The article Shoppers Like What They Know written by Peter M. Todd is about everyday shoppers who are influenced with what they purchase from the get-go. This article discusses how the more people buy of a product, and the more often they do so, the more likely them are to continue to buy it and not change to different brands. To study this, researchers examined 283,000 shoppers in the United Kingdom over a period of about two hundred fifty weeks. They focused on purchases of different household items such as beer, bread, coffee, toilet paper, washing detergent, and yogurt. Results showed that these shoppers became less likely to switch to other brands as the time they had been buying one particular product had increased. This pattern was still seen even when there were cost-saving opportunities. Shoppers continuously bought their same brand, even when presented with the option to buy a different one at a lower cost. Shoppers were sticking to what they had known best, even if that meant not taking the most cost-efficient route. Researchers explained that this way of shopping could be easily influenced. They gave the example of when shoppers are “in a hurry” and so they grab the closest item on the shelf. If this is repeated often enough, they will be accustomed to buying this product that was only an impulsive buy in the first place.

For this research, the topic was human behavior in relation to shoppers and their preferences. The research question asked if shoppers’ product choices were affected by how often they continued to purchase that item. To answer this question, the researchers needed acts, behaviors, and events to determine whether or not the amount of times they bought a particular product affected their decisions to purchase a different brand the next time around. To gather this data, researchers used detached observation, and to analyze it, they organized and compared time and likelihood to change brand purchase to determine whether they had any relation to each other.

Overall, I thought this research was well organized and an intriguing one to learn about. It makes you think about your own personal decisions when at the stores and what influences us to what we ultimately decide to purchase.

Todd, Peter M. “Human behaviour: Shoppers like what they know.” Nature 541.7637 (2017): 294-95. Web. 29 Mar. 2017.

The article Emotional Learning Selectively and Retroactively Strengthens Memories for Related Events written by J. E. Dunsmoor, V. P. Murty, L. Davachi, and E. A. Phelps is about research on long-term memory and the way humans are able to connect irrelevant details from the past, to significant moments in the future. Their goal was to provide evidence of a generalized retroactive memory enhancement in humans that is selective to information conceptually related to a future emotional event. To do this, researchers conducted experiments in three different phases. Phase 1 subjects had to classify 60 basic-level animals and tools. In Phase 2, electric shock electrodes were attached with 30 images from one category with another 30 from an unpaired category. In the final phase, the subjects had to classify another 30 images without the electric shock electrodes. Data was gathered right after the experiment, 6 hours after, and 24 hours after. ANOVA’s and t-tests were used to find any correlations. Results showed that weak memories from the pre-conditioning session were strengthened when related information acquired emotional relevance. It was also shown that fear-conditioning memory enhancement emerged by hour 6, therefore concluding that it was not dependent on sleep consolidation. Lastly, results showed that data that was gathered later (hours 6 and24) had significantly greater memory for conditioned stimulus during pre-conditioning compared to that of data gathered immediately after.

For this research, the topic was long-term memory with emotional attachments and the research question was to ask if emotional learning selectively and retroactively strengthened memories for related events. To answer this question, the researchers needed acts, behaviors, and events to determine whether or not the different stages had any effect on their ability to recall certain things from their memory. To gather this data, researchers used detached observation, and to analyze it, the conducted ANOVA’s and t-tests to find any significance between emotional related events and weak/strong memories.

Overall, I thought this research was well carried out and interesting to read about. For further research, I think it would be intriguing to see if different types of emotions, such as negative or positive ones, could recall different types of weak memories from the past.

Dunsmoor, Joseph E., Vishnu P. Murty, Lila Davachi, and Elizabeth A. Phelps. “Emotional learning selectively and retroactively strengthens memories for related events.” Nature 520.7547 (2015): 345-48. Web. 26 Mar. 2017.

The article Intrinsic Honesty and the Prevalence of Rule Violations Across Societies written by Simon Gächter and Jonathan F. Schulz is about research on the human intrinsic honesty and if it is more prevalent or not where there are more or less rule violations. Their main goal was to be able to explain how the prevalence of rule violations in people’s societal environment, such as corruption, tax evasion, or political fraud, could compromise and individual’s intrinsic honesty. To do this, researchers conducted experiments across twenty-three countries. They created a “Prevalence of Rule Violations” index from corruption from 2003 and completed this on more than 2,000 people. They made sure to only conduct the experiment on younger people who had no ability to affect the PRV during their time. To measure intrinsic honesty, researchers conducted an anonymous “die-in-a-cup” experiment where participants sat in a cubicle and were asked to roll a six-sided die twice, but were told to only report the first roll. After the data was analyzed, results showed that institutions and cultural values influence the prevalence of rule violations, which impacts people’s intrinsic honesty and whether or not they follow the rules. Results also showed that many people are try and be honest/only become rule benders so as to maintain an “honest self image.” Overall, they found that lower prevalence of rule violations, and higher intrinsic honesty was more profound in western societies.

For this research, the topic was intrinsic honesty, and the research question was to ask if the prevalence of rule violations in people’s societal environment, such as corruption, tax evasion, or political fraud, could compromise and individual’s intrinsic honesty, and how. To answer this question, researchers needed reports of acts, behaviors, or events (die-in-a-cup) and ordinal data (to rank the different country levels of prevalence of rule violations). To collect this data, they completed tests/experiments, and public records. To analyze this data, they complete four different scatter plots to find any correlation between the two variables.

I though this research was well conducted, and an interesting one to learn about, although I think it would also be beneficial to learn if societal/household upbringings had any effect on their intrinsic honesty.

Gächter, Simon, and Jonathan F. Schulz. “Intrinsic honesty and the prevalence of rule violations across societies.” Nature 531.7595 (2016): 496-99. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.

The proposal example that I have chosen was written by Charles Ming Kheng from the graduate school of education at the University of Western Australia. The research proposed is a study to find whether or not an infusion of biology demonstrations within a physics course had any effects on the achievement or attitudes of junior standing college students in Singapore. To gather data, Kheng randomly assigned 120 students (60 male and 60 female) into control and experiment groups. Both groups were to learn the same level and course of physics, except the experimental group were to have biology-infused physics demonstrations within the course. After two weeks, the two groups were to be compared to see the impact the biology had on their achievement and attitudes.

As mentioned above, the topic of the research was effects of biology-infused demonstrations on achievement and attitudes in junior college physics. The research question was “What are the effects of infusing biology examples into physics demonstrations that are based on a constructivist teaching approach?” Kheng also added the following specific research questions: (1) What are the effects of using such demonstrations on physics achievement? (2) What are the effects of using such demonstrations on physics attitudes? (3) Do the effects of using such demonstrations on achievement and attitudes differ across males and females? (4) Do the effects of using such demonstrations on achievement and attitudes differ across ability levels? The type of data needed to answer this question would be reports of acts and behavior since the main goal is to find out if the biology affected their personal achievements and attitudes. To gather this data, the researcher used a modified version from an existing attitudes questionnaire to compare attitudes, and then used a Physics Achievement Test (PAT) to determine if their achievements differed. To then analyze this data, the statistical methods of Pearson r and Rasch were used for the PAT to see if there was any relationship between the students’ achievements when infused or not with biology.

Overall, I thought this research proposal was well written. It had language that was easy to understand, had visuals to represents the way data would be organized, and transitioned nicely from each step to the next.

The article The Ontogeny of Fairness in Seven Societies written by P.R. Blake in Nature, is about research on different adolescents and their degree and modes of fairness. The researchers wanted to find out whether different children of different ages and backgrounds had similar or different ways of thinking when it came to what they thought was fair. To test this, they paired up children of similar age, and tested their levels of disadvantageous inequality aversion (DI) and advantageous inequality aversion (AI). DI is when you do not tolerate being exploited whereas AI is when you reject a relative advantage. Researchers hypothesized that DI would be more common in the younger children, and that AI would most likely present itself when they children became older due to social norms and maturity. Results showed that their first hypothesis of DI being more common in adolescence was true, although its development varied with the different areas that the kids came from. AI did appear more frequently in other children, but this was explained that it was due to the westernized cultures they came from. Parents in westernized cultures tend to encourage independence and so it is a possible explanation as to why these particular children reacted in that manner. Overall, they were correct when they predicted DI developing first over AI.

For this research, the topic was children’s reaction to fairness, and the question was to find the difference in their reactions based on age and background. To answer this question, the type of data needed was acts, behaviors, or events, and the data collection method was detached observation as they watched what each child did when placed in either a DI or AI situation. To analyze this data, the researchers formed their findings into ordinal data; they ranked the child’s levels of DI and AI, and at what ages/maturity they were found. These observations were then compared to those of different children.

At the end of the article, enhancements for the research were discussed which I thought was helpful. One explained how their research only studied a specific age group and that it was most likely that these traits would change throughout their own lifespan. Another was that further research could test children from a greater amount of diverse societies. Overall, I thought was a very interesting research study, and one that could be used as an example as to why children act the way they do due to their upbringings.

Blake, P. R., K. Mcauliffe, J. Corbit, T. C. Callaghan, O. Barry, A. Bowie, L. Kleutsch, K. L. Kramer, E. Ross, H. Vongsachang, R. Wrangham, and F. Warneken. “The ontogeny of fairness in seven societies.” Nature 528.7581 (2015): 258-61. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

The article Some Begging is Actually Bragging, written by Douglas W. Mock in Nature, is about a research study done on one hundred forty-three bird species to examine parental responses to chicks’ begging signals. The researchers hypothesized that the parents would feed the offspring that begged the most, but they also had interests to see whether the larger/healthier offspring were given any special attention due to a sense of bragging. Mock described this with two different models: the signal-of-need model which meant that the parents would feed the offspring that needed it most, first, and then there was the signal-of-quality model which explained that the parents would favor and focus their attention on the stronger offspring. During research, environmental features such as the quality and predictability of food supply for each species were taken into consideration. In the end, researchers found that both models were represented. In environments, where food was predictable and essential, parents would feed all offspring equally, and then focus on the weaker ones so as to bring them to size. On the other hand, where there were volatile conditions, parents often preferred the stronger offspring.

For this type of research, the topic was chicks’ begging signals, and the question was to find the different variations of parental responses to the begging. To answer this question, the type of data needed is acts, behavior or events and the data collection method is detached observation. To analyze this data, researchers formed their observations into categorical data; that is, they grouped their findings into the different models of need or quality (begging or bragging). These were then compared to each other based on surrounding environments.

I believe that this research study was well conducted and resulted in some interesting findings. If further research was to be done, I think it would be interesting to find if there were other significant factors that correlated with a parent’s response to the begging or bragging.

Mock, Douglas W. “Animal behaviour: Some begging is actually bragging.” Nature 532.7598 (2016): 180-81. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.

The Case for Pay to Quit written by Theresa M. Marteau and Eleni Mantzari in Nature is about a randomized trial testing to see the rates of cigarette smokers being able to quit from smoking if given a financial incentive. Four different trials were observed during the research. Two trials gave people the opportunity to gain eight hundred US dollars if they had quit smoking. One was for individuals, and the second was group-based. Similarly, there were individual and group-based observances for a required refundable one hundred fifty US dollar deposit, and then a six hundred fifty US dollar reward if they were successful in quitting. Results showed that there was a ninety percent more acceptance rate for the straight cash rewards than for those who had to deposit their own money. In comparison with individual and group-based trials, there was no difference. Ultimately, results showed that there was an overall quit rate ranging from nine to sixteen percent. This was higher than the usual six percent success rate when done with what the authors name “usual-care.”

Within this article, the topic was financial incentives for cigarette smokers, and the research question was asking about the success rate of giving these smokers a monetary inventive for quitting. To answer this question, the researchers needed acts and behavior and they did this by simple observation. They did mention that they checked cotinine levels in saliva to validate whether a person had quit or not, and so reports and observation would work for that also. Lastly, comparison between two different types of incentive trials was the method for analyzing the data.

In my opinion, I think this is a new and smart idea to influencing people to quit smoking. Everyone can use extra cash and so if given the opportunity to gain some and also become a healthier person, you would think there would be an obvious answer. The only problem that I see with this is how the smoke-free public might take it. This ultimately incentivizes smokers for smoking in the first place and so there would need to be serious discussion if implemented into society.

The article Diagnosis by Extracellular Vesicles, written by Clotilde Théry, is about a test that tried to help detect patients with late stage pancreatic cancer before it fully develops. This is done by taking a simple draw of blood from the patient and then testing it. The test will identify the levels of glypican-1 (GPC1) in vesicles within the blood stream as well as the levels of a pancreatic tumor biomarker called carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9). To gather this data, Sonia A. Melo and her various other colleagues (the ones who conducted the research), tested on mice and also serum from various other human patients who had already been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Results showed that healthy patients contained higher levels of CA19-9 and lower levels of GPC1, while those with diagnosed pancreatic tested for lower levels of CA19-9 but higher levels of GPC1. In the end, Melo and her colleagues reported that the test gave one hundred percent certainty. The only downfall to this test is that it doesn’t detect other cancers. It is only able to detect early stages of pancreatic cancer.

For this research, because Théry wrote about someone else’s work, the type of data collected was reports of Melo’s work, and so therefore the method of collection was public and private records. To analyze the data collected, Melo compared the levels of CA 19-9 and GPC1 within patients of pancreatic cancer and those of healthy patients, but Théry ultimately described Melo’s work while analyzing it.

I believe that this research was conducted well and will ultimately be very beneficial to today’s society. There did not seem to be any bias or large-scale mistakes and so if presented to where this test can be done in a seemingly more affordable manner, it can be a useful tool in helping to save many lives in the future.