This thesis examines the antecedents of felt ethnicity (i.e. how one feels towards one’s ethnic identity) within a sample of bicultural individuals living in Hawaii, and secondly investigates the relationship between felt ethnicity and purchasing intentions for products in two different categories, which are hedonic (e.g. emphasizing being able to enjoy the usage of a product such as a LouisVuitton handbag) and utilitarian (e.g. emphasizing the functionality of a product such as a pen or a notepad). The investigations consider conceptual and measurement issues surrounding the concept of felt ethnicity, the effects of ethnic-related brand names in priming different aspects of identity, and effects on biculturals’ product evaluation and purchasing intentions. The investigation draws upon theories of social identity and distinctiveness, and examines situational attributes such as whether the intended purchase is for friends or family members. This study consisted of a three-way experimental design experiment from a laboratory setting to examine the relationship among biculturals’ felt ethnicity, language cues and product types on purchasing intentions. A 2 felt ethnicity (Japanese and Japanese-American) x 2 language ethnic primes (Japanese vs. English) x 2 product types (Hedonic vs. Utilitarian) factorial design is featured to explore the role of social situations in the relationship of felt ethnicity and consumption (product preference and purchasing intentions). The sample consisted of 197 Japanese and Japanese-American biculturals; and the findings showed that consumer and product types and language cues are strong influences on product preferences and purchasing intentions. The more specific a bicultural is with his/her felt ethnicity, the clearer is the role of language cues in product preference, product evaluation and purchasing intentions. Social surroundings showed moderating effects between bicultural consumers’ felt ethnicity and purchasing intentions. These findings suggest that the use of language cues from various product types to reinforce their felt ethnicity (self-identity varies in different situations). This study makes a number of important theoretical and managerial contributions. First, this study clarifies the concept of bicultural felt ethnicity in respect of purchasing intentions, and reaffirms the concept of cultural frame switching using language cues as primes. In this way, the thesis presents a new conceptual model and resolves some measurement issues of felt ethnicity and three antecedents: self-acculturated identity, perceived parental identity (how one perceived his/her parents define their ethnic identity), social orientation (degree one socializes with people who of the same or different ethnicity with one’s own ethnic identity). Second, the findings suggest that felt ethnicity can be used as a tool to investigate biculturals in a global market and to facilitate market segmenting and communication. Finally, limitations of the thesis are recognised and direction for future research is proposed.

One of the factors significantly influencing our daily decisions is the so-called cognitive depletion.The theory of cognitive depletion postulates the existence of a limited mental resource that is necessary for self-regulation. If the resource is diminished by a task involving self-control, achievement in subsequent self-control task will be impaired. This project examines the effect of cognitive depletion on decisions in the Iowa Gambling Task designed to simulate real-life decision making involving gains and losses. Further, a possible effect of moderating factors that could be affected by cognitive depletion and consequently influence decisions in the Iowa Gambling Task -- risk preference and impulsivity -- is investigated. Dual-process theories postulate there are two systems involved in decision-making: faster, intuitive, emotional System 1 and slower, deliberative, rational System 2. It was found that cognitive depletion leads to enhancement of System 1. As advantageous decisions in the Iowa Gambling Task are closely related to emotional reactions -- domain of System 1 -- it was hypothesized that cognitive depletion will lead to not worse, or possibly even better results in depleted subjects. A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted involving 39 subjects in total. No difference was found in average desicions of depleted and non-depleted subjects in the Iowa Gambling Task, supporting the hypothesis. Further, short-term increase in impulsivity caused by cognitive depletion was very probably moderating choices in the IGT, leading to worse overall performance. Regarding risk preferences, we found that non-depleted subjects were generally more risk seeking in losses context, while depleted subjects exhibited rather loss aversion. This change in risk behaviors due to cognitive depletion very probably did not mediate choices in the Iowa Gambling Task.

In Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, the tact and mand are suggested to be functionally independent verbal operants. Many studies evaluating the verbal operants have provided results consistent with Skinner's notion of functional independence. For example, previous studies have yielded results showing that responses taught as tacts failed to emerge as mands unless they were directly trained as such. However, in many of the studies evaluating the functional independence of the verbal operants it is unclear whether the mand conditions were designed to actually evaluate that response function. The current study replicated and extended the findings of Wallace, Iwata, and Hanley (2006), who empirically demonstrated conditions that facilitated the transfer from tact to mand relations. Students in the current study were taught to tact both high preference and low preference items and were subsequently assessed on their ability to mand for those items. Responses taught as tacts transferred to mand responses without direct training for the high preference items only. These results suggest that the conditions under which training of one operant facilitates the emergence of an untrained verbal operant may be related to motivating operations.

In the study the preference of two Littorina species, i.e. Littorina obtusata and Littorina fabalis was investigated experimentally and in the field on which of the two fucoid species, Fucus vesiculosus or Ascophyllum nodosum they preferred to place their egg aggregations. The hypothesis tested was that L. obtusata and L. fabalis both prefer F. vesiculosus as substrate for spawning over A. nodosum and that L. obtusata move from their main grazing habitat, i.e. A. nodosum to F. vesiculosus before laying their egg sacs. The experiment was supported by a field study where the numbers of the two Littorina species, both adults and juveniles, were counted on F. vesiculosus and A. nodosum thalli collected in the field.  The results showed that both L. obtusata and L. fabalis preferred F. vesiculosus over A. nodosum as substrate for placing their egg sacs and that juveniles transfer to their preferred food source after hatching. This is the first report on the ability of adult L. obtusata to actively select favorable substrate for juvenile snails, by avoiding placing their egg sacs on unfavorable surfaces as A. nodosum. Both L. fabalis and L. obtusata placed their egg sacs on older parts of the thalli, mostly below the vesicles. The number of eggs sac was higher for L. obtusata when both A. nodosum and F. vesiculosus where available, but higher for L. fabalis when there were only F. vesiculosus in the jar. This indicates that more of the preferred nutrition would provide for more eggs in each sac, since the adults have more energy to produce more eggs. The number of snails counted in the field shows the dynamics of population during the summer. There was an obvious shift with more juveniles of both Littorina species on F. vesiculosus in the beginning of July, changing to most of the juveniles occurring on A. nodosum at the end of the month.  The importance of conducting the study during the hatching season to monitor the movements of the snails between preferred habitat for adult grazing, spawning and juvenile feeding is evident.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第21823号 / 農博第2336号 / 新制||農||1067(附属図書館) / 学位論文||H31||N5195(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科生物資源経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 栗山 浩一, 教授 伊藤 順一, 教授 梅津 千恵子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

There is a limited amount of research that has evaluated all three types of modalities and consequences during stimulus preference assessments (SPA) or examined problem behavior during preference assessments with individuals with tangible maintained problem behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend this line of research in two ways: (a) compare results of SPAs across three modalities and two consequence, (b) evaluate problem behavior during these SPAs with individuals with problem behavior maintained by access to tangible items. The results indicated that for all participants, there was preference stability across modalities and conditions. For all participants, problem behavior occurred during the no access condition or removal regardless of modality.

I studied food choices of four small passerine species in winter on an artifical source of food, a bird feeder. I did experiments with two different types of food. I proposed that birds would prefer the type of food with higher contain of fat and calories. Food preferences were shown, but independently on calories contain. Greenfinches always selected sunflower seeds. I conclude, this species is affected by tradition, because it is usually fed by sunflower seeds in all bird feeders in vicinity of experimental location. In the second series of experiments I presumed the birds would prefer the food of bigger size because of easier manipulation on a potentially dangerous spot, which bird feeder represents. Again, the choices of greenfinches and field sparrows were not affected by this factor. Great tits did not prefer any food type. Siskins on the other hand prefered smaller food type, apparently because of its better accessibility using their small beaks. In the third series of experiments I tested the effect of presence of a stuffed predator - a sparrowhawk. I presumed it would lower food selectivity in this dangerous situation. The birds visited the bird feeder significantly less fraquently than in the absence of predator, but the food choices were not affected.

Sexual selection is a frame of reference that attempts to explain exaggerated signaling traits, including acoustic signals between male and female animals. Contemporary studies in the field of sexual selection are focused on the evolution of female mating preferences, with particular emphasis being placed on the good genes models of sexual selection. Here I investigate whether sexual selection is in operation in the acoustic communication system of the field cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus. Through development of new methodology I show that female crickets have a distinct and repeatable preference and selectivity for certain male song traits. For sexual selection to operate in acoustic communication systems, males must advertise some aspect of their phenotype that will influence female choice. I demonstrate that the basis for arguments invoking sexual selection for spectral song traits in a sister species, G. campestris, which is that tegmen harp area predicts song frequency, is an invalid assumption for sound production in G. bimaculatus. As a result of this finding I investigated what aspects of male song were condition- and morphology-dependent. Temporal and spectral male song traits did not convey information regarding body condition, body size or the ability to withstand developmental instability (as indicated by fluctuating asymmetry). I was unable to detect handicap sexual selection for spectral characteristics of male song despite repeatable female preference for male song frequency. Furthermore, female preference for spectral bandwidth of male song, thought to be a sexually selected trait, was shown to be governed by preference for frequency and therefore not a distinct preference. The lack of detectable sexual selection, together with observed patterns of phenotypic variation in signals and the equivalent response system, suggest that some of the male song traits function for mate recognition. However, sexual selection for call traits not considered here (e.g. duration of calling) is probable. / Dissertation (MSc (Zoology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

Drug-associated stimuli trigger craving and relapse in addiction. Murine morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) was used to model learning of opioid associations. We examined how morphine and learning interact to alter neuron morphology in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core and shell after acquisition and extinction of CPP. Conditioning with morphine dose-dependently increased place preference compared to saline. In comparison to those from saline conditioned and morphine non-conditioned controls, neurons from the NAc core of morphine conditioned mice had increased dendritic complexity, as defined by increased dendritic length, number, and Sholl intersections. This effect is due to the combination of morphine and learning, which is different from effects of morphine or conditioning alone. Morphine administration without conditioning was associated with increased spine density in the core, which was reversed by CPP acquisition. Control conditioning with saline produced no morphology changes. Morphine CPP extinction was associated with decreased dendritic complexity, reversing the increased complexity seen after acquisition. Mice that extinguished CPP had similar dendritic complexity to saline conditioned mice, in terms of dendritic count and intersections, but less dendritic complexity than non-extinguished mice that retained CPP. Since dopamine release imbues salience to stimuli that coincide with drug use, and the dopamine D1 receptor mediates CPP acquisition, we tested the effect of SKF81297 D1 receptor agonist on CPP extinction and associated accumbal neuron morphology. SKF81297 (0.8 mg/kg) injected after each extinction training session impeded extinction, and produced increased dendritic complexity compared to controls. SKF81297 may have sustained conditioned associations, disrupted consolidation of extinction, and/or disrupted the decline in dopamine levels that may occur throughout extinction sessions. We hypothesize that changes occurred in the NAc core because this region mediates how stimuli and drug effects direct motor action. Since D1 receptors oppose extinction of drug-cue-induced behavior, they play a role in reinforcing opioid addiction. Acquisition and extinction may be opposite processes in the brain, as in behavior. Extinction may include some reversal of acquisition learning as well as being new learning with its own pathway. Interventions that target D1 receptors or that selectively reduce NAc core dendritic complexity may contribute to opioid addiction treatment.

This thesis studies the relationship between the informal institutions represented by religiousness, the way of understanding religion, the control over life and the preferences for income redistribution by state. Influence of informal institutions on preferences for income redistribution was confirmed by using multinomial logistic regression, contingency table, as well as cluster analysis. Results from empirical analysis suggest a polarization of religious people into those with positive preferences and those with negative preferences towards income redistribution. Most of the recent studies that were geographically defined claimed a rather negative preferences of religious people towards income redistribution by the state. Understanding religion as following norms and ceremonies, as well as high perception of life control lead to rather negative preferences towards income redistribution. Understanding religion as doing good to other people as well as low perception of life control lead to rather positive preferences towards income redistribution by the state.