Standardised packs and larger health warnings: visual attention and perceptions among Colombian smokers and non-smokers.

AIMS: To measure how cigarette packaging (standardised packaging and branded packaging) and health warning size affect visual attention and pack preferences among Colombian smokers and non-smokers. DESIGN: To explore visual attention, we used an eye-tracking experiment where non-smokers, weekly smokers and daily smokers were shown cigarette packs varying in warning size (30%-pictorial on top of the text, 30%-pictorial and text side-by-side, 50%, 70%) and packaging (standardised packaging, branded packaging). We used a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to examine the impact of warning size, packaging and brand name on preferences to try, taste perceptions and perceptions of harm. SETTING: Eye-tracking laboratory, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia. PARTICIPANTS: Participants (n = 175) were 18 to 40 years old. MEASUREMENTS: For the eye-tracking experiment, our primary outcome measure was the number of fixations toward the health warning compared with the branding. For the DCE, outcome measures were preferences to try, taste perceptions and harm perceptions. FINDINGS: We observed greater visual attention to warning labels on standardised versus branded packages (F[3,167] = 22.87, P < 0.001) and when warnings were larger (F[9,161] = 147.17, P < 0.001); as warning size increased, the difference in visual attention to warnings between standardised and branded packaging decreased (F[9,161] = 4.44, P < 0.001). Non-smokers visually attended toward the warnings more than smokers, but as warning size increased these differences decreased (F[6,334] = 2.92, P = 0.009). For the DCE, conditional trials showed that increasing the warning size from 30% to 70% reduced preferences to try (odds ratio [OR] = 0.48, 95% CI = [0.42,0.54], P < 0.001), taste perceptions (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = [0.54,0.68], P < 0.001); and increased harm perceptions (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = [0.76,0.80], P < 0.001). Compared with branded packaging, standardised packaging reduced our DCE outcome measures with ORs ranging from OR = 0.25 (95% CI = [0.17,0.38], P < 0.001) to OR = 0.79 (95% CI = [0.67,0.93], P < 0.001) across two brands. These effects were more pronounced among non-smokers, males and younger participants. Unconditional trials showed similar results. CONCLUSIONS: Standardised cigarette packaging and larger health warnings appear to decrease positive pack perceptions and have the potential to reduce the demand for cigarette products in Colombia.

El efecto de una inversión conductual sobre la persistencia en humanos / Effect of behavioral investments on persistence in humans

El efecto de los costos hundidos se define como la tendencia a continuar en un curso de acción una vez se ha hecho una inversión. Se evaluó si este efecto ocurre con una inversión conductual y si las respuestas forzadas y libres afectan por igual la persistencia. Se expusieron 90 estudiantes, divididos en tres grupos, a tres condiciones con 0, 60 y 110 respuestas forzadas en programas RF 350. Se encontró que la persistencia aumentaba a medida que se hacían más respuestas en libertad. Se concluyó que el efecto de los costos hundidos también ocurre con una inversión conductual y que sólo tiene efecto si la persona elige cada inversión.

The sunk costs effect is defined as the tendency to persist in an endeavoronce an investment has been made. This project evaluated whether this effect occurs after making a behavioral investment and if forced and freeresponses have similar effects upon subsequent behavioral persistence. Subjects, 90 students, divided in three groups, were exposed to three conditions of 0, 60 and 110 forced responses in FR 350 schedules. Persistence increased as free responses increased, suggesting that the sunk cost effect is produced by a freely chosen behavioral investment. It was concluded that the sunk cost effect is produced by a behavioral investment and that happens only if each instance of investment is freely chosen.

Lo psicológico como un evento / "The psychological" as events

En la mayoría de escritos científicos, la palabra psicología describe cosas de diferente y, con frecuencia, incompatible naturaleza. Ocasionalmente, hace referencia a una entidad, tal como la mente, y algunas veces a una ocurrencia, tal como una actividad. En este artículo, se arguye que el objeto de estudio de la psicología no puede ser un objeto natural independiente, como sería el compuesto aristotélico de materia y forma que él consideraba era una entidad, y que en su lugar el concepto de evento resulta más apropiado. Los fenómenos psicológicos no existen por sí mismos, sino como la manifestación de las propiedades particulares de ciertas entidades que están en un Universo en movimiento continuo. Dado que los eventos psicológicos implican una transacción recíproca e ininterrumpida entre los organismos vivos y el ambiente del que forman parte, el funcionalismo, como se concibió originalmente, es la mejor aproximación para su estudio.

In most scientific writings, the word psychology describes things of a different and often incompatible nature. Sometimes, it refers to an entity, such as the mind, and sometimes to an occurrence, such as an activity. In this paper, it is argued that the psychological subject matter can not be an independent natural object, such as the Aristotle’scomposite of matter and form that he regarded as an entity and that instead the concept of event is a better descriptor.Psychological phenomena do not exist by themselves, but as the manifestation of particular properties of certain entities which exist in a Universe in everlasting motion. Since psychological events imply a reciprocal and uninterrupted transaction between living organisms and the environment in which they are embedded, functionalism, as it was first proposed, is the best approach to their study.