69 research outputs found
Internal Genomic DNA Standard for Quantitative Metagenome Analysis v3
No full textSatinsky, Brandon M., et al. 'Use of internal standards for quantitative metatranscriptome and metagenome analysis.' Methods in enzymology 531 (2012): 237-250. </p
Internal Genomic DNA Standard for Quantitative Metagenome Analysis v1
No full textSatinsky, Brandon M., et al. 'Use of internal standards for quantitative metatranscriptome and metagenome analysis.' Methods in enzymology 531 (2012): 237-250. </p
Unaware attitude formation in the surveillance task? Revisiting the findings of Moran et al. (2021)
No full textMoran et al. (2021) report a multi-lab registered replication of Olson and Fazio’s (2001) surveillance task. The surveillance task is an incidental learning procedure over the course of which participants observe pairings of conditioned stimuli (CSs) and unconditioned stimuli (USs) while engaging in a distracting secondary task. Unaware evaluative conditioning (EC) effects are inferred if participants who fail to report the CS–US contingencies on a post-hoc measure show preference for the CSpos over the CSneg. Moran et al. claimed to establish such effects relying on the criteria used by Olson and Fazio to exclude contingency aware participants from analyses. Here we reexamine Moran et al.’s data using more fine-grained analytic strategies. We show that the contingency awareness measures used by Olson and Fazio and, by extension, Moran et al. lack adequate reliability and validity. Moreover, even assuming valid awareness measures, Bayesian analyses did not provide unambiguous evidence for unaware EC effects under any exclusion criterion and provided decisive evidence against such effects in most models. Finally, a separate analysis that distinguished between fully aware, partially aware, and fully unaware participants shows that evidence for unaware EC is due to the inclusion of partially aware participants in the purportedly unaware subsample. These reanalyses suggest that unaware EC as indexed by the surveillance task has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. We discuss the conceptual, theoretical, and applied implications of these findings with regard to the potential for unaware attitude formation
The Impact of FDI on Innovation in Target Firms
No full textThis paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the welfare effects of foreign direct investment by investigating the effects of cross-border mergers and acquisitions on innovation activities in target firms. The empirical analysis is based on survey and ownership data for a large sample of small- and mediumsized German firms. After controlling for endogeneity and selection bias, it is found that foreign takeovers have a large negative impact on the propensity to perform innovation activities and a negative impact on average R&D expenditures in innovative firms. Furthermore, innovation output, measured as the share of sales from product innovations is not significantly affected by a foreign takeover for a given amount of innovation efforts. Hence, the estimation results do not show any evidence of significant technology spillovers through foreign direct investment in form of a higher innovation success.Multinational enterprises, mergers and acquisitions, innovation
Does the surveillance paradigm provide evidence for unconscious evaluative conditioning? A Bayesian perspective
No full textIn evaluative conditioning (EC), a neutral conditioned stimulus acquires the valence of an intrinsically valenced unconditioned stimulus as a result of repeated pairings between the two. Evidence for EC in the absence of awareness of the pairings has been provided using the surveillance paradigm (Olson & Fazio, 2001). In this commentary, we report a Bayesian reanalysis of data from a multi-lab replication of this paradigm (Moran et al., 2020). Unlike the original frequentist analyses, we conclude that the replication does not provide convincing evidence in favor of unconscious EC under any of the exclusion criteria, including the ones originally used by Olson and Fazio (2001). Moreover, when informative priors relying on the totality of meta-analytic evidence are used, three of four analyses provide evidence against an effect. This commentary highlights the benefits of using Bayesian analytic approaches and cautions against inferring the presence of unconscious EC in the surveillance paradigm
Design and Construction of an Experimental Setup to Enhance Mineral Weathering through the Activity of Soil Organisms
No full textWe acknowledge Ton van der Zalm from Tupola for the development of the irrigation system. Additionally, we thank Jaco Baars from Tupola for the laughs and mental support given during the building of this setup. We thank Peter Garamszegi and & Aacute;ngel Velasco Sanchez for helping inwatering the columns manually when the irrigation system was not functional. We also thank Steven Heesterman, Xuming Li, Karen Moran Rivera, Jonna van den Berg and Kangying Xie for the help provided during the sampling. We thank Peggy Bartsch, Tom Jaeppinen, Peter Nobels, Brent Rotgans, Andre van Leeuwen and Gerlinde Vink for the assistance in the lab, the analyses of the samples and the fruitful discussions. Finally, we thank Jeroen Zonneveld from Unifarm for the provision and maintenance of the climate chamber. This setup was built as part of the Bio-Accelerated Mineral Weathering (BAM!) project, which is funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 framework program for research and innovation under grant agreement No 964545
How Actions Change Liking: The Effect of an Action's Outcome on the Evaluation of the Action's Object
No full textPeople like positive objects (e.g., fun activities) and dislike negative objects (e.g., boring activities). However, objects usually do not appear in isolation; They are often objects of an action (the boring activities were removed from a class). Using a wide array of stimuli and procedures, 11 experiments (N = 5,574) found that evaluation of objects is biased by the outcome of an action performed on the objects. For example, when participants read that a gene increases the likelihood of possessing the trait kindness (an action with a positive outcome) they evaluated kindness more positively than after reading the gene inhibits the trait (an action with a negative outcome). Conversely, they disliked dishonesty more after reading about genes that increased dishonesty than after reading about genes that decreased dishonesty. The effect was incompatible with logical inference from the information provided. We found evidence that misattribution of the valence of the action’s outcome to the action’s object contributes to this effect. These findings extend knowledge about the factors that lead to evaluative change. Importantly, the results demonstrate a recursive evaluation process: the valence of the outcome of an action on the object determines the evaluation of the object, but the valence of the outcome is already based on a previous evaluation of the object itself
How Actions Change Liking: The Effect of an Action's Outcome on the Evaluation of the Action's Object
No full textPeople like positive objects (e.g., fun activities) and dislike negative objects (e.g., boring activities). However, objects usually do not appear in isolation; They are often objects of an action (the boring activities were removed from a class). Using a wide array of stimuli and procedures, 11 experiments (N = 5,574) found that evaluation of objects is biased by the outcome of an action performed on the objects. For example, when participants read that a gene increases the likelihood of possessing the trait kindness (an action with a positive outcome) they evaluated kindness more positively than after reading the gene inhibits the trait (an action with a negative outcome). Conversely, they disliked dishonesty more after reading about genes that increased dishonesty than after reading about genes that decreased dishonesty. The effect was incompatible with logical inference from the information provided. We found evidence that misattribution of the valence of the action’s outcome to the action’s object contributes to this effect. These findings extend knowledge about the factors that lead to evaluative change. Importantly, the results demonstrate a recursive evaluation process: the valence of the outcome of an action on the object determines the evaluation of the object, but the valence of the outcome is already based on a previous evaluation of the object itself
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