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Despite the sizable literature on residential preferences in recent years, underlying motivational factors have been lacking attention, especially at the value level. Further, traditional questionnaire-based methods fail to explicate stated preferences as the subjective aspect of residential satisfaction; thus, filling these gaps calls for novel research methods. Applying the Means-End Chain theory (MEC), Hierarchical Value Map (HVM) and laddering technique, the current study aimed to grasp how residents prefer various housing attributes to achieve functional and psycho-social consequences and how these consequences are associated with their values. The obtained HVMs identified six key MECs in two levels of the house and neighborhood from the interviews conducted with 60 residents in Gonbad Kavoos, Iran. The findings demonstrated that the respondents attached much significance to the attributes of dwelling size, number of bedrooms, green yard, single-family house, neighborhood management and neighborhood reputation to achieve the values of benevolence, hedonism, achievement, power and security in six key MECs. Plus, the results indicated how social-economic groups differ in choosing the MECs. The article's findings contribute to understanding the intrinsic motivation of residential preferences and housing choices by addressing the residents' cognitive structures and meanings. The paper's empirical findings and some discussions on residential environments can be beneficial for housing designers as well as policymakers. Moreover, the paper discusses the theoretical expansion of residential satisfaction by addressing cultural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sex ratio at Birth (SRB) is a problem in developing countries as in India. Value system towards gender of child influences SRB in a society. Current study was done to design and assess administrative feasibility of questionnaire to measure motivational values towards the gender of the child amongst women. Methods: The study was done from June to December 2017, wherein, a group of experts agreed to a set of 10 motivational values on which questions were prepared. Face and content validity were tested by the experts from field of social sciences, public health, higher education. They discussed motivational values over series of meetings to agree upon said criteria, nature, and scaling of response of questions were decided. Results: At the beginning, a set of 105 questions were prepared and out of these 52 non-redundant questions were finalized. The distribution of questions was as follows: 6 for power, 3 for achievement, 2 for hedonism, 5 for stimulation, 9 for self-direction, 9 for universalism, 5 for benevolence, 3 for tradition, 4 for conformity, and 6 for security. Feasibility for administration was assessed in a small set of 26 women and majority of women had relatively high average score for power, hedonism, and universalism; moderate score for achievement, and selfdirection; and low score for stimulation, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. Conclusion: It is feasible to measure motivational values, which influence the behavior of women towards gender of a child. Further validation study needs to be carried out with large sample size to measure inter item correlations and reliability of scale to make the questionnaire more applicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In daily life, we are surrounded by objects with pre-existing motivational associations. However, these are rarely controlled for in experiments with natural stimuli. Research on natural stimuli would therefore benefit from stimuli with well-defined motivational properties; in turn, such stimuli also open new paths in research on motivation. Here we introduce a database of Motivational Objects in Natural Scenes (MONS). The database consists of 107 scenes. Each scene contains 2 to 7 objects placed at approximately equal distance from the scene center. Each scene was photographed creating 3 versions, with one object (“critical object”) being replaced to vary the overall motivational value of the scene (appetitive, aversive, and neutral), while maintaining high visual similarity between the three versions. Ratings on motivation, valence, arousal and recognizability were obtained using internet-based questionnaires. Since the main objective was to provide stimuli of well-defined motivational value, three motivation scales were used: (1) Desire to own the object; (2) Approach/Avoid; (3) Desire to interact with the object. Three sets of ratings were obtained in independent sets of observers: for all 805 objects presented on a neutral background, for 321 critical objects presented in their scene context, and for the entire scenes. On the basis of the motivational ratings, objects were subdivided into aversive, neutral, and appetitive categories. The MONS database will provide a standardized basis for future studies on motivational value under realistic conditions.

Patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders such as subtance-related and addictive disorders exhibit altered decision-making patterns, which may be associated with their behavioral abnormalities. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying such impairments are largely unknown. Using a gambling test, we demonstrated that methamphetamine (METH)-treated rats chose a high-risk/high-reward option more frequently and assigned higher value to high returns than control rats, suggestive of changes in decision-making choice strategy. Immunohistochemical analysis following the gambling test revealed aberrant activation of the insular cortex (INS) and nucleus accumbens in METH-treated animals. Pharmacological studies, together with in vivo microdialysis, showed that the insular neural system played a crucial role in decision-making. Moreover, manipulation of INS activation using designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drug technology resulted in alterations to decision-making. Our findings suggest that the INS is a critical region involved in decision-making and that insular neural dysfunction results in risk-taking behaviors associated with altered decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the emotional outcome of a choice generally affects subsequent decisions, humans can inhibit the influence of emotion. Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as an objective measure of individual differences in the capacity for inhibitory control. In the present study, we investigated how individual differences in HRV at rest are associated with the emotional effects of the outcome of a choice on subsequent decision making using a decision-making task in which emotional pictures appeared as decision outcomes. We used a reinforcement learning model to characterize the observed behaviors according to several parameters, namely, the learning rate and the motivational value of positive and negative pictures. Consequently, we found that individuals with a lower resting HRV exhibited a greater negative motivational value in response to negative pictures, suggesting that these individuals tend to avoid negative pictures compared with individuals with a higher resting HRV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The basolateral complex of the amygdala (ABL) is involved in processing information about stimulus motivational value. However, it is not clear whether the ABL is critical for acquisition, maintenance, or expression of this information. Our previous work has shown that ABL lesions made prior to training, block acquisition of an appetitive Pavlovian second-order conditioning task, in which performance is thought to depend on the acquisition of motivational (conditioned reinforcement) value by the first-order conditioned stimulus (CS). The present experiments examined the effects of ABL lesions made after first-order conditioning, when the CS acquires motivational value, but before second-order conditioning, the test for acquired value of that CS. Rats received pairings of a visual CS with a food reinforcer. They then received bilateral sham or excitotoxic lesions of the ABL. After recovery, they received pairings of a second-order auditory CS with the previously conditioned visual CS. In two experiments, both sham and lesioned rats acquired normal second-order conditioned behaviours. Some of the same rats were then given another round of second-order conditioning with novel CSs. In this case, when first-order training occurred after surgery, some second-order conditioned behaviours were impaired in lesioned rats. Tests of the associative underpinnings of second-order conditioned behaviours showed that those behaviours impaired by ABL lesions were based on stimulus–response associations. The results show that although the ABL is critical for second-order conditioning, this role is limited to acquisition of information about the motivational value of the first-order CS, and it is not critical for maintenance of this information or for its use in forming second-order associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders such as substance-related and addictive disorders exhibit altered decision-making patterns, which may be associated with their behavioral abnormalities. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying such impairments are largely unknown. Using a gambling test, we demonstrated that methamphetamine (METH)-treated rats chose a high-risk/high-reward option more frequently and assigned higher value to high returns than control rats, suggestive of changes in decision-making choice strategy. Immunohistochemical analysis following the gambling test revealed aberrant activation of the insular cortex (INS) and nucleus accumbens in METH-treated animals. Pharmacological studies, together with in vivo microdialysis, showed that the insular neural system played a crucial role in decision-making. Moreover, manipulation of INS activation using designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drug technology resulted in alterations to decision-making. Our findings suggest that the INS is a critical region involved in decision-making and that insular neural dysfunction results in risk-taking behaviors associated with altered decision-making.

Abstract The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is important for the modification of the motivational significance of events through associative learning. In previous work, we found that BLA was critical for the acquisition of conditioned reinforcement value to a visual conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with food. Unlike normal rats, rats with neurotoxic lesions of the BLA failed to acquire Pavlovian second-order conditioning to an auditory stimulus paired with the first-order visual CS in the absence of food. In this experiment, we examined the role of BLA in the extinction of the previously acquired conditioned reinforcement value of a Pavlovian CS. Rats received first-order visual CS-food pairings prior to either BLA- or sham-lesions. Subsequent CS-alone extinction training reduced the ability of the visual CS to reinforce second-order conditioning of an auditory stimulus in the sham-lesioned rats, but not in the BLA-lesioned rats. Despite this persistence of the conditioned reinforcement value of the visual first-order CS in the BLA-lesioned rats, no effects of the lesions were observed on extinction of the explicit behavioural conditioned responses elicited by that CS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]