How do decision makers evaluate advice from advisors with happy and angry expressions? A behavioural and ERP study.

In the process of decision-making based on conferring with advisors, people are sensitive to advisors' emotional expressions. An advisor's expression is considered a type of feedback. The quick detection of motivational or valence significance of feedback has been associated with feedback-related negativity (FRN). In this study, we investigated how decision makers evaluated advice that was distant from the original estimate provided by advisors with different emotional expressions based on behavioural, FRN, and P300 data. The results showed that participants were more likely to modify their initial estimates based on advice from advisors with happy expressions than from advisors with angry expressions, regardless of whether it was near-distance advice or far-distance advice. When facing far-distance advice, FRN amplitudes in angry-expression conditions were significantly larger than in happy-expression conditions. When facing near-distance advice, there was no significant difference in the FRN amplitude between happy- and angry-expression conditions. P300 amplitudes were larger in near-distance conditions than in far-distance conditions. These findings suggest that, as a type of feedback with social information, the advisor's face will affect the decision maker's evaluation of the advice, with a happy face of the advisor serving as correct feedback and an angry face serving as incorrect feedback.

The impact of advice distance on advice taking: Evidence from an ERP study.

To use ERPs to investigate the impact of advice distance on advice taking in the Judge-Advisor System (JAS) paradigm, behavioural and ERP data were recorded from 20 subjects. The behavioural discrepancies and EEG characteristics of advice taking, as affected by the advice distances, were compared. The results showed that the relationship between the modification rate of a decision maker's initial estimation and the advice distance exhibited an inverse U-shaped curve. During the advice evaluation stage, different advice distances induced the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and subsequent P300 components. The amplitude of the FRN increased as the advice distance increased, while the amplitude of P300 in the zero distance condition was significantly larger than those in the intermediate and far distance conditions. These findings indicate that the advice evaluation process of a decision maker is related to conflict perception, prediction error and motivational or affective significance.

Anaerobic digestion of poplar processing residues for methane production after alkaline treatment.

Poplar processing residues were used for methane production by anaerobic digestion after alkaline treatment and methane production was measured. The highest methane production of 271.9 L/kg volatile solid (VS) was obtained at conditions of 35 g/L and 5.0% NaOH, which was 113.8% higher than non-alkaline treated samples, and 28.9% higher than that of corn straw, which is the conventional anaerobic digestion material in China. The maximal enhancement of 275.5% obtained at conditions of 50 g/L and 7.0% NaOH. Degradation of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin after treatment increased by 4.0-9.0%, 3.3-6.2%, and 11.1-20.5%, respectively, with NaOH dose ranged from 3.0% to 7.0%. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FTIR spectra and Crystallinity measurements showed that the lignocellulosic structures were disrupted by NaOH. The results indicate poplar processing residues might be an efficient substrate for methane production after alkaline treatment.