dependent variable (choice of finance). The findings indicate that R is 0.726, R2 is 0.527 and adjusted R2 is 0.5905. ANOVA of the data showed that F calculated is greater than F critical (26.361>2.49), indicating that the overall model was reliable in predicting the relationship between the independent variable (collateral, interest rates, bureaucracy and accessibility to financial institutions) and the dependent variable (choice of finance).The study concludes that there was a statistically significant association between collateral, interest rates, bureaucracy and accessibility to financial institutions and selection of funding as the p values 0.039, 0.001, 0.015, 0.011 and 0.018 are less than 0.05 at 5% level of significance. The study recommends that government and financial institutions, as well as other lending institutions, should consider coming up with policies and procedures geared towards catering for specific credit needs of farmers

Assessment of the educational environment of physiotherapy students at the University of Rwanda using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM)

Background. Getting students’ feedback regarding their experience of their educational environment (EE) is important. Objectives. To explore how physiotherapy students at the University of Rwanda (UR) feel about their EE. Methods. A descriptive quantitative cross-sectional study design with a census sampling strategy involving all physiotherapy students at UR was used. The Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure was administered to 77 physiotherapy students in March 2015, to collect data that were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20 (IBM Corp., USA). The frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation and percentages were calculated, and the χ2 test was performed to assess whether responses showed significant variance according to level of study and gender. The level of significance (p-value) was set at 0.05. Results. The overall mean score on the 50 items was 62.20%. Students’ perception of learning scored the highest, with 66.58%, followed by students’ perception of atmosphere with 65.08%, students’ perception of teachers with 61.11% and students’ academic self-perception with 57.78%. The domain of students’ social self-perception scored the least, with 56.50%. All the domains scored positively toward the EE. There was no significant difference between male and female students, or between first-, second-, third- and fourth-year students regarding their perceptions of the EE. Conclusion. The physiotherapy students perceived UR as providing a sound EE. However, the data showed that there is a need for improvement in all five subscales of the learning environment at UR. Similar studies from other academic programmes at UR and other academic institutions in Rwanda are encouraged

Depth Awakens: A Depth-perceptual Attention Fusion Network for RGB-D Camouflaged Object Detection

Camouflaged object detection (COD) presents a persistent challenge in accurately identifying objects that seamlessly blend into their surroundings. However, most existing COD models overlook the fact that visual systems operate within a genuine 3D environment. The scene depth inherent in a single 2D image provides rich spatial clues that can assist in the detection of camouflaged objects. Therefore, we propose a novel depth-perception attention fusion network that leverages the depth map as an auxiliary input to enhance the network's ability to perceive 3D information, which is typically challenging for the human eye to discern from 2D images. The network uses a trident-branch encoder to extract chromatic and depth information and their communications. Recognizing that certain regions of a depth map may not effectively highlight the camouflaged object, we introduce a depth-weighted cross-attention fusion module to dynamically adjust the fusion weights on depth and RGB feature maps. To keep the model simple without compromising effectiveness, we design a straightforward feature aggregation decoder that adaptively fuses the enhanced aggregated features. Experiments demonstrate the significant superiority of our proposed method over other states of the arts, which further validates the contribution of depth information in camouflaged object detection. The code will be available at https://github.com/xinran-liu00/DAF-Net

How do implicit/explicit attitudes and emotional reactions to sustainable logo relate? A neurophysiological study

Food package labels can be used to influence consumers’ evaluation and purchasing behaviour, fostering sustainable consumption. Therefore, it is important to understand consumers’ emotional reaction to food package labels that convey sustainable information. The aim of the present research is to get a better understanding of the relation between consumers’ attitudes and emotional reactions often used to measure the effectiveness of a communication. Particularly, we focused on recyclability, assessing participants’ prior explicit and implicit attitudes towards recyclability and their emotional reaction to food packages featuring logos of (non-)recyclability. The emotional reaction was measured both at an explicit and at an implicit level, using direct (self-reported) and indirect (eye movement, facial expressions and pupil dilation) techniques respectively. Results showed that explicit attitudes predicted self-reported emotions, while implicit attitudes predicted the spontaneous emotional reactions, highlighting the importance to assess both explicit and implicit attitudes. Moreover, results showed that the relation between the time that people looked at the logo and the spontaneous emotional reaction was contingent upon the participant's implicit attitudes. Finally, a follow-up analysis revealed that people with positive implicit attitudes towards recyclability were faster in detecting the recyclable logo and spent more time on processing the logo which on its turn resulted in better emotional reactions. Thus, the results suggest that implicit attitudes influence both visual attention and emotional reactions. Overall, the research contributes to a better understanding of the relation between prior attitudes and emotional reactions to food packaging, and supports the use of an approach that comprises both direct and indirect measures of attitudes and emotions

Colorado attitudes about agriculture and food: 2011 executive summary

June 20102.This summary highlights some key findings of the 2011 Survey on Public Attitudes about Colorado Agriculture. The study's figures, tables and discussion are based on the responses of 504 Coloradans who participated in an online survey in August 2011

Plant genetic resources for agriculture, plant breeding, and biotechnology: Experiences from Cameroon, Kenya, the Philippines, and Venezuela

"Local farming communities throughout the world face binding productivity constraints, diverse nutritional needs, environmental concerns, and significant economic and financial pressures. Developing countries address these challenges in different ways, including public and private sector investments in plant breeding and other modern tools for genetic crop improvement. In order to measure the impact of any technology and prioritize investments, we must assess the relevant resources, human capacity, clusters, networks and linkages, as well as the institutions performing technological research and development, and the rate of farmer adoption. However, such measures have not been recently assessed, in part due to the lack of complete standardized information on public plant breeding and biotechnology research in developing countries. To tackle this void, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in consultation with the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) and other organizations, designed a plant breeding and biotechnology capacity survey for implementation by FAO consultants in 100 developing countries. IFPRI, in collaboration with FAO and national experts contracted by FAO to complete in-country surveys, identified and analyzed plant breeding and biotechnology programs in four developing countries: Cameroon, Kenya, the Philippines, and Venezuela. Here, we use an innovation systems framework to examine the investments in human and financial resources and the distribution of resources among the different programs, as well as the capacity and policy development for agricultural research in the four selected countries. Based on our findings, we present recommendations to help sustain and increase the efficiency of publicly- and privately-funded plant breeding programs, while maximizing the use of genetic resources and developing opportunities for GM crop production. Policy makers, private sector breeders, and other stakeholders can use this information to prioritize investments, consider product advancement, and assess the relative magnitude of the potential risks and benefits of their investments." from Author's Abstractplant breeding, biotechnology, public research, Funding, Innovation systems, Capacity building, Biosafety,