Saturday, May 19, 2007
Study: Math often confuses consumers
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have determined two plus two might not always equal four -- especially when consumers are confronted with percentages.
Professor Akshay Rao of the University of Minnesota and Assistant Professor Haipeng Chen of the University of Miami discovered consumers treat percentages as whole numbers, resulting in systematic errors.
"Numerical quantities such as price or product performance are often expressed in percentage form," said Rao. "But when consumers have to deal with more than one percentage at a time, they make errors that can be costly. For instance, if a store offers a 25 percent off sale with an additional 25 percent off for a certain product, people assume they are getting a 50 percent reduction. In reality, they are getting about a 43 percent discount. On a $100 product, they pay $56.25, not $50.
"This phenomenon becomes even more interesting when a value goes up and then down," he added. "Imagine your stock portfolio went up 40 percent last period, and down 30 percent this period. You are not better off by 10 percent. Your portfolio is down 2 percent."
The study is to appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Professor Akshay Rao of the University of Minnesota and Assistant Professor Haipeng Chen of the University of Miami discovered consumers treat percentages as whole numbers, resulting in systematic errors.
"Numerical quantities such as price or product performance are often expressed in percentage form," said Rao. "But when consumers have to deal with more than one percentage at a time, they make errors that can be costly. For instance, if a store offers a 25 percent off sale with an additional 25 percent off for a certain product, people assume they are getting a 50 percent reduction. In reality, they are getting about a 43 percent discount. On a $100 product, they pay $56.25, not $50.
"This phenomenon becomes even more interesting when a value goes up and then down," he added. "Imagine your stock portfolio went up 40 percent last period, and down 30 percent this period. You are not better off by 10 percent. Your portfolio is down 2 percent."
The study is to appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Home Made Pole Dance Mishap
Home Made Pole Dance Mishap - Watch more free videos
Look how fast the dog pops up in the background @ the end. HAHAHAHAHA!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!
Pulp Muppets ... Good thing they didn't do the gimp scene.
Just click on the image to get it to play.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Moving Your Eyes Improves Memory, Study Suggests :: By Melinda Wenner, Special to LiveScience
If you're looking for a quick memory fix, move your eyes from side-to-side for 30 seconds, researchers say.
Horizontal eye movements are thought to cause the two hemispheres of the brain to interact more with one another, and communication between brain hemispheres is important for retrieving certain types of memories.
Previous studies have suggested that horizontal eye movements improve how well people recall specific words they have just seen. But Andrew Parker and his colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University in England wanted to know whether such eye movements might also help people recognize words they have just seen.
Recognition memory differs from recall memory in that people trying to recognize words tend to make false memory errors called source monitoring errors. This occurs when they recognize words but attribute their familiarity to the wrong source-they might think they just read the words, when they had actually heard them in a conversation earlier that day, for example.
Full Story
Horizontal eye movements are thought to cause the two hemispheres of the brain to interact more with one another, and communication between brain hemispheres is important for retrieving certain types of memories.
Previous studies have suggested that horizontal eye movements improve how well people recall specific words they have just seen. But Andrew Parker and his colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University in England wanted to know whether such eye movements might also help people recognize words they have just seen.
Recognition memory differs from recall memory in that people trying to recognize words tend to make false memory errors called source monitoring errors. This occurs when they recognize words but attribute their familiarity to the wrong source-they might think they just read the words, when they had actually heard them in a conversation earlier that day, for example.
Full Story
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