Temperament and arousal systems: A new synthesis of differential psychology and functional neurochemistry.

This paper critically reviews the unidimensional construct of General Arousal as utilised by models of temperament in differential psychology for example, to underlie 'Extraversion'. Evidence suggests that specialization within monoamine neurotransmitter systems contrasts with the attribution of a "general arousal" of the Ascending Reticular Activating System. Experimental findings show specialized roles of noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin systems in hypothetically mediating three complementary forms of arousal that are similar to three functional blocks described in classical models of behaviour within kinesiology, clinical neuropsychology, psychophysiology and temperament research. In spite of functional diversity of monoamine receptors, we suggest that their functionality can be classified using three universal aspects of actions related to expansion, to selection-integration and to maintenance of chosen behavioural alternatives. Monoamine systems also differentially regulate analytic vs. routine aspects of activities at cortical and striatal neural levels. A convergence between main temperament models in terms of traits related to described functional aspects of behavioural arousal also supports the idea of differentiation between these aspects analysed here in a functional perspective

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS IN PURCHASING DOMESTIC PRODUCTS BY IRANIAN CONSUMERS

Buy domestic promotions in various countries often urge citizens to help domestic workers whose jobs are threatened by imports. To explain why purchasers might engage in buy domestic purchase activities, researchers develop and test a behavioral model about why people help distressed victims. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of factors underlying consumer choice of domestic vs. foreign products on a sample of consumers in Iran. For this purpose authors use multiple-group structural equation analysis of survey data from Iran to test the model that features seven explanatory constructs drawn from previous behavioral research. Empirical results confirmed the postulated that domestic punches costs, similarity and common fate have significant impact on consumer domestic purchase decisions. However, findings did not lend support for theoretical propositions related to ethnocentric, patriotism, social concerns. Implications for domestic economic are outlined in the conclusionsIranian Goods, Patriotism, Ethnocentrism, Social concern, Responsibility, Conceptual Model

Emotional processing of natural visual images in brief exposures and compound stimuli: fMRI and behavioural studies

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Can the brain register the emotional valence of brief exposures of complex natural stimuli under conditions of forward and backward masking, and under conditions of attentional competition between foveal and peripheral stimuli? To address this question, three experiments were conducted. The first, a behavioural experiment, measured subjective valence of response (pleasant vs unpleasant) to test the perception of the valence of natural images in brief, masked exposures in a forward and backward masking paradigm. Images were chosen from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) series. After correction for response bias, responses to the majority of target stimuli were concordant with the IAPS ratings at better than chance, even when the presence of the target was undetected. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the effects of IAPS valence and stimulus category were objectively measured on nine regions of interest (ROIs) using the same strict temporal restrictions in a similar masking design. Evidence of affective processing close to or below conscious threshold was apparent in some of the ROIs. To further this line of enquiry, a second fMRI experiment mapping the same ROIs and using the same stimuli were presented in a foveal (‘attended’) peripheral (‘to-be-ignored’) paradigm (small image superimposed in the centre of a large image of the same category, but opposite valence) to investigate spatial parameters and limitations of attention. Results are interpreted as showing both valence and category specific effects of ‘to-be-ignored’ images in the periphery. These results are discussed in light of theories of the limitations of attentional capacity and the speed in which we process natural images, providing new evidence of the breadth of variety in the types of affective visual stimuli we are able to process close to the threshold of conscious perception.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

The Impact of magnitude salience on prix fixe menu price judgment

The flat price structure of prix fixe menus (i.e., fixed food prices and fixed service gratuities) affords restaurant operators the opportunity to present the same menu price in different ways. This report examined customers’ responses to financially equivalent prix fixe menu prices with a built-in gratuity (i.e., all-inclusive prices), a separately listed percentage gratuity and a separately listed dollar gratuity in terms of deal perception. Through an online experiment, we found that prix fixe menu prices with a percentage gratuity below (above) the conventional 15% were perceived more (less) favorably than their all-inclusive counterparts. However, there was no significant difference between prix fixe menu prices with a percentage gratuity and those with a dollar gratuity at all surcharge levels. The implications of these findings for presenting prix fixe menu prices are discussed

The Multimodal Sentiment Analysis in Car Reviews (MuSe-CaR) Dataset: Collection, Insights and Improvements

Truly real-life data presents a strong, but exciting challenge for sentiment and emotion research. The high variety of possible `in-the-wild' properties makes large datasets such as these indispensable with respect to building robust machine learning models. A sufficient quantity of data covering a deep variety in the challenges of each modality to force the exploratory analysis of the interplay of all modalities has not yet been made available in this context. In this contribution, we present MuSe-CaR, a first of its kind multimodal dataset. The data is publicly available as it recently served as the testing bed for the 1st Multimodal Sentiment Analysis Challenge, and focused on the tasks of emotion, emotion-target engagement, and trustworthiness recognition by means of comprehensively integrating the audio-visual and language modalities. Furthermore, we give a thorough overview of the dataset in terms of collection and annotation, including annotation tiers not used in this year's MuSe 2020. In addition, for one of the sub-challenges - predicting the level of trustworthiness - no participant outperformed the baseline model, and so we propose a simple, but highly efficient Multi-Head-Attention network that exceeds using multimodal fusion the baseline by around 0.2 CCC (almost 50 % improvement).Comment: accepted versio

The Indirect Effects of Tipping Policies on Patronage Intentions through Perceived Expensiveness, Fairness, and Quality

Many service firms allow their employees to be directly compensated by customers via the institution of tipping despite the fact this practice exposes firms to substantial risks, such as collusion between employees and customers against the firm. This paper examines a potential reason businesses may accept these risks. Specifically, it reports on a study finding that voluntary tipping policies increase potential demand by reducing perceived expensiveness, increasing perceived tipping policy fairness, and increasing a-priori expectations of service quality

Book reviews

Nancy M. Petry Pathological gambling: Etiology, comorbidity, and treatment American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 2006, x + 417 pp. ISBN 1-59147-173-7 | Marvin Zuckerman Sensation seeking and risky behavior American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 2008, xix+309 pp. ISBN 1-59147-738-