How preference change induced by mere action versus inaction persists over time

Understanding how sustainable preference change can be achieved is of both scientific and practical importance. Recent work shows that merely responding or not responding to objects during go/no-go training can influence preferences for these objects right after the training, when people choose with a time limit. Here we examined whether and how such immediate preference change in fast choices can affect choices without time limit one week later. In two preregistered experiments, participants responded to go food items and withheld responses toward no-go food items during a go/no-go training. Immediately after the training, they made consumption choices for half of the items (with a time limit in Experiment 1; without time limit in Experiment 2). One week later, participants chose again (without time limit in both experiments). Half of the choices had been presented immediately after the training (repeated choices), while the other half had not (new choices). Participants preferred go over no-go items both immediately after the training and one week later. Furthermore, the effect was observed for both repeated and new choices after one week, revealing a direct effect of mere (non)responses on preferences one week later. Exploratory analyses revealed that the effect after one week is related to the memory of stimulus-response contingencies immediately after the training, and this memory is impaired by making choices. These findings show mere action versus inaction can directly induce preference change that lasts for at least one week, and memory of stimulus-response contingencies may play a crucial role in this effect

Role of Symbiotic Auxotrophy in the Rhizobium-Legume Symbioses

Symbiotic auxotrophy occurs in both determinate pea and indeterminate bean nodules demonstrating its importance for bacteroid formation and nodule function in legumes with different developmental programmes. However, only small quantities of branched chain amino acids are needed and symbiotic auxotrophy did not occur in the Sinorhizobium meliloti-alfalfa symbiosis under the conditions measured. The contrasting symbiotic phenotypes of aap bra mutants inoculated on different legumes probably reflects altered timing of amino acid availability, development of symbiotic auxotrophy and nodule developmental programmes

Accelerometer based performance assessment of basic routines in classical ballet

Classical ballet requires dancers to exercise significant muscle control and strength both while stationary and when moving. Following the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) syllabus, 8 male and 27 female dancers (aged 20.2 + 1.9 yr) in a fulltime university undergraduate dance training program were asked to stand in first position for 10 seconds and then perform 10 repeats of a demi-plié exercise to a counted rhythm. Accelerometer records from the wrist, sacrum, knee and ankle were compared with the numerical scores from a professional dance instructor. The sacrum mounted sensor detected lateral tilts of the torso in dances with lower scores (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient r = -0.64, p < 0.005). The RMS acceleration amplitude of wrist mounted sensor was linearly correlated to the movement scores (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient r = 0.63, p < 0.005). The application of sacrum and wrist mounted sensors for biofeedback during dance training is a realistic, low cost option

Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Land Using Processes in the Supply Chain of Passenger Cars

Biodiversity loss has been recognized as one of the major global challenges of current and future society. Land-using processes have been found to be among the most important direct drivers for biodiversity loss. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has established itself as a standardized tool for measuring environmental impacts of products and processes. However, there is no clear consensus on the integration of land-use related impacts on biodiversity in LCA-frameworks due to a lack of methodological guidance, suitable datasets and experience in real-world applications. Closing these gaps could enable political institutions and companies to determine the effects of their products on biodiversity over the entire life cycle. In this study, a method, aiming to integrate the biodiversity impact in LCA, is successfully applied on a product with a complex supply chain. A suitable dataset of the material composition of a modern electric vehicle adapted to match the specifications of the Volkswagen ID.3 is developed. To estimate land use requirements of five important metals a GIS-based approach is elaborated. 164 mines covering an area of 4,123 km2 in eight different countries are inspected by means of satellite imagery and enhanced with data from industrial reports to build suitable datasets for the impact assessment. Based on these datasets, five unit processes are developed and applied to the VW ID.3 model. The results indicate that cobalt, lithium and copper account for the major biodiversity impact among the assessed metals. A scenario analysis reveals a biodiversity impact reduction potential of at least 23%. To the best knowledge of the authors, this study presents the first biodiversity impact assessment in the supply chain of a modern vehicle. The datasets, the application example and the workflow developed and applied in this study can serve as methodological guidance to support LCA-practitioners and researchers in the integration and application of biodiversity impacts in LCA-frameworks and LCA-studies. Thus, it supplements existing indicators in a meaningful way and makes them usable for future LCA studies

The Role of attention in explaining the no-go devaluation effect : Effects on appetitive food items

Evaluations of stimuli can be changed by simple motor responses such that stimuli to which responses are consistently withheld tend to be evaluated less positively than other stimuli. The exact mechanism that underlies this no-go devaluation effect is still unknown. Here we examine whether attention to the stimuli during training contributes to the devaluation effect. Participants received a go/no-go training in which 2 go items or 2 no-go items were simultaneously presented, and attention to 1 of the items was cued before participants executed or withheld a simple motor response (press a key on a keyboard). Next, explicit evaluations of these stimuli and untrained stimuli were assessed. Across 2 experiments we observed a predicted no-go devaluation effect, that is, a decrease in evaluations for items that have not been responded to. Furthermore, as predicted, selectively cueing attention toward stimuli during go/no-go training amplified differences in subsequent evaluations between go and no-go stimuli. Confirmatory analyses showed that the devaluation effect for cued no-go stimuli was not statistically significantly stronger than that for uncued no-go stimuli within each experiment. However, combining the data of both experiments showed moderate evidence (p = .023, BF+0 = 5.88) for stronger devaluation of cued no-go stimuli compared with uncued no-go stimuli. We conclude that attention to stimuli during go/no-go training contributes to revaluation processes of stimuli via motor actions, and that this knowledge is relevant for a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of the training and to optimize go/no-go training for practical use

Confidence in Evaluations and Value-Based Decisions Reflects Variation in Experienced Values

Evaluations and value-based decisions are often accompanied by a feeling of confidence about whether or not the evaluation or decision is accurate. We argue that this feeling of confidence reflects the variation of an underlying value distribution and that this value distribution represents previously experienced values related to an object. Two preregistered experiments in which the variation of such value distributions was systematically varied provide causal evidence in favor of this hypothesis. A third preregistered experiment showed that, for natural food items with uncontrolled prior experiences, confidence in evaluations is again related to the variation of individuals’ self-reported value distributions. Similarly, for choices between items, the variation of experienced values related to a choice pair influenced confidence in the perceived correctness of the choice. These findings converge with other domains of decision making showing that confidence tracks the variation of the underlying probability distribution of the evidence that a decision is based on, which in the case of value-based decisions, is informed by a value distribution reflecting priorly experienced value

When mere action versus inaction leads to robust preference change

Understanding the formation and modification of preferences is important for explaining human behavior across many domains. Here we examined when and how preferences for food items can be changed by linking mere action versus inaction to these items. In 7 preregistered experiments, participants were trained to consistently respond to certain food items (go items) and not respond to other items (no-go items) in a go/no-go training. Next, to assess preferences, they repeatedly chose between go and no-go items for consumption. Decision time during the choice task was manipulated and measured. Immediately after training, participants chose go items more often for consumption when choosing under time pressure, for both high-value and low-value choice pairs. Preferences were reliably changed in favor of go items for choices between unhealthy foods, between healthy foods, and between healthy and unhealthy foods. Furthermore, preference change was still observed one week after training, although the effect size largely decreased. Interestingly, when participants made choices without time pressure, the effect became weaker and statistically nonsignificant. These results suggest that preference change induced by mere responding versus not responding is constrained to situations where people take little time to make decisions, and the effect is relatively short-lived. By showing the reliability, generalizability and boundary conditions of the effect, these findings advance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of go/no-go training, provide more insights into how the training can be effectively applied, and raise new theoretical questions on how mere action versus inaction impacts preferences

How go/no-go training changes behavior : A value-based decision-making perspective

Inhibitory-control training can change food consumption. Here, we review work on one specific inhibitory-control training, namely go/no-go training (GNG), with the aim of clarifying how this training changes behavior. Recent work suggests it is unlikely that GNG trains general inhibitory control or even food-specific inhibition. Instead, recent research suggests GNG changes the value of food items. These findings call for theorizing on how a training task in which people merely respond or not respond to food items without any external reinforcement can impact the value of these items. We propose the value of trained food items is updated during GNG by action and inaction decisions. This value-updating account is descriptively accurate and generates new research questions and testable hypotheses to better understand the underlying mechanisms of GNG. The account also prompts questions about how everyday NoGo decisions can stimulate moderate consumption patterns

Devaluation of NoGo stimuli is both robust and fragile

Consistently not responding to stimuli during go/no-go training leads to lower evaluations of these NoGo stimuli. How this NoGo-devaluation-effect can be explained has remained unclear. Here, we ran three experiments to test the hypothesis that people form stimulus-stop-associations during the training, which predict the strength of the devaluation-effect. In Experiment 1, we tried to simultaneously measure the stimulus-stop-associations and NoGo-devaluation, but we failed to find these effects. In Experiment 2, we measured NoGo-devaluation with established procedures from previous work, and stimulus-stop-associations with a novel separate task. Results revealed a clear NoGo-devaluation-effect, which remained visible across multiple rating blocks. Interestingly, this devaluation-effect disappeared when stimulus-stop-associations were measured before stimulus evaluations, and there was no evidence supporting the formation of the stimulus-stop-associations. In Experiment 3, we found evidence for the acquisition of stimulus-stop-associations using an established task from previous work, but this time we found no subsequent NoGo-devaluation-effect. The present research suggests that the NoGo-devaluation-effect and stimulus-stop-associations can be found with standard established procedures, but that these effects are very sensitive to alterations of the experimental protocol. Furthermore, we failed to find evidence for both effects within the same experimental protocol, which has important theoretical and applied implications