Open-ended Choice Research Articles

Enrichment and Gifted Education Pedagogy to Develop Talents, Gifts, and Creative Productivity

Providing challenging and engaging learning opportunities is one way to motivate students to learn. In this article, we discuss the contributions of the gifted education field to the development of enrichment pedagogy and identify several different types of these engaging instructional strategies, including interest-based learning pedagogy, differentiation and curriculum compacting, project-based learning, open-ended choice, and the application of creative productivity to students learning. We identify this specialized pedagogy and give examples of how these exciting pedagogical strategies can be implemented in classrooms and by enrichment specialists and school counselors, both for academically talented and for all students. We conclude with a brief overview of research that demonstrates longitudinal benefits for students who are exposed to this type of teaching, suggesting positive outcomes.

Towards describing scenes by animals: Pigeons' ordinal discrimination of objects varying in depth.

The perception of a complex scene requires visual mechanisms that include identifying objects and their relative placement in depth. To examine apparent depth perception in birds, we tested four pigeons with a novel multiple-sequential-choice procedure. We created 3D-rendered scene stimuli containing three objects located at different apparent depths based on a variety of pictorial cues and placed small circular target response areas on them. The pigeons were trained to sequentially choose among the multiple response areas to report the object closest in apparent depth (ordinal position; front then middle object). After the pigeons learned this sequential depth discrimination, their use of three different monocular depth cues (occlusion, relative size, height in field) was tested, and their flexibility evaluated using three novel objects. In addition to the contribution to understanding apparent depth perception in birds, the use of more flexible open-ended choice discriminations, as employed here, has considerable promise for creating informative production-like tasks in nonverbal animals.

Entertainment as a Creature Comfort: Self-Control and Selection of Challenging Media

ABSTRACTA between-subjects experiment examined selective exposure to films in an imagined self-control scenario, and if exposure would be systematically related to perceptions of the film content as challenging, enjoyable, and a should versus a want choice. Across 3 measures of selective exposure—using open-ended choice, closed-ended choice, and prospective ratings—participants in the depletion condition were less likely to select films that were cognitively challenging, affectively challenging, or a should choice. In contrast to nondepleted participants, depleted participants were more likely to select films they expected being fun, suspenseful, and less appreciated. These results provide support for the proposition that users’ momentary self-control capacity and their perception of challenge provided by content predict media choice.

Assessing the economic feasibility of high heat treatment, using evidence obtained from pasta factories in Sicily (Italy)

Pest control in pasta processing industries is considered to be one of the activities that can have the greatest impact on the environment. However, the adoption of techniques with a lower environmental impact can result in increased production costs that may discourage their adoption by firms, if not adequately compensated by corresponding increase in revenue. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the economic feasibility of High Heat Treatments, a physical method for pest control in industrial plants that produce pasta in Sicily (Italy). A Benefit-Cost Analysis has been conducted in which the costs refer to the implementation of the High Heat Treatments and the benefits were estimated in terms of the potential increase in the pasta factory's turnover. Increases in turnover derive from the impact of a hypothetical eco-friendly mark, based on the consumer's Willingness To Pay for pasta produced by a production process that reduces environmental impact. The results of the Benefit-Cost Analysis have demonstrated that the premium price that consumers recognise for pasta produced with eco-friendly techniques could ensure an increase in turnover of firms making High Heat Treatments economically feasible for the pasta-making industry. Furthermore, this paper could be a guideline for future research towards an integration of non-hypothetical open-ended choice experiment and the economic analysis tool within Benefit-Cost Analysis.

Willingness-to-Pay for Multiple Units of Eco-Friendly Wheat-Derived Products: Results From Open-Ended Choice Experiments

ABSTRACTA non-hypothetical open-ended choice experiment with a multi-unit elicitation format was conducted to elicit Italian consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) and demand schedule for new wheat-derived products that were produced by adopting an ecologically friendly post-harvest technique (high heat-treated, HHT). A sample of 270 Italian consumers were surveyed in Bologna, Catania, and Palermo in June 2014. Data were analyzed using a double hurdle model. Results suggest Italian consumers are willing to pay premium prices for HHT flour, while they prefer to pay for HHT packed bread at the same price as a conventional one. Consumers’ WTP for the second, third, and more units are lower than their WTP for the first unit of product. While factors that influence consumers’ decision to buy these two new products are the same, factors that affect their desired product units differ among each products. In conclusion, Italian consumers’ preference for an eco-friendly label depends on the types of products.

The effects of information on willingness to pay for animal welfare in dairy production: Application of nonhypothetical valuation mechanisms

The objective of this study was to examine consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for animal welfare in dairy production using nonhypothetical Vickrey auctions and open-ended choice experiments. Two hundred fifteen subjects participated in experimental sessions with 4 types of dairy products (humane animal care-labeled cheese and ice cream and conventional cheese and ice cream) and 4 valuation mechanisms. Information treatment, which included information about humane animal care principles in dairy production, was used to examine the effects of information on WTP. The results showed that participants, on average, were willing to pay extra for a scoop of humane animal care–labeled ice cream above the price of conventional ice cream. However, no premium WTP for humane animal care–labeled cheese was detected. Furthermore, provision of information only about humane animal care principles in dairy production, without corresponding information about conventional production practices, did not increase WTP for humane animal care–labeled products.

Potential implications of mandating choice in corporate defined benefit plans

The evolution of hybrid conversions has prompted a number of high-profile legal challenges. In response, policymakers have attempted to force companies transitioning from a traditional DB to a hybrid plan to offer all workers the open-ended choice of remaining in the old DB plan, versus switching to the new hybrid plan. This paper evaluates ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ under these plan conversions and estimates the cost to plan sponsors of such a mandate. We find that mandating choice could increase plan sponsors' pension expenses above their current cost for traditional defined benefit plans. In the end, rising costs of pensions could endanger plan sponsorship altogether. Policymakers seeking to mandate pension choice should take into account these possible undesirable outcomes of such a law.

Online and Unplugged: Locating Korean American Teens in Cyberspace

In cyberspace identity is no longer necessarily bound by body or location; cyberspace has the democratic potential to render visible markers, such as race and gender, obsolete. With anonymity one of many possibilities, one's identity becomes an open-ended choice that complicates the types of relationship that are formed online. Although the possibilities of a virtual realm seem limitless, in many ways cyberspace remains intrinsically tied to real places. To ease the gap between the real and the virtual, even the language used to describe Internet interactions (e.g., communities) and online destinations (e.g., chat rooms and forums) indicates that cyberspace is still fundamentally rooted in real-place dynamics.