The focus of this thesis was the hedonic value of stimuli, which is more commonly known as pleasure or positive affect. First, the scientific meaning of hedonic value was dissected. Second, a classification identifying core causes of positive affect was created. The classification was derived from specific positive moments reported by individuals throughout a day (collected through experience sampling methodology). Seventeen triggers of positive affect were identified, which were extracted from the data rather than originating from theory. Third, affective influences on reflexive-like motor responses were investigated using an approach-avoidance task. Contrary to previous studies, approach reaction times were not speeded by highly affective stimuli. Instead, a novel non-emotional effect was found on reaction times, which could directly explain the current results, and those of previous studies, in non-affective terms. Fourth, the propagation of hedonic reactivity from pleasurable to neutral stimuli was investigated. Contrary to expectations, the evaluative conditioning procedure utilised did not exhibit a phenomenon called blocking. Instead, 'liking' spread non-selectively to all stimuli co-occurring with the source hedonic stimulus. Fifth, the positive effect of pleasure on goal-directed motivation was established: participants were found to press a food trigger harder for highly palatable snacks compared to bland snacks, even though participants were not informed about the hidden measurement of forces. Additionally, the impact of hedonic value on actual food intake was quantified with best-fit equations that predicted consumption at both the group and individual level. In the last study, hedonic habituation, or the inhibitory effect of pleasure on itself, was demonstrated: eating pleasant snacks, as compared to bland ones, reduced the hedonic ratings of test foods that were consumed afterwards. Finally, these inputs and outputs of hedonics were integrated into a model specifying principal roles of pleasure in human behaviour. This pleasure-incentive model explains the effects of pleasure on incentive motivation, and makes important predictions about the mechanisms of pathological conditions such as over-eating and drug addiction.

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the preferences of individuals for the management of upland landscapes in the UK. Environmental valuation techniques are becoming an increasingly important tool in the development of environmental management policy, however, they are not without their detractors. In particular a school of thought, developed from the work of Bentham, takes issue with the behavioural foundations of the dominant welfare economic doctrine which underpins many of the valuation techniques commonly adopted. They identify that heuristic rules, experience and memory can all play a role in the development of ‘value’ for a good. This thesis aims to investigate the roles of these, along with the role of association with an environmental good, in the development of value for upland landscapes using the Peak District National Park as a case study. This objective is developed in three parts. Part I introduces the topic, identifies the background of research against which this thesis is presented and introduces the case study. This part also attempts to identify how well the complex economy – ecology interactions in this landscape are understood by stakeholders. It shows that, given the complexities of the systems, there are key omissions in stakeholder knowledge and understanding. Part II uses Discrete Choice Experiments to analyse the impact on value of experience, memory, heuristics and association. A series of experiments are applied to the same landscape characteristics in order to achieve this. The results show that value can be impacted in a number of ways with implications for the development of future valuation studies. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the policy implications, limitations and future work associated with this research.

La evaluación de las experiencias extendidas en el tiempo se puede hacer de muchas formas. El paradigma --hedometer' en economía sugiere que la evaluación global de la experiencia se puede explicar por las impresiones de satisfacción durante la experiencia. Hay una creciente evidencia empírica sobre una simple ley de Pico-Final. Se ha demostrado que el Pico (la impresión mas extrema) y el Final (la ultima impresión) pueden explicar la evaluación global de la experiencia sin tener en cuenta las demás impresiones. Presento pruebas empíricas de la ley de Pico-Final utilizando datos recolectados en estudios de campo en aulas universitarias y en estudios de laboratorio con imágenes afectivas, e investigo, además, la capacidad de esta ley de explicar la intensidad del estado de animo posterior a la experiencia. Revelo, utilizando una novedosa tarea de estimación intuitiva, las opiniones de las personas sobre la composición de las evaluaciones globales de las experiencias. Finalmente, demuestro las condiciones que dificultan el aprendizaje de la ley Pico-Final, lo que explica porque las personas creen que sus evaluaciones globales representan el promedio de todas las impresiones sin excepción. / There are different ways of evaluating experiences lived across time. The --hedometer' paradigm in economics suggests that momentary impressions determine overall evaluations of experiences. There is a mounting empirical evidence for a simple Peak-End rule. Peak (the most extreme) and End (the very last) impressions have been shown to explain overall evaluations without the need to account for other impressions. I test the Peak-End rule using field data from university classrooms and lab data from image-viewing experiments, as well as explore its ability to predict post-experience mood valence. I elicit, using a novel guessing task, lay intuitions about overall evaluations of experiences. Finally, I demonstrate why decision-makers may find it difficult to learn the Peak-End rule and believe rather, that overall evaluations reflect average impressions.

The three chapters of this thesis investigate social aspects of judgment and decision making. Chapter One analyses the consequences of making decisions based on predictions of future well-being, and the conditions under which advice can improve these decisions. It shows that an interaction between errors in affective forecasts and the choice process leads to suboptimal decisions and disappointment, and establishes conditions under which advice reduces these effects. The second chapter investigates the boundaries of the result that eliciting more than one estimate from the same person and averaging these can lead to accuracy gains in judgment tasks. It reveals that the technique works only for specific kinds of questions, and people are reluctant to average their initial answers when asked for a final estimate. Finally, Chapter Three reviews experimental results regarding individual and small group behaviour in strategic decision tasks and provides a theoretical framework to analyse the observed differences. / Aquesta tesi investiga diferents aspectes socials de la presa de decisions. El primer capítol analitza les decisions preses en base a les prediccions del benestar futur, i en quines situacions els consells d’altres persones poden millorar aquestes decisions. Es mostra que una interacció entre el procés de l’elecció i les imperfeccions de les prediccions condueix a decisions subòptimes i a la decepció, i s’estableixen les condicions sota les quals els consells redueixen aquests efectes. El segon capítol investigaels casos en què les persones poden millorar les seves prediccions numèriques donant més d’una estimació i prenent-ne la mitjana. A base d’un experiment, es mostra que la tècnica funciona només amb determinats tipus de preguntes, i que les persones són averses a prendre mitjanes de les seves estimacions inicials quan es pregunta per una estimació final. L’últim capítol revisa els resultats experimentals referents a la presa de decisions estratègiques de la persona individual comparats amb els de la persona que forma part d’un grup reduït i proporciona un marc teòric en el que analitza les diferències que s’observen en el seu comportament

2005年4月號The Econonist 經濟學人週刊的封面刊登: 'Power at last - How the internet means the consumer really is king (and queen). ' 沒錯！消費者是國王的時代來臨了！消費者在網際網路上可以隨時隨地取得更多、更有價值的消費訊息，以極低的成本，應用網路中各種透明的消費資訊，任意的改變消費的抉擇，史無前例的表達出有別於過去被動接受產品的主動消費力量，消費利益也確實受到保護，因此以資訊為基礎的行銷策略就是消費者導向策略(Glazer,1997)，呼應了經濟學人週刊的聳動標題；本研究即証明了在獲得充分且有價值的消費資訊，對消費者在進行消費決策與行為時，是具有「主動的」改變力量，因此提供消費者更豐富的消費資訊，也必定能保護更多的消費者利益。 當新的資訊處理技術與傳播媒體出現，或是由某種新工藝的創造與發展，進而改變現存的政治、經濟與文化、風俗產生新的變遷將對消費行為，產生戲劇化影響(Innis, 1951; McLuhan, 1964)，原因在於消費者在面對嶄新而且陌生的消費環境，所採取維護自身消費利益的因應之道；本研究引用學者 Kahneman and . Tversky 提出的「預期理論」（Prospect Theory)，以及Barry Schwatz（2004）提出的「經驗效用」（Experienced Utility）、「期望效用」（）、「記憶效用」（Remembered Utility），因為以人類基於維護自身利益為出發點，方能準確反映出消費者的行為，洞察消費變化的先機；特別是在網際網路平台上對此議題的研究，本研究尚屬先例。 企業經營的成敗可由她與客戶關係的良莠顯現，衡量客戶關係最重要的指標就是：企業是否能由與消費者在消費流程互動中（關係），掌握所留下的足跡（資訊），加以解讀應用並促進消費者再消費，如此資訊的應用就是 Rashi Glazer所稱的企業「關鍵資產」，反映出不斷促進產品、服務交易的要素( Glazer,1997)：如果廠商忽視此變化，影響所及，失去的將不只是企業經營的「關鍵資產」，甚至還會被消費者「主動」的遺棄；因此，在企業經營的研究中，能將劇變如此的消費行為與決策，研究出可遵循與掌握的模式，相信對廠商競爭力的提升有莫大助益。 本研究的貢獻呈現在CORM-PET模式，也就是展現消費者是如何表達他「主動」消費力量的軌跡；試想，當企業發現消費者表示喜歡你的產品卻無消費行動，在過去對企業的影響並不明顯，因為同行也不知道何以如此（無資訊）！但是面對資訊處理能力百倍於過去的今天，能經由對資訊精準處理與應用，知道其中原因的廠商將嶄露頭角；CORM-PET模式就是我們提出能解釋消費行為何以如此的模式，以及能精確應用當前處理資訊的能力，解讀消費行為留下的資料轉為有力的應用資訊，幫助供需雙方在新興「資訊經濟時代」的市場交易中各取所需。 關鍵詞 消費者導向、預期理論、期望效用、記憶效用、經驗效用、稟賦效用、定錨效用、框架效用、消費風險、消費價值、頂端效用、可得性捷思法 / The front cover title of The Econonist magazine (April of 2005) read ' Power at last-How the internet means the consumer really is king (and queen). ' Consumers can obtain more valuable consumption information whenever and wherever in the internet, this shows unprecedentedly consumers’ active consumption strength which is different from their passively accepted the products in the past. Consumers can use the transparent price information in the network with the extremely low cost, and are free to choose any consumption. Consumption interests are also really protected, so the marketing tactics based on information are that consumers lead tactics (Glazer, 1997), which echoed the title of the The Econonist magazine. This research has proved that valuable and sufficient consumption information for consumer while making consumption decision provide active power of change. Therefore, offering more abundant consumption information to consumers can certainly protect more consumers’ interests. Enterprises’ relation with customers can reflect the success or failure of their management. The most important criteria of the relationship are whether both enterprises and consumers can keep enough track in the consumption procedure to facilitate the same consumer to consume again. This is what Glazer (1997) said ' key assets ' of enterprises, which reflect key elements to promote products, service trade constantly. If the owner ignores the fact that information changes consumption decision and behavior, he or she will lose not only ' key assets ' of enterprises, but also can be abandoned by consumers. So if academic research of enterprise management can figure out the model of drastic change of the consumer behavior and decision, which can be followed and grasped, manufacturer's competitiveness will be greatest improved. The change of consumption decision and behavior is because the consumer guided by information in the face of brand-new and strange consumption environment (network market) to adopt and safeguard self-consumption interests. Historian and mass communication scholar (Innis, 1951; McLuhan, 1964) point out such a change, as new materials treatment technology and media appear or new craft created and developed can change extant politics, economy, culture and custom. Other scholars maintain one after another that must extend the value concept of the customer in the past to apply to the business activity in the internet network (Keeney, 1999; Keeney, 1992; Rayport, Sviokla, 1994). All the scholars’ academic researches of mankind’s protect one's own interests over the years, the most excellent theories are 'Prospect Theory' by Kahneman ＆ Tversky. Schwatz’ (2004) 'Experienced Utility ', ' Expected Utility' , ' Remembered Utility '. We adopt the academic research of above-mentioned scholars, as the foundation of developing this research, because the academic research is based on mankind’s safeguarding one's own interests, which is different from others are on roles development. This research based on this kind of research to develop more concrete consumption behavior, especially the consumer behavior on the internet network platform, still belongs to the precedent. The contribution of the study appears in CORM-PET model, which represents how consumers express their initiatively consumption power. Just try to think that when the enterprises find that consumers like your products but not having the consuming action. There was not obvious in the past influence enterprises’ for the counterparts had no idea about the reasons. But information handling ability hundred times to the past today, the manufacturers who can process and apply with information accurately, and know the whys and wherefores will show up prominently. The CORM-PET model we proposed helps to explain how the consumer behavior like this pattern, dealing with information accurately, to understand the materials staying behind in consumer behavior transferring to powerful application information, to help both. Key words: Consumer orientation, Prospect theory, Expected utility, Remembered utility, Experienced utility, Endowment effect, Anchor effect, Framing effect, Consumer risk, Consumer value, Peak effect, Availability heuristics