Consumer Behavior: Product Characteristics and Quality Perception

Consumers rely on signals, both extrinsic and intrinsic attributes, to solve their asymmetric information problem regarding product quality. In this study an experiment is designed to evaluate how consumers assess quality perception in terms of specific product characteristics, namely colors and shapes in product labels. According to the cue consistency theory, the prediction is that multiple sources of information are more useful when they provide corroborating information than when they offer disparate conclusions. In this sense, particular colors and shapes combinations which are consistent are expected to enhance consumers´ product quality perception, while other combinations that are inconsistent will decrease it.Consumer, Behavior, Quality Perception, Label, Color, Shape

The SP theory of intelligence: benefits and applications

This article describes existing and expected benefits of the "SP theory of intelligence", and some potential applications. The theory aims to simplify and integrate ideas across artificial intelligence, mainstream computing, and human perception and cognition, with information compression as a unifying theme. It combines conceptual simplicity with descriptive and explanatory power across several areas of computing and cognition. In the "SP machine" -- an expression of the SP theory which is currently realized in the form of a computer model -- there is potential for an overall simplification of computing systems, including software. The SP theory promises deeper insights and better solutions in several areas of application including, most notably, unsupervised learning, natural language processing, autonomous robots, computer vision, intelligent databases, software engineering, information compression, medical diagnosis and big data. There is also potential in areas such as the semantic web, bioinformatics, structuring of documents, the detection of computer viruses, data fusion, new kinds of computer, and the development of scientific theories. The theory promises seamless integration of structures and functions within and between different areas of application. The potential value, worldwide, of these benefits and applications is at least $190 billion each year. Further development would be facilitated by the creation of a high-parallel, open-source version of the SP machine, available to researchers everywhere.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1212.022

Teknik pembelajaran di kalangan pelajar dewasa di Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

Teknik pembelajaran yang bersesuaian di kalangan pelajar dewasa dalam proses pembelajaran akan mewujudkan satu suasana pembelajaran yang aktif dan kondusif. Tujuan kajian ini bagi mengenal pasti teknik pembelajaran yang dominan di kalangan pelajar dewasa dan tahap pencapaian akademik pelajar dewasa berdasarkan Nilai Gred Kumulatif (CGPA). Selain itu kajian ini untuk mengenal pasti sekiranya terdapat hubungan antara teknik pembelajaran dengan pencapaian akademik. Seterusnya kajian ini juga untuk mengenal pasti perbezaan teknik pembelajaran antara pelajar lelaki dewasa dengan pelajar wanita. Kajian ini memfokuskan kepada pelajar dewasa Program Khas Pengsiswazahan Guru Besar (PKPGB) di UTHM yang berumur dalam lingkungan 45 tahun sehingga 50 tahun. Sampel kajian terdiri daripada 81 orang pelajar yang merupakan guru besar sekolah. Kajian dilakukan secara kaedah tinjauan melalui pengedaran borang selidik dan temu bual sokongan sebagai alat instrumen. Data-data dianalisis menggunakan pakej perisian Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) versi 12.0 bagi mendapatkan min skor, peratusan dan sisihan piawai. Korelasi Spearman Rho's digunakan untuk menentukan hubungan antara teknik pembelajaran dengan pencapaian akademik manakala ujian-T tidak bersandar pula digunakan untuk menentukan perbezaan dari segi teknik pembelajaran di kalangan pelajar dewasa mengikut jantina. Hasil kajian mendapati teknik pembelajaran yang dominan digunakan oleh pelajar dewasa ialah teknik berkumpulan dan teknik mendengar. Manakala terdapat hubungan antara teknik pembelajaran dengan pencapaian akademik walaupun pada tahap yang lemah. Walau bagaimanapun terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan dari segi teknik pembelajaran yang digunakan oleh pelajar dewasa mengikut jantina

A face for all seasons:searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health

Previous research indicates that followers tend to contingently match particular leader qualities to evolutionarily consistent situations requiring collective action (i.e., context-specific cognitive leadership prototypes) and information processing undergoes categorization which ranks certain qualities as first-order context-general and others as second-order context-specific. To further investigate this contingent categorization phenomenon we examined the “attractiveness halo”—a first-order facial cue which significantly biases leadership preferences. While controlling for facial attractiveness, we independently manipulated the underlying facial cues of health and intelligence and then primed participants with four distinct organizational dynamics requiring leadership (i.e., competition vs. cooperation between groups and exploratory change vs. stable exploitation). It was expected that the differing requirements of the four dynamics would contingently select for relatively healthier- or intelligent-looking leaders. We found perceived facial intelligence to be a second-order context-specific trait—for instance, in times requiring a leader to address between-group cooperation—whereas perceived health is significantly preferred across all contexts (i.e., a first-order trait). The results also indicate that facial health positively affects perceived masculinity while facial intelligence negatively affects perceived masculinity, which may partially explain leader choice in some of the environmental contexts. The limitations and a number of implications regarding leadership biases are discussed

The Experience of Traumatic Stress among Urban Firefighters

Findings provide evidence that it is possible for emergency responders to become ‘locked into’ a regular cycle of trauma exposure that includes rapid returns to operationally ready status (i.e. being made available for another turnout immediately, or soon after returning from a previous emergency situation). Without the opportunity to interrupt the emotional reaction of an earlier traumatic response, a downward spiral of inescapable stress response may be instigated and with ongoing exposure. This paper details evidence suggesting the existence of a relationship between the work tasks of the fire fighters and a propensity for certain physiological responses and stress reactions noted during on-the-job research. Sensitivity to such processes may be gradually built up among emergency responders as their career progresses. The work suggests that in addition to instances of critical incident stress, that could be expected among emergency workers, the turn-out mechanism used actually pre-disposes the fire fighters to ongoing traumatic responses

The Online Waiting Experience: Using Temporal Information and Distractors to Make Online Waits Feel Shorter

Research on how to manage the online waiting experience has begun to emerge but has primarily focused on the use of distracting cues for online wait management (e.g., text and images that distract the user from the wait). The use of temporal information in waiting webpages (e.g., text and images that convey the duration of the wait) has received little attention from the information systems literature, and we have limited understanding about how the two types of cues (temporal information and distractors) affect wait time estimation. We address this gap by developing a theoretical model of how these cues affect the waiting experience and perceived waiting time. We tested the model with a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 controlled lab experiment and 1025 participants using progress bar treatments that included temporal information (spatial and text description of the wait time duration) and distractors (progress bar animation and accelerated filling of the progress bar) with both short and long wait conditions. We found that the two types of cues reduced perceived waiting time through different nomological paths. Temporal cues reduced perceived uncertainty about the wait, while distractor cues directed attention away from the wait, increasing perceived enjoyment and wait time distortion. Further, the enhanced waiting experience reduced the perceived waiting time. Further, these cues were effective in managing the online waiting experience with both short and long waits

Cognitive finance: Behavioural strategies of spending, saving, and investing.

Research in economics is increasingly open to empirical results. The advances in behavioural approaches are expanded here by applying cognitive methods to financial questions. The field of "cognitive finance" is approached by the exploration of decision strategies in the financial settings of spending, saving, and investing. Individual strategies in these different domains are searched for and elaborated to derive explanations for observed irregularities in financial decision making. Strong context-dependency and adaptive learning form the basis for this cognition-based approach to finance. Experiments, ratings, and real world data analysis are carried out in specific financial settings, combining different research methods to improve the understanding of natural financial behaviour. People use various strategies in the domains of spending, saving, and investing. Specific spending profiles can be elaborated for a better understanding of individual spending differences. It was found that people differ along four dimensions of spending, which can be labelled: General Leisure, Regular Maintenance, Risk Orientation, and Future Orientation. Saving behaviour is strongly dependent on how people mentally structure their finance and on their self-control attitude towards decision space restrictions, environmental cues, and contingency structures. Investment strategies depend on how companies, in which investments are placed, are evaluated on factors such as Honesty, Prestige, Innovation, and Power. Further on, different information integration strategies can be learned in decision situations with direct feedback. The mapping of cognitive processes in financial decision making is discussed and adaptive learning mechanisms are proposed for the observed behavioural differences. The construal of a "financial personality" is proposed in accordance with other dimensions of personality measures, to better acknowledge and predict variations in financial behaviour. This perspective enriches economic theories and provides a useful ground for improving individual financial services

“This is the way ‘I’ create my passwords ...":does the endowment effect deter people from changing the way they create their passwords?

The endowment effect is the term used to describe a phenomenon that manifests as a reluctance to relinquish owned artifacts, even when a viable or better substitute is offered. It has been confirmed by multiple studies when it comes to ownership of physical artifacts. If computer users also "own", and are attached to, their personal security routines, such feelings could conceivably activate the same endowment effect. This would, in turn, lead to their over-estimating the \value" of their existing routines, in terms of the protection they afford, and the risks they mitigate. They might well, as a consequence, not countenance any efforts to persuade them to adopt a more secure routine, because their comparison of pre-existing and proposed new routine is skewed by the activation of the endowment effect.In this paper, we report on an investigation into the possibility that the endowment effect activates when people adopt personal password creation routines. We did indeed find evidence that the endowment effect is likely to be triggered in this context. This constitutes one explanation for the failure of many security awareness drives to improve password strength. We conclude by suggesting directions for future research to confirm our findings, and to investigate the activation of the effect for other security routines

The Tracer Method: Don\u27t Blink or You Might Miss it. A Novel Methodology Combining Cognitive Task Analysis and Eye Tracking

This thesis describes the development and first demonstration of a new Human Factors method, The Tracer Method, which is a combination of Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) and Eye Tracking. The study evaluated whether the two methods together produce new and different information than either method alone could provide. The method was tested using a video game, Overwatch, a dynamic, complex, and multiplayer game. The evaluation included: 1. Examining both in the same context (game), 2. Establishing unique contributions of each method alone, and 3. Evaluating overlapping information. Results identified some overlap between the two methods that provided some cross-validation of the data. Cognitive Task Analysis provided higher level strategies and course of actions that players implement during their games, while eye tracking provided visual patterns of search (order of eye movements). However, when combined, the two methods provide strategy information in context that neither method alone can provide. CTA elicits insight into how individuals make decisions and apply previous knowledge, experience, and environmental information. Eye tracking can support this through predictive models of individual’s eye tracking, to understand which elements are utilized in making predictions and situational assessments. We provide a tutorial and insight into best practices for implementation of The Tracer Method. This is the initial development of the new method, and on-going research is validating it in different environments. The Tracer Method is the first combined and documented systematic methodology that utilizes a changing and complicated environment and tests the interaction and output of Critical Decision Method and Eye Tracking

Forecasting the fast and frugal way: A study of performance and information-processing strategies of experts and non-experts when predicting the World Cup 2002 in soccer

This paper investigates forecasting performance and judgmental processes of experts and non-experts in soccer. Two circumstances motivated the paper: (i) little is known about how accurately experts predict sports events, and (ii) recent research on human judgment suggests that ignorance-based decision-strategies may be reliable. About 250 participants with different levels of knowledge of soccer took part in a survey and predicted the outcome of the first round of World Cup 2002. It was found that the participating experts (i.e., sport journalists, soccer fans, and soccer coaches) were not more accurate than the non-experts. Experts overestimated their performance and were overconfident. While the experts claimed to have relied on analytical approaches and much information, participants with limited knowledge stated that their forecasts were based upon recognition and few pieces of information. The paper concludes that a recognition-based strategy seems to be appropriate when forecasting worldwide soccer events.Expert predictions; Information use; Judgmental forecasting; Overconfidence; Recognition heuristic; Sports forecasting