Information Processing Styles Research Articles

Information processing style and institutional trust as factors of COVID vaccine hesitancy

This study investigates the factors contributing to COVID vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy has commonly been attributed to susceptibility to misinformation and linked to particular socio-demographic factors and personality traits. We present a new perspective, emphasizing the interplay between individual cognitive styles and perceptions of public health institutions. In January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, 318 participants underwent a comprehensive assessment, including self-report measures of personality and clinical characteristics, as well as a behavioral task that assessed information processing styles. During 2021, attitudes towards vaccines, scientists, and the CDC were measured at three time points (February–October). Panel data analysis and structural equation modeling revealed nuanced relationships between these measures and information processing styles over time. Trust in public health institutions, authoritarian submission, and lower information processing capabilities together contribute to vaccine acceptance. Information processing capacities influenced vaccination decisions independently from the trust level, but their impact was partially mediated by authoritarian tendencies. These findings underscore the multifactorial nature of vaccine hesitancy, which emerges as a product of interactions between individual cognitive styles and perceptions of public health institutions. This novel perspective provides valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms that drive this complex phenomenon.

Resistance to persuasion as a maladaptive coping response to anti Covid-19 message: a protection motivation theory perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the protection motivation theory’s (PMT) maladaptive coping response to anti-Covid-19 preventive persuasive appeals. PMT is based on coping appraisal that may lead to either an adaptive- or a maladaptive coping response. It has been suggested that the maladaptive coping response is not sufficiently investigated and can be represented by individuals’ resistance to anti-Covid-19 persuasive messages. It has been also supposed that resistance is predicted and modeled through a set of cognitive, affective and individual factors such as information processing style, fear arousal, gender and coping self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach An experiment and a survey were conducted online on a random sample of 290 individuals. The sample was divided into two groups, each of which was exposed to an anti-Covid-19 persuasive message. Findings The findings show that resistance to anti-Covid-19 persuasion is not directly predicted by the individual’s exposure to the message, but channeled through an affective and a cognitive process. It was also reported that resistance is predicted by both the reflective and the nonreflective information processing styles, which are in turn predicted by a high versus a low fear arousal. Fear arousal level was shown to be moderated by gender and coping self-efficacy. Originality/value This research brings additional insight to the PMT in so far that it highlights the maladaptive coping response through resistance to persuasion in a pandemic context.

Impact of customer engagement strategy on customer loyalty from the perspective of consumer well-being

PurposeThis study aims to investigate mechanisms and boundary conditions of the impact of customer engagement strategies (CESs) on customer loyalty (CL) based on goal-framing and well-being theory.Design/methodology/approachThrough a three-stage, time-lagged research design, 246 valid samples were obtained. This study tested and validated the proposed framework using hierarchical regression analysis and a moderated mediation procedure.FindingsFirst, CESs have a significant positive impact on CL. Second, consumer well-being (CWB) partially mediates the CESs–CL relationship. Third, information processing style (IPS) moderates the impact of CESs on CWB, with a more pronounced effect observed under the affective processing style. Finally, IPS further moderates the indirect effect of CESs on CL, indicating that CESs enhance CL through increased CWB, particularly under the affective processing style.Originality/valueRevealing the pivotal role of CESs in enhancing CL at the corporate level helps bridge the gap between companies and customers, thereby facilitating the establishment of long-term cooperative relationships. Additionally, introducing the concept of CWB into the study of CL offers a novel perspective for understanding customer behavior.

Using Electroencephalogram-Extracted Nonlinear Complexity and Wavelet-Extracted Power Rhythm Features during the Performance of Demanding Cognitive Tasks (Aristotle's Syllogisms) in Optimally Classifying Patients with Anorexia Nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa is associated with impaired cognitive flexibility and central coherence, i.e., the ability to provide an overview of complex information. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate EEG features elicited from patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls during mental tasks (valid and invalid Aristotelian syllogisms and paradoxes). Particularly, we examined the combination of the most significant syllogisms with selected features (relative power of the time-frequency domain and wavelet-estimated EEG-specific waves, Higuchi fractal dimension (HFD), and information-oriented approximate entropy (AppEn)). We found that alpha, beta, gamma, theta waves, and AppEn are the most suitable measures, which, when combined with specific syllogisms, form a powerful tool for efficiently classifying healthy subjects and patients with AN. We assessed the performance of triadic combinations of "feature-classifier-syllogism" via machine learning techniques in correctly classifying new subjects in these two groups. The following triads attain the best classifications: (a) "AppEn-invalid-ensemble BT classifier" (accuracy 83.3%), (b) "Higuchi FD-valid-linear discriminant" (accuracy 75%), (c) "alpha amplitude-valid-SVM" (accuracy 83.3%), (d) "alpha RP-paradox-ensemble BT" (accuracy 85%), (e) "beta RP-valid-ensemble" (accuracy 85%), (f) "gamma RP-valid-SVM" (accuracy 85%), and (g) "theta RP-valid-KNN" (accuracy 80%). Our findings suggest that anorexia nervosa has a specific information-processing style across reasoning tasks in the brain as measured via EEG activity. Our findings also contribute to further supporting the view that entropy-oriented, i.e., information-based features (the AppEn measure used in this study) are promising diagnostic tools (biomarkers) in clinical applications related to medical classification problems. Furthermore, the main EEG-specific frequency waves are extremely enhanced and become powerful classification tools when combined with Aristotle's syllogisms.

Mobile app adoption comparison between U.S. and Chinese college students: information processing style and use frequency after download

Abstract Purpose This study examines similarities and differences in information processing of college mobile app adopters, as age peers, in China and the U.S., by using the heuristic-systematic model as the main theoretical framework. Method An online self-administered survey was conducted. Findings The results confirm that some peripheral factors affect personal factors. Some cultural orientations (power distance, indulgence, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance) influence app adopting behavior indirectly via information processing. Social norms significantly predict information processing and adopting behavior. Respondents share similar heuristic processing but show significant differences in systematic processing, which results in significantly different adopting behaviors. Implications Some cultural orientations affect app adopting behavior through information processing, but affect heuristic processing and systematic processing differently. Not all cultural orientations influence the decision-making process, and some orientations may be moderators instead of predictors. Social norms can create strong social motivation in app adoption. Respondents are capable of processing information so perceived behavioral control is not a significant influencer in the decision-making of app adoption. Respondents are different in systematic processing but not in heuristic processing, which calls attention to cross-cultural comparisons in terms of information processing, researchers should test at the dimensional or item level before comparing at the variable level. Value This study extends the heuristic-systematic model by connecting peripheral factors (national culture, social norms, and perceived behavioral control) and personal factors (information processing and behavior). This study also tests the special roles of social norms and perceived behavioral control, which originated from the theory of planned behavior, as peripheral factors, and enriches the literature on information processing of decision-making. This study introduces the possibility that respondents are more different in systematic processing than heuristic processing and cultural orientations affect heuristic processing and systematic processing in different ways, and also sheds light on technology acceptance literature in terms of non-adoption.

Association of Learning Styles with Academic Achievements in First-year Professional MBBS Students of a Medical College in Eastern India: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Research has shown that learning may be optimised by synchronising the learning environment with the learning style preferences of students. First-year medical students face immense stress as they adapt to a new learning environment and curriculum at the onset of their medical career. The simultaneous use of two supplementary learning styles questionnaires, namely, the Visual-Aural/Auditory-Read/WriteKinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire and the Vermunt Inventory of Learning Styles (Vermunt ILS), would provide detailed knowledge of their instructional preferences, information processing, and cognitive personality learning styles. Judicious use of such information at this stage may guide them towards improved learning and higher academic achievement. Aim: To study the association between learning styles and academic achievements in first-year professional MBBS students of a medical college. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India over the duration of 10 months from August 2021 to June 2022. Online surveys of 250 first-year MBBS students’ learning styles were conducted using the VARK questionnaire and Vermunt ILS, and the marks of three internal assessment examinations were collected. The data was entered into Microsoft Excel. Group as well as individual scores were analysed, and Pearson’s Chisquare test was used to determine the association between the students’ learning styles and their academic achievement. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Out of the total of 160 submitted questionnaires, 139 (86.8%) students were visual learners, while the rest were multimodal learners. The factor loading of the ILS scales revealed higher alpha coefficients for learning orientations and mental models of learning, with the ‘use of knowledge’ being awarded high scores by the highest number of students, 104 (83.56%). A total 134 learners gave lower scores to processing and regulation strategies, but a significant association was found between 126 (94%) of them and their academic scores of ≥50% (p-value=0.024). Conclusion: Although no positive association was found between learning styles and academic achievement of firstyear medical students, the integration of two learning style tests provided educators with comprehensive insight into the learning preferences of their students, enabling them to develop an adaptive curriculum. Students might also utilise knowledge of their learning styles to guide themselves towards self-directed learning, lifelong learning, and higher academic achievement.

Facial symmetry perception and attractiveness ratings in body dysmorphic disorder

Cognitive-behavioral models of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) conceptualize biases in visual information processing as maintaining factors of the disorder. Empirical findings point to selective attentional mechanisms and a detail-oriented information processing style in facial perception, which are related to perceived facial aesthetics. However, so far, it remains unclear whether higher discrimination abilities of facial symmetry and related attractiveness ratings contribute to the mind as a filter in BDD. BDD (n = 25) and mentally healthy subjects (n = 25) rated symmetry and attractiveness of fifty animated, three-dimensional facial photographs characterized by diverging geometrical symmetry. Main findings emerging from mixed effects models indicated that perceived symmetry, but not objective symmetry, predicted perceived attractiveness. Group status did not predict symmetry or attractiveness ratings. Exploratory analyses indicated potentially clinically relevant mechanisms of symmetry ratings in BDD and revealed faster attractiveness ratings in unattractive vs. attractive faces across groups. Our findings refute the hypothesis of higher discrimination abilities of facial symmetry as a maintaining factor in BDD. Implications for attention and perception retraining in the context of cognitive-behavioral therapy for BDD are discussed.

Make the photo in good shape: The matching effect of photo shapes and donation appeals on donation intentions

Photographs and charitable appeals are frequently used to increase engagement in online fundraising projects. In this research, we investigated the interaction effect between the shapes of the beneficiary's photograph (circular vs. angular) and frames of donation appeals (warmth vs. competence) on donation willingness. Through three studies, we demonstrated a warmth donation appeal combined with a circular-shaped photograph and a competence donation appeal with an angular-shaped photograph could enhance individuals' willingness to donate, which is mediated by perceived fit. Furthermore, the matching effect of photo shapes and donation appeals is moderated by information processing style and exists only among visualizers.

Eğitim Sürecince Öğrenme Döngüleri ve Öğrenme Tarzlarının İncelenmesi

The learning process occurs in the form of learning cycles and styles. Learning is the most basic way for all living things to maintain their existence. In the modern management understanding, the learning of organizations that are characterized as living organisms is equally important for their continued existence. It has now gained a view that covers concepts such as learning, change, innovation, creativity, growth and self-improvement. In this context, a number of approaches related to learning processes have been developed. Learning according to behavioral learning theories; it is a fairly long-term change in behavior that occurs as a result of repetition and experiences. Learning is a behavior change. Behavior change is also an event that can be observed and measured. From the point of view of cognitive learning theories, it is a change in the information processing style as a result of the experiences of the organism. The most effective way for people to gain knowledge is to personally experiment directly. However, no one has enough time to try and learn all the information they need. Therefore, it is necessary to receive the knowledge and skills that are teachable from others through education. There are four levels of learning. The lowest level is memorization and simple conditioning. The second level is to acquire knowledge and to adapt simply. A higher level is to make sense of a topic by analyzing or synthesizing. The highest level is to study mutual interactions in a certain environment, during a certain time period. Key Words: Education, Learning, Learning Cycle, Learning Style

From fear to forecast: The role of simulators, accompanied driving, age, gender, and information-processing style in driver training and beyond

BackgroundEven though accompanied driving and simulator training are common, clarity on their usage trends and effectiveness is lacking. This research aimed to deepen the understanding of the relationships between personal characteristics, pre-licence accompanied driving, self-reported post-licence driving behaviour, and driving performance scores during simulator lessons. MethodsWe used data from a questionnaire completed by simulator and non-simulator students (total n = 3,761). Data were analysed by dividing the sample into two groups based on variables such as gender, age at licensure, education level, fear of driving a car when starting driver education, information-processing style, participation in accompanied driving, and the number of driving simulator lessons completed. ResultsMales took fewer on-road lessons and reported lower fear, but they had poorer simulator safety scores than females. Younger learners required fewer lessons and test attempts, were less fearful, and violated traffic rules more than older respondents. Higher-educated respondents had more fear and safer driving scores in the simulator. Thinkers, who were typically more educated, showed more caution in the simulator and on the road, and were older at licensure. Compared to regular students, students participating in accompanied driving were younger at licensure. Moreover, students with a higher driving skill score in the simulator were less fearful and needed slightly fewer attempts to pass the road driving test. Discussion and conclusionThe fear towards driving, which is strongly linked to personal characteristics, provides a logical explanation for the progression of students through driver education. Furthermore, this study illustrated the possibility of considering information-processing styles, education level, and driving simulator performance in driving education. However, in order to conclusively study the safety-effectiveness of accompanied driving and simulator training, further research in the form of a randomised controlled trial is necessary.

Effects of store fixture shape at retail checkout: Evidence from field and online studies

Previous research from both marketing and operations management has shown that servicescape design, as an effective retail operations strategy, can significantly influence consumers’ purchases. We extend this literature by investigating how fixture shape, an important environmental factor that has received little attention in previous studies, can influence consumer purchase intentions at retail checkout. Findings from a field study and three online experiments consistently suggest that tower‐shaped fixtures, in comparison to other conventional fixtures, can increase checkout purchase intentions. Moreover, the proposed effect is driven by the increased visual attention to products when displayed on tower fixtures. We also identify consumers’ information processing style (i.e., more vs. less reliant on visual processing) as a theoretically relevant moderator. Specifically, customers who rely more heavily on visual information processing are more susceptible to the influence of a tower fixture than those who rely less on visual information processing. Through this research, we contribute novel insights to the understanding of display fixtures and retail operation management. This study augments the design task from product shape to fixture shape for manufacturers, and sheds light on retailer merchandising strategy as well as retail space management at checkout.

Information Processing Style and Information-seeking Behavior in Organizational Decision-making

Information Processing Style and Information-seeking Behavior in Organizational Decision-making

When do I ponder? The role of elaboration in counterfactual thinking

AbstractThe counterfactual thought such as “If only I had…” has a powerful impact on people's subsequent behavioral intentions. The literature has documented what may happen with CFT. But little has been done to investigate how CFT produces these effects. In this research, three studies provided evidence to show that elaboration rather than priming is the mechanism for CFT to have an effect on behavioral intentions; and the factors such as argument strength, outcome severity, and goal valence may interfere with such counterfactual effects. These theoretical contributions to the CFT literature offer important managerial implications and help marketers determine optimal persuasion strategies to influence consumers' information processing style.

Profile identification and characterization of risk perceptions and preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis.

In a public health crisis, communication plays a vital role in making sure policies and recommendations from the government level get disseminated accurately to its people and is only considered as effective when the public accepts, supports, complies to, and engages in policies or behaves as per governments' recommendations. Adopting the multivariate audience segmentation strategy for health communication, this study uses a data-driven analytical method to (1) identify audience segments of public health crisis communication in Singapore based on knowledge, risk perception, emotional responses, and preventive behaviors; and (2) characterize each audience segment according to demographic factors, personality traits, information processing styles, and health information preferences. Results (N = 2033) from a web-based questionnaire executed in August 2021 have identified three audience segments: the less-concerned (n = 650), the risk-anxious (n = 142), and the risk-majority (n = 1,241). This study offers insights to how audiences of public health crisis communication perceive, process, and respond to information directed to them during the pandemic, thereby informing policy makers to tailor more targeted public health communication interventions in promoting positive attitude and behavior change.

О моделировании современных систем профессионализации и самоопределения в высшем образовании

The article deals with the hypotheses about possible modeling of self-identification and professionalization systems. It is supposed that, during the age of transfer to a new technological paradigm, imperatives of the industrial age and the age of labor specialization are now implied instead of being evident. Imperatives of specialization and qualification are now completed with the imperatives of competence and self-identification. This leads to fundamental changes in the system of professionalization. The hypotheses are completed with an empirical research of modeling the system of objectification for individual self-identification potential. The research demonstrated a fundamentally new possibility to distinguish individual typological styles in solving educational tasks. The authors decided to limit the research with a situation when a bank of educational tasks is formed based on social and engineering practical problems. As a result of the post-experimental concept the authors defined the typology of four intellectual styles. The fundamentals for the typology is the grounded theory method. The conceptualization of intellectual styles is proved by the cluster analysis results. Based on cluster analysis, sub-groups were revealed. They differ from each other by special intellectual preferences and cognitive styles of information processing. The assumption that modern education needs a complex system of tests that corresponds to the complexity of individual variability of a person, is proved and claims for further verification and conceptualization. Existential Anxiety of Religious Identity and Religious Extremism in Indonesian Muslims

Comparison of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with metacognitive therapy (MCT) in objective cognitive information processing style of obsessive-compulsive patients (OCD).

In recent studies, the deficit in the cognitive process has been investigated as one of the etiological hypotheses in a wide range of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD). This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and metacognitive therapy (MCT) on objective cognitive information processing style in obsessive-compulsive patients. This quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test plan and a control group was conducted on 45 patients with OCD, matched with gender, age, and educational and marital status. The samples in three groups were selected using the convenience sampling method. Finally, the study participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group and assessed using Pacini and Epstein's rational experimental Inventory (REI) in two stages, pre-test, and post-test. The experimental groups received ACT and MCT weekly during eight and seven sessions and in a group. The results showed that ACT and MCT are effective at a significant level in the objective cognitive information processing style of obsessive-compulsive patients (P < 0.05). The post-test results showed that the effect of ACT in changing rational processing style is more effective than MCT treatment. Also, the effect of ACT on intuitive processing style changes was greater than on MCT treatment. The findings of this study indicate that ACT and MCT cause a significant change in intuitive style to rationalism in the thematic processing of cognitive information of obsessive-compulsive patients. According to the results, both methods of treatment improve the research variables in these patients.

Dynamic Formation of Quality Expectations: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Abstract The evolution of quality expectations over time is an important driver of customer satisfaction and retention. This study investigated the dynamic properties of customers’ quality expectation updating from an analytical perspective and provides new evidence on the psychological correlates of the discrepancies between expectations and experiences in the realm of consumer decision making. In doing so, we focus on the dynamics of expectation formation by adopting a nonlinear complex systems approach based on well-established behavioral theories. Using stability analysis, we find analytical results which are supported empirically by an experiment that there is considerable heterogeneity in how consumers calibrate their quality expectations. Specifically, we demonstrate analytically that in some cases individuals will converge to a specific quality expectation (reach a stable fixed point), while in other cases their expectations will oscillate between a small number of points periodically. This is remarkable because the existence of the latter is not due to changes in quality performance but merely accrue endogenously and depend on individuals’ disconfirmation functions. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the marketing literature that the corresponding gaps between quality expectations and quality provided are analyzed in the long run. Our analytical and empirical findings also suggest that being more responsive to a person’s expectations can increase the portion of those individuals that are able to better calibrate. Finally, we also demonstrate that calibration ability is associated with how thoughtful or impulsive information is used to update one’s expectation. A more deliberative processing style, which includes using a wider range of information, seems to be related to fewer unrealistic expectations and better calibrations, while a more impulsive processing style is related to more unrealistic expectations. In addition to providing a better understanding of dynamic expectation formation, these results can pave the way for interventions that foster more accurate quality expectations. From a managerial perspective, our findings imply that communicating quality perceptions are only to a certain extent under managerial control. To recognize this, firms are advised to segment customers based on their information processing style and to customize their marketing actions accordingly.

The influence of consumer religiosity on responses to rational and emotional ad appeals

PurposeThis research aims to examine how religiosity influences consumers’ responses to rational versus emotional ad appeals.Design/methodology/approachFour experiments were conducted that examined how religiosity affected consumers’ responses (attitude toward the product, purchase intentions and brand trust) to rational versus emotional ad appeals, and how perceived fit between the ad appeal type and consumers’ information processing style mediated the effects.FindingsThe results show that consumers low in religiosity respond more favorably to rational (vs emotional) appeals because of these types of appeals being more congruent with their rational information processing style. In addition, there is no difference in consumer responses toward rational and emotional appeals for individuals high in religiosity.Research limitations/implicationsIn this research, the authors only used surveys and measured behavioral intentions rather than actual behaviors. Thus, future research should measure actual behaviors in the field to enhance the external validity of the observed effects. In addition, this research samples one primary culture that is more representative of Judeo-Christian religious beliefs. Therefore, future research should sample from other cultures and religious groups.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that marketers should use rational rather than emotional appeals in their marketing communications to low religiosity consumers (identifiable through such means as demographic data for geographic regions or self-identified classifications on social media). Marketers can also prime low religiosity in their messages (e.g. using words such as “evolution”) and, when doing so, should couple that prime with a rational (vs emotional) appeal.Originality/valueThis research is novel in that it is the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to examine how religiosity influences consumers’ responses to rational versus emotional ad appeals.

The effectiveness of matching the visual learning style and the brain information processing style in students with dyslexia

The effectiveness of matching the visual learning style and the brain information processing style in students with dyslexia

Associations of locus of control, information processing style and anti-reflexivity with climate change scepticism in an Australian sample.

A proportion of the Australian public remains sceptical about the reality of climate change, its causes, impacts and the need for mitigatory action. To date, scepticism research largely focuses on factors highly resistant to change, particularly socio-demographic and value factors. This mixed-methods study investigated whether more malleable psychological factors: locus of control; information processing style; and anti-reflexivity, predicted climate change scepticism above and beyond socio-demographic and value factors. A sample of 390 participants (Mean age = 41.31, standard deviation = 18.72; 230 male) completed an electronic survey. Using hierarchical regression, trust in forces of anti-reflexivity and external locus of control predicted impact scepticism. Decreased trust in forces of reflexivity also predicted attribution and impact scepticism. Finally, external locus of control predicted response scepticism. Key qualitative themes identified were, trust in alternative science; mistrust of climate science; belief in natural cycles; predictions not becoming reality; and ulterior motives of interested parties.