The default network and the combination of cognitive processes that mediate self-generated thought

Self-generated cognitions, such as recalling personal memories or empathizing with others, are ubiquitous and essential for our lives. Such internal mental processing is ascribed to the default mode network—a large network of the human brain—although the underlying neural and cognitive mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we tested the hypothesis that our mental experience is mediated by a combination of activities of multiple cognitive processes. Our study included four functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments with the same participants and a wide range of cognitive tasks, as well as an analytical approach that afforded the identification of cognitive processes during self-generated cognition. We showed that several cognitive processes functioned simultaneously during self-generated mental activity. The processes had specific and localized neural representations, suggesting that they support different aspects of internal processing. Overall, we demonstrate that internally directed experience may be achieved by pooling over multiple cognitive processes

Social presence and dishonesty in retail

Self-service checkouts (SCOs) in retail can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff, together with reduced queuing times. Recent research indicates that the absence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly, consistent with a perceived lack of social presence. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of various instantiations of embodied, visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on opportunistic behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. This was partially supported by the results. The findings contribute to the theoretical framework in social presence research. We concluded that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence in technology applications to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study.<br/