This study examines the efficacy of a climate label intervention to affect consumer buying behaviour in an Amsterdam based grocery store. Three label categories were introduced, green, yellow, and...Show moreThis study examines the efficacy of a climate label intervention to affect consumer buying behaviour in an Amsterdam based grocery store. Three label categories were introduced, green, yellow, and red, representing low, medium, and high climate impact, respectively. Data from one month before the label implementation of the labelling system and one month after were collected and analysed. The results show no significant differences between the three label groups when analysing a change score between pre- and post-label implementation. However, when combining red and negative labels into a negative label group to raise power, we find marginally significant differences between changes in the positive label group and the negative label group, showing that the intervention may have had a marginally statistically significant negative impact on negative label product purchases. In addition to these findings, our research expresses the importance of policy changes, including climate labels, to influence climate change and explores future avenues for research.Show less
This study aims to discover whether there is a relationship between risk-taking behaviour and hypomanic personality traits, as well as between risk-taking and substance use. Risk-taking is part of...Show moreThis study aims to discover whether there is a relationship between risk-taking behaviour and hypomanic personality traits, as well as between risk-taking and substance use. Risk-taking is part of a proneness to problematic behaviour and a tendency to engage in behaviours with uncertain outcomes that are possibly negative (Nathanson, 2015). In this study, the risk-taking variable is tested through the use of The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) (Lejuez, 2002). The predicting variables, hypomanic personality traits and substance use, are assessed with questionnaires. These are the Hypomanic Personality Scale-Short Form (Sperry, 2015), and the CRAFFT questionnaire (Skogen et al., 2013), respectively. This study consists of a sample of N=66. After a statistical analysis of simple linear regression, it was discovered that none of the associations were statistically significant. This means that this paper found no support for the notion that there is any relationship between risk-taking behaviour, hypomanic personality traits, and substance use. In the discussion section of this paper, I will discuss possible explanations for these findings. Here, I will also describe how future research should look into different variables that might correlate with risk-taking behaviour.Show less
Hypomanic personality is a ‘characterological’ condition or temperamental affective style, characterised by persistent propensities towards elevated mood, optimism, extraversion, energetic...Show moreHypomanic personality is a ‘characterological’ condition or temperamental affective style, characterised by persistent propensities towards elevated mood, optimism, extraversion, energetic temperament and goal-directed behaviour. Considering reward sensitivity to be a predisposition towards seeking novel and risky experiences and establishing hypomania as a personality trait, using a sample of 66 participants, this paper focused on whether reward sensitivity (measured by the BART) can be described in terms of a correlate, vulnerability and/or predictor of hypomanic personality (measured by the HPS). Additionally, the effects of virtual reality provoked mood induction on the relationship between the HPS and the BART was examined. The BART scores were analysed on the basis of the mean number of burst balloons and the mean number of puffs. There was no evidence to support that HPS scores has an effect on the BART performance, both for number of burst balloons (F (1, 61) = 2.304, p = 0.134), and for number of balloon puffs (F (1, 61) = .007, p = .935). Similarly, the statistical analysis provided support for mood-induction not influencing the relationship between the HPS scores and the BART scores. Possible explanations and potential limitations of the study were further discussed.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
open access
The recent trend towards gamification could lead to an increase of the number of learning problems that need to be solved through reinforcement learning. It is therefore important that people learn...Show moreThe recent trend towards gamification could lead to an increase of the number of learning problems that need to be solved through reinforcement learning. It is therefore important that people learn how to solve reinforcement learning problems. Understanding which learning strategies people use, the processes behind them, and identifying sub-optimal learning strategies could prove very beneficial for teaching people the best reinforcement learning strategies. This study examines the processes behind reinforcement learning strategies through cognitive modeling. A reinforcement learning model was fitted on human behavior on a reinforcement learning problem. Some people were able to fully solve the problem and others were not. The temporal parameter trajectories of these two groups were compared to each other. The group that solved the problem showed expected results with a lot of learning and exploration at the start and less learning and more exploitation towards the end of the task. The other group started similarly but then started to learn less while exploration remained high. This could indicate that these people would benefit from short learning sessions after which they are able to focus on something else.Show less
